About this tool
Cost comparison, explained
See what a team would pay with each vendor over one to three years as it grows. The comparison adds per seat prices, platform fees, paid add-ons, usage charges and minimum seats, then shows the difference against the cheapest alternative.
How to use it
- 1Set Team size and Team growth. On the analytics example, also set the events a month and Usage growth.
- 2Choose the period, 1, 2 or 3 years, and Monthly or Yearly billing.
- 3Read the verdict, You save or Extra cost over the period, then the bars and the table with the first month and each year's cost and seat count.
- 4Click Edit prices to rename vendors, change any price or add a competitor, then use Copy summary, Download CSV or Copy link.
How it works
How the cost is compared
Each vendor has a price per seat, a monthly platform fee, a minimum number of billed seats, add-ons per seat needed to match the features you compare, a yearly billing discount and, where usage matters, an included volume and a price per extra unit. A month costs the platform fee, plus the per seat price with add-ons times the seats billed (your team or the minimum, whichever is higher), plus the usage above the included volume. Yearly billing then takes off that vendor's discount.
Growth is applied once a year: in year 2 the team is the starting size grown by the growth rate, rounded to whole seats, and usage grows the same way. Each year costs twelve months at that year's size, and the total adds up the years of the period.
The saving is measured against the cheapest competitor over the whole period, not the most expensive one. With the analytics example at 25 seats growing 20% a year, over 3 years on monthly billing, the first plan costs $34,656 against $45,820.80 for Competitor A, a saving of $11,164.80, or 24%. Switch to yearly billing and Competitor B becomes the cheapest alternative, so the reference changes with your settings.
The prices loaded on this page are an example, with the competitors left unnamed. Replace them with real quotes in Edit prices. Everything runs in your browser.
When to use it
Ways people use it
Building a case for switching
Show a manager or finance team the difference over the contract period at your real headcount and growth, against the cheapest option they could pick instead.
Seeing how cost scales
Move the team size and growth. A platform fee or a seat minimum weighs more on a small team, while per seat prices and usage charges dominate as the team grows.
Spotting add-on costs
A low headline price can hide paid features. Listing add-ons next to the base price shows what you would actually pay for the same setup.
Monthly or yearly billing
Switch the billing to see how each vendor's yearly discount changes the totals, and sometimes which vendor is cheapest.
FAQ
Questions people ask
How do you compare SaaS pricing between vendors?
Bring every offer to the same unit, usually the total for your team over the contract period. Include the per seat price, any fixed platform fee, seat minimums, usage charges, and the add-ons you would need to get the features you compare. Then compare totals, not headline prices.
What is the total cost of ownership of software?
It is everything you pay to use a tool over time: subscription, add-ons, usage and fees, plus setup, migration, training and the time your team spends running it. This comparison covers the subscription and usage part, which is the easiest to measure and compare.
Why compare against the cheapest competitor?
Because that is the real alternative for a buyer watching costs. A saving measured against the most expensive vendor overstates the benefit, while one measured against the cheapest is the figure that holds up when someone checks it.
How does per seat pricing work?
You pay a set price for each user account, usually per month. The bill grows in line with the team, so a price difference of a few dollars per seat becomes significant over a large team and several years. Some vendors also bill a minimum number of seats, which matters for small teams.
Are features like SSO included in the base price?
It depends on the vendor. Some include single sign-on and admin controls in every plan, others charge for them as an add-on or reserve them for higher tiers. Check the pricing page of each vendor and add those costs as add-ons before comparing.