The Per-Seat Tax
65 of the tools we researched charge per seat, so your bill scales with headcount, not value. Estimate the real cost as your team grows, then see exactly which tools do it.
Cost today$75/mo
Cost at target$375/mo
Extra per year$3,600/yr
The math is generic — enter your own numbers. Per-seat pricing isn't automatically bad (it's predictable), but the advertised price is a floor: plan for the seat count you'll have in two years, not today.
The 65 tools that charge per seat
1Password
Teams Starter about $19.95/mo flat for up to 10 users; Business about $7.99/user/mo billed annually, plus custom Enterprise (2026).
Aircall
(2026) Essentials about $30/user/mo annual ($40 monthly), Professional ~$50/user/mo annual ($70 monthly); custom tier needs 25+ licenses.
Alvys
Load-based, no per-seat fees: Carrier from ~$150/mo, Broker from ~$300/mo; Hybrid and Enterprise are custom (2026).
Apollo
A free plan (limited credits, ~250 emails/day fair use); paid Basic about $49, Professional $79, Organization $119 per user/mo billed annually — higher monthly (2026).
Assembly
(2026) A free plan, then a Recognition plan around $2–$3 per member/month (cheaper annually), scaling to Engagement, Culture Suite and custom Digital-HQ tiers.
Atto
Per-user (2026): from about $6.95/user/mo (Starter) up to ~$19.95/user for tiers with GPS, kiosk mode and API; unlimited jobs/locations on all plans; free trial, annual discounts.
Beautiful.ai
(2026) Pro about $12/mo billed annually ($45 monthly); Team about $40/user/mo annual ($50 monthly) with brand controls and shared libraries; Enterprise custom for 20+ seats.
Beefree
(2026) Free Starter (10 projects, HTML export); Professional about $15/mo annual; Team ~$30/user/mo; Business ~$134/mo annual ($160 monthly).
Bill.com
Accounts-payable plans priced per user: Essentials about $45, Team $55, Corporate $89 per user/mo, plus custom Enterprise (2026).
Blinq
(2026) Free plan (2 cards, unlimited QR sharing); Premium ~$7.33/mo (5 cards, branded QR, export); Business ~$4.99/user/mo annual ($6.99 monthly, 5-user minimum) with CRM sync and…
BuddyPunch
Per-user plus a base fee: Starter about $5.49/user/mo, Pro $6.99, Enterprise $11.99, each with a roughly $19/mo base fee (2026).
Calilio
(2026) Standard about $12/user/mo annual ($15 monthly, up to 10 users, 1 local number, ~300 free minutes); Premium ~$28/user/mo (unlimited users, live monitoring); Enterprise cust…
CallHippo
(2026) A free Basic plan; Starter about $18/user/mo (1,000 US/CA minutes, 100 SMS), Professional ~$30 (unlimited US/CA calling), Ultimate ~$42; call-center 'Pro Suite' tiers $32-4…
Capsule
(2026) Free tier (250 contacts, 2 users); Starter about $21/user/mo, Growth ~$38, Advanced ~$60, Ultimate ~$75; annual saves ~15-20%.
ClickUp
A Free Forever plan (unlimited members, limited storage/features); Unlimited about $7/user/mo, Business $12/user/mo billed annually (higher monthly), plus custom Enterprise (2026).
Close
Per-seat: Solo about $9, Essentials $35, Growth $99, Scale $139 per user/mo billed annually (higher monthly) (2026).
CloudTalk
Lite about $19, Essential $29, Expert $49 per user/mo billed annually (higher monthly), plus AI add-ons (conversation intelligence ~$9/user, AI voice agents from ~$350/mo or $0.50…
Contractor Foreman
The unlimited-user flat rate is the genuine selling point — most rivals charge per seat — but the cheap Basic tier gates real features, so a growing contractor climbs to Plus or P…
CrankWheel
(2026) A free plan (1 user, 15 meetings/mo), Solo about $29/user/mo (unlimited screen sharing, ~48% off on annual), Team about $89–$99/mo with shared meeting pools; Enterprise cus…
Fastmail
(2026) Individual about $5/mo annual; Duo/Family tiers push per-person cost under ~$2.50; business per-user tiers: Basic $4, Standard $6, Professional $10/user/mo (up to 150GB/use…
Flocksy
production coordinator); all include unlimited requests/revisions/users and licensed stock.
folk
$20/user/mo (Standard), $40 (Premium), Custom from $80; ~20% off annual, 14-day free trial, no card (2026).
Freshchat
A free plan for up to 10 agents; paid Growth about $19, Pro $49, Enterprise $79 per agent/mo billed annually (a little more monthly), with Freddy AI billed as a usage-based add-on…
Freshservice
Per-agent (2026): Starter about $19/agent/mo annual ($29 monthly), Growth ~$49 ($59), Pro ~$99 ($119), Enterprise custom.
Gusto
The base-plus-per-employee model is transparent but adds up, and Gusto is US-only — excellent for straightforward US payroll and benefits, but not the pick for international teams…
HiBob
Quote-only, per-employee-per-month with modules — there's no public price list; third-party estimates cluster in the mid-teens per employee/month plus a one-off implementation fee…
Hive
(2026) Free tier (10 members); Starter about $5/user/mo annual ($7 monthly); Teams ~$12/user/mo annual ($18 monthly); Enterprise custom.
Iconosquare
And the per-seat, per-profile tiering means agencies managing many brands climb toward the Excel tier quicker than the headline Launch price suggests.
Increff
Subscription is structured per user or per warehouse and by the modules you select (WMS, merchandising), so pricing scales with your operation and is opaque above the base tiers —…
Kixie
(2026) Billed quarterly: Integrated about $35/user/mo, Professional ~$65, Outbound PowerCall ~$95 — minutes NOT included (per-minute or ~$30/user unlimited bundle); multi-line dia…
KrispCall
(2026) Essential about $12/user/mo annual ($15 monthly, up to 5 users); Standard ~$32/user/mo annual ($40 monthly, unlimited users, power dialer, bulk SMS); Enterprise custom.
lemlist
No free plan; paid runs roughly $39/user/mo (Email Starter) up to ~$159/user/mo (Outreach Scale) as of 2026.
MRPeasy
From about $49/user/mo across four tiers; the first 10 users pay the tier rate, then each extra block of 10 users is a flat ~$79/mo — all plans include unlimited orders and items …
Navan
(2026) Business Travel is genuinely free (funded by travel-supplier commissions) including booking, policy enforcement and basic expense capture; the Expense product is free for t…
NordVPN
Consumer plans from about $3-4/mo on long terms; the business product (NordLayer) runs roughly $8-11 per user/mo with a 5-user minimum, plus about $40/mo for a dedicated server an…
Nutshell
Per-user pricing starts low with unlimited contacts on every tier — but note that adding API access can raise the bill sharply (2026).
Passpack
Genuinely cheap for teams — around $1.50/user/mo (Teams, up to 20 users) and $4.50/user/mo (Business), billed annually with a 28-day trial and unlimited password storage (2026).
Pipedrive
$14–99/user/mo; most teams land on Advanced (~$34) or Professional (~$64), with no contact limits (2026).
Process Street
Startup from about $100/mo (up to 5 members, businesses under 15 staff), Pro custom (roughly the $1,500/mo range), plus Enterprise; example per-member rates run ~$12.50-15/member/…
Proton Drive
(2026) Free 2-5 GB; Drive Plus about $3.99/mo annual (200 GB); Proton Unlimited ~$9.99/mo (500 GB plus Mail, VPN, Pass); Family ~$23.99/mo (6 people); Drive Professional ~$7.99/us…
Pylon
(2026) Per-seat with minimums: Starter about $59/seat/mo (3-seat min ≈ $177/mo), Professional ~$89 (3-seat min), Enterprise ~$139 (7-seat min ≈ $973/mo), billed annually.
QuillBot
Free (125-word paraphrase cap, 2 of 9 modes); Premium about $19.95/mo or ~$8.33/mo billed annually; a Teams plan from about $7.50/user/mo (2026).
Quo
Starter ~$15/user/mo (annual) or $19 monthly; Business ~$23 (annual) or $33 monthly — plus telecom taxes and surcharges in 16 US states, so a 5-person team lands nearer $100/mo th…
Readymode
(2026) Two plans, $0 setup: Starter about $199/user/mo (1–4 users) and iQ about $249/user/mo (5+ users), both with unlimited outbound minutes.
Reply.io
(2026) Email Volume from about $49/mo (1,000 active contacts, 5,000 emails); Multichannel about $89/user/mo — but LinkedIn automation (~$69/user) and calling (~$29/user) are separ…
Riverside
Free (2 hours, watermarked, 720p); Standard about $19/mo, Pro about $29/mo (4K, more transcription) billed annually, Teams ~$24/user/mo, Business custom; up to ~35% off annual (20…
Salesflare
$29–99/user/mo (Growth ~$29–39, Pro ~$49); 30-day free trial, no card, no onboarding fees and no caps on contacts or pipelines (2026).
Seamless.ai
Free plan with 50 credits; paid is sales-led/quote-based — third-party guides report an entry around ~$147/mo for ~250 credits, ranging up to $150–500/user/mo (2026).
SignNow
Business from ~$8/user/mo (annual), Premium ~$15, Enterprise ~$30 — with unlimited users on most plans, roughly 60% under DocuSign (2026).
SimpleTexting
The credit model plus US carrier (10DLC) fees and per-number/per-seat add-ons mean the sticker isn't the whole bill — and SMS marketing only works with genuine opt-in and a real o…
SmartSuite
A free plan (up to 3 users, limited storage); Team about $12, Professional $30, Enterprise $45 per user/mo on annual billing (a little more monthly), plus a custom Signature tier …
Streak
(2026) Pro about $49/user/mo annual ($59 monthly), Pro+ ~$69, Enterprise ~$129; ~20% annual discount.
Success.co
Team-based subscription (2026); specific rates aren't published in full — expect per-user pricing, verified on their site.
SurveyMonkey
Free is nearly useless (10 questions, 25 responses); individual paid ~$39/mo (annual) or $99/mo monthly; team plans ~$30–92/user/mo — plus $0.15 per response over your cap (2026).
Todoist
Free (up to 5 projects, no reminders); Pro about $5/mo (annual, ~$7 monthly), Business about $8/user/mo (annual, ~$10 monthly) (2026).
Toggl
(2026) Free up to 5 users; Starter about $9/user/mo annual ($11.35 monthly) with budgeting; Premium ~$18/user/mo annual ($22.70 monthly) adding profitability, forecasts, approvals…
Tradify
Per user, per month, no annual contract (2026): Lite around $47/user, Pro around $51 and Plus around $61, with tiered per-user rates as your team grows.
Tresorit
(2026) Personal: free 3GB tier, paid from ~$4.75/mo (annual) up to Pro ~$33.99/mo (4TB); Business Standard about $18/user/mo, Business Plus ~$24/user/mo (annual), Enterprise custo…
Turbotic
A Professional tier around $10-15 per seat/mo (bundling automation-execution credits, roughly 1,500/mo) plus custom Enterprise pricing; trials but no permanent free tier (2026).
Typewise
From about €12/user/mo for team plans; enterprise deployments are usage/outcome-based and quote-driven, with a free proof-of-value program (2026).
WebCatalog
(2026) Free Basic (2 apps, 2 spaces); Pro about $5/user/mo annual (~$6 monthly) with unlimited apps, profiles, sync and blocking; Business ~$8-10/user/mo adds team management; a l…
Wrike
A permanent free plan (up to 5 users); Team about $10/user/mo, Business $25/user/mo on annual billing, with higher Pinnacle and Apex tiers custom (roughly $50-80/user) (2026).
ZenZap
(2026) Free plan with unlimited users, chats and built-in to-dos; Pro about $3/user/mo (integrations, storage); Business+ ~$8/user/mo (roles, audit trails, SLAs); Enterprise custo…
More honest breakdowns
The Free Tier Index — every tool with a genuinely free planThe Quote-Only Club — the tools that won't show you a priceThe Honest Software Atlas — all 238 tools, every cost-trap flag with its evidence
Every claim on this page is pulled from our hand-researched review of each tool, with the evidence sentence shown. Some links are affiliate links: we may earn a commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you, and it never changes our take. How we review →