The Per-Seat Tax
105 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 105 tools that charge per seat
1Password
Teams Starter Pack about $24.95/mo flat for up to 10 members (billed annually), Business about $8.99/user/mo (billed annually), plus custom Enterprise; personal plans Individual $…
Aircall
(2026) Essentials about $30/user/mo annual ($40 monthly), Professional ~$50/user/mo annual ($70 monthly); custom tier needs 25+ licenses.
Airwallex
Account plans: Explore free, Grow $12 per user/month plus a platform fee that varies with team size, Accelerate custom.
Algomo
(2026) Plans start at $200/month with no per-seat pricing — and that is the entire public price list: everything beyond the starting rate sits behind a book-a-demo call.
Alvys
The last published load-based rates (2026) were Carrier from ~$150/mo and Broker from ~$300/mo with no per-seat fees; expect a sales conversation to get current numbers.
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.
Aura
(2026-08-01, read on their own pricing page) Flat per account, not per seat, with unlimited listings on every tier.
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.
Bill.com
Accounts-payable plans priced per user: Essentials about $45, Team $55, Corporate $89 per user/mo, plus custom Enterprise (2026).
BillingNow
(2026) One flat plan: $9.99/mo for unlimited invoices, expenses and clients with an AI assistant, no tiers and no per-user fees.
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).
BugHerd
Standard about $42/mo (5 members), Studio ~$67/mo (10), Premium ~$125/mo (25), plus custom Enterprise — all with unlimited projects and unlimited client users; annual billing runs…
Buzz.ai
(re-verified 16 Jul 2026) Core $125/mo per seat with 500 credits/seat/mo — a launch offer runs $75/mo for the first 3 months (and $75/mo per seat billed annually); AI Employee $79…
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 Basic plan, free for the first 6 months from signup (re-verified 2026-07-31); Starter about $18/user/mo (1,000 US/CA minutes, 100 SMS), Professional ~$30 (unlimited US/CA…
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 €19, Starter €25, Essential €29 and Expert €49 per user/mo on annual billing, and Expert needs at least 3 licences.
Cognism
The model is credit-based — their own wording is that 1 credit equals 1 revealed contact — with credits included in the subscription per seat, but no allowance is published.
Contractor Foreman
(2026-08-01, read on their own pricing page) Priced for the company rather than per seat, with unlimited projects on every tier.
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…
Deel
(2026) Per-worker pricing, demo-led: HR/hiring tools from $14 per worker/month; Contractors from $49 per contractor/month, or $325/month per Contractor of Record; US PEO from $125…
Deputy
(2026-07-31, read in a live browser session on deputy.com/pricing with both billing toggles) Three plans, per user per month and excluding tax.
Devs.ai
Personal is $15 per seat / month billed annually or $18 billed monthly; Business is $30 per seat / month annually or $36 monthly; Enterprise is a custom annual contract.
Dripify
(2026-07-24, read on their own pricing page) Four tiers, priced per user: Basic $39, Pro $59 and Advanced $79 per user per month billed annually, plus an Enterprise tier that is q…
eDesk
Two meters, and the second one is easy to miss: the per-agent price is the entry ticket, but the AI Agent charges $0.99 for every automated resolution on top — great when it defle…
Employment Hero
HR Essentials $10 per employee per month, HR Engage $14, Payroll $10.
EngageBay
All-in-One suite per user/month: Basic $14.99 (500 contacts), Growth $64.99 (5,000 contacts, marketing automation), Pro $119.99 (unlimited contacts) — note the pricing page defaul…
Expandi
There is no free tier and no cheap entry — Expandi starts at $99 a month per seat, and the friendlier $79 assumes annual commitment.
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…
Filevine
No per-user cost, no minimum seats, no contract length and no implementation fee is published.
folk
$30/member/month on Standard, $60 on Premium and from $100 on Enterprise when billed monthly; billed yearly those drop to $24, $48 and from $80 per member per month — 20% off — fo…
FreshBooks
Two add-ons sit in the fine print: Advanced Payments $20 a month and Payroll $40 a month plus $6 per user.
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.
Freshworks
On Freshdesk: Growth $19 per agent per month, Pro $55, Enterprise $89, all requiring annual billing, with a stated 20% annual saving and no monthly rate shown.
Glide
Glide now sells two products from two pages: what glideapps.com/pricing shows today is GlideOS, the newer AI builder, on its own separate subscription — Free with one project and …
Gorgias
(2026-08-01, read on their own pricing page) Not priced per agent — their own line.
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.
Hubstaff
(2026-08-01, read on their own pricing page) Priced per seat.
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.
Jibble
Free forever with unlimited users is a real claim and unusual in this category, where per-seat pricing is the norm — that alone makes it worth a look for a team on a tight budget.
Keeper Security
(2026-08-01, read on their own business pricing page) No per-user prices are shown for any business tier.
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.
Leavo
Professional $2.49/user/mo billed yearly (about $448/yr for 15 users) adds unlimited features and overtime banking; Premium $4.15/user/mo yearly (about $747/yr for 15).
lemlist
Multichannel is 109€/month per user, or 87€/month yearly, with unlimited emails and messages and 5 senders per user.
MeetGeek
Pro $9.99 per user per month with 20 hours of transcription.
Miro
Per-member pricing charges for every member added to the workspace, so an org-wide rollout multiplies at full headcount — and the free plan's 3-board cap is workspace-wide, not pe…
monday.com
(2026-08-01, read on their own pricing page) Work Management: Free €0 (max 2 seats), Basic €9, Standard €12, Pro €19 per seat/month; Enterprise quote-only.
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
$13/user/mo (Foundation) to $79 (Enterprise) on annual billing, with $25, $42 and $59 tiers in between; monthly billing costs about 15% more.
Oyster
(2026-08-01, read on their own pricing page) Employer of Record $699 per employee per month, with annual discounts available.
Papaya Global
Papaya's pricing page routes every tier to a custom quote and blocks verification, so treat any per-employee floor as unverified.
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).
Piktochart
(2026-08-06, read in a live browser on their own pricing page, US dollar view) Free is $0, Pro is $15 per member per month billed monthly or $10 billed annually, Business is $20 m…
Pipedrive
Billed monthly they are €24, €49, €79 and €99 per seat per month.
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.
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.
Replit
Documented bills show $0.25 per Agent checkpoint and $0.05 per Assistant checkpoint on top of the plan fee; credits do not roll over.
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…
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).
Salesflow
Single User is reported at $99 per user per month, or $79 per user per month billed annually, plus VAT where it applies, including 400 LinkedIn invites, up to 2,000 follow-up mess…
Salesmessage
(2026-08-04, re-verified on their own pricing page) Priced per message credit rather than per user.
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).
Serpstat
Seats are capped rather than sold: Individual is single-user, Team 3, Team x2 6, Agency 30, and no per-seat price is published anywhere — a fourth user means the next tier.
Signeasy
Business $20/mo per seat billed yearly ($240/seat) adds unlimited sending and collaboration; Business Pro $30/mo per seat ($360/seat) adds end-to-end contract management with role…
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…
SimplyBook.me
Their own page says no setup fees, no transaction fees and no per-user charges — payment processors bill their own rates separately.
SmartSuite
Team is $15 per seat/mo billed annually ($20 billed monthly, minimum 3 billable users, 5,000 records per solution, 50 GB storage); Professional $32 per seat/mo annually ($36 month…
Spiky.ai
There is a genuine free tier, capped at 3 meetings per user per month.
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).
TextExpander
(vendor pricing page, read 21 Jul 2026; USD per user/month billed annually, excluding tax) Individual $3.33 ($39.96/yr), Business $8.33 ($99.96/yr), Growth $10.83 ($129.96/yr), En…
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…
Top Echelon
TE Recruit (the ATS and CRM) runs $75 per seat per month billed annually or $89 month-to-month on Standard, and $89 billed annually or $110 month-to-month on Professional.
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).
UptimeRobot
Extra login seats on Team and Scale run from $15/mo annually ($19 monthly) per seat, and SMS/voice credits are sold separately (10 for $3, 100 for $15, 200 for $25, 500 for $55, 1…
Wati
Users are capped per tier: Growth includes 3 and lets you add none at all, Pro and Business include 5 with extra seats at $24 and $59 per user per month.
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).
Zendesk
(2026-08-01, read on their own pricing page) Per agent per month on annual billing: Support Team €19, Suite Team €55, Suite Professional €115.
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 347 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 →