In short: every figure comes from the vendor's own site, with a link and a date. If a vendor doesn't publish something, we say so. We don't estimate it.
Sources
Every figure comes from a page the vendor owns: its pricing page, plan pages, help centre or docs. We don't use review sites, resellers or forum posts. Each plan links to the page or pages we took it from.
Dates
Each plan shows the date we checked it. Every day we read each vendor's pricing, plan and feature pages and compare them with the last copy we saved. If nothing has changed, the date moves forward. If something has changed, we keep the old date until we've confirmed the new figures, then log it on What changed. A figure we haven't been able to confirm for 14 days is marked "Being rechecked". Vendors can still change prices at any time, so confirm on the vendor's page before you buy.
What we record
- The price when you pay monthly and the price per month when you pay yearly, as two separate figures. If a vendor shows only one, we mark the other "Not listed".
- How the plan is priced: a flat fee, per seat, by subscriber or contact tier, by usage credits, by a fee on sales, or a mix.
- What the price includes, where the vendor publishes it: seats, subscribers or contacts, products, emails a month, credits, video minutes, storage and sites.
- What happens when you go over: add-on blocks, a price per extra unit, a required upgrade, or a higher price the vendor doesn't publish.
- Transaction, card and setup fees, free plans, trials and minimum seats.
Our rules for tricky pricing
Some prices need a rule before you can compare them. We use the same rules everywhere.
- Unlimited and fair use. We only write "unlimited" when the vendor says unlimited. If the vendor has a fair-use policy, we note it next to the plan. We treat the allowance as unlimited when we work out costs, but we never claim there's no limit at all.
- Promotional and regular prices. If a vendor shows a promotional or first-year price and also publishes the regular price, we compare costs on the regular price and show the promotion next to the plan. If only a promotional price is published, we leave the plan out of cost comparisons.
- Regional pricing. We record US list prices in US dollars, before tax. Prices in other regions and currencies can differ.
- Credits. Each vendor counts credits in its own unit (message credits, tokens, dollar-value credits), and they don't convert. Within one tool we can price plans at a credit level. Between tools, we mark credit levels "not comparable" instead of converting them.
- Prices at your size. Many vendors publish only the starting price for the smallest list or lowest tier. Above that size we show "price not published" instead of guessing. Where a vendor publishes add-on blocks or tier tables, we use them.
- Sales fees. Store costs include the vendor's own card rate (the US online rate) and any fee the platform takes on sales, assuming you use the vendor's own payments. We show fees for other payment providers separately.
- Billing period. If the vendor doesn't publish a price for the billing period you choose, the calculator uses the other period and tells you.
Matching features
Each category has its own feature list. We mark a tool "Yes" only when a vendor page says it has the feature, and "No" only when a page says it doesn't. Otherwise we mark it "Not recorded", which isn't the same as "No".
- We show about the top 8 features for each category, ordered by how much they matter to buyers.
- When 80% or more of the tools we track have a feature, it moves to a single "Standard across this category" line instead of taking up a row.
- When a vendor drops a feature, we archive it and stop showing it.
- Features few buyers look for sit behind "More features".
Coverage
For most tools we've recorded every self-serve plan. For some we've only recorded the cheapest paid plan so far, and those pages say so. We don't cover enterprise or sales-led plans, because their prices aren't published.
Provisional figures
Sometimes a vendor page doesn't state a figure or its billing period directly. For example, a price might sit under a monthly/yearly switch with no label. Then we record our best reading, mark it "Provisional" and check it again.
"Who each plan suits" and comparison summaries
We work these out only from the data we've recorded: price, billing period, how the plan is priced, limits and fees. They aren't based on testing the products, and we don't publish star ratings.
How the compare tool ranks
The compare tool, and the "best" pages built from it, rank plans in this order:
- Fit comes first. A plan must cover your size, fit your budget and not be ruled out for a must-have feature. Tools with no plan like that are listed under "Left out", with the reason.
- Must-haves the vendor's page confirms rank above add-ons. Add-ons rank above features the page doesn't mention for that plan.
- A fully published cost ranks above a provisional one. Next comes a starting price (when the price at your size isn't published), then a cost that can't be compared.
- Then the lowest total cost at your size: the plan price, extra seats or sites, and card and sales fees.
- Tie-break: a tool whose vendor runs an affiliate programme may be shown first only when two options are equal on all of the above, both costs are fully published for the billing period you chose, and they're within 5% of each other. The result says so when this happens. We don't use this tie-break for AI app builders, because their usage allowances can't be compared across vendors.
Commissions
Some links earn us a commission. That never changes a price or a limit we show. A partner is only placed first when two options fit equally well. Read our affiliate disclosure.
Corrections
If a figure no longer matches the vendor's page, email hello@tieraudit.com with the link.