AIBM RESEARCH · REPORT 01 · JULY 2026The sticker price is the whole story for only 24% of business software
We hand-researched the pricing of 406 business tools and wrote down, with evidence, every structure that moves the real cost away from the advertised one. The result: 310 of 406 tools (76%) carry at least one documented cost caveat — usage meters, per-seat scaling, paid add-ons, annual lock-ins, hidden price lists or renewal jumps. Every number on this page is computed from our open dataset, so you can check us.
76%
has ≥1 documented cost caveat
310 of 406 tools
43%
meters usage on top of the plan
credits, overages, % fees
6%
publishes no usable price at all
quote or sales call required
45%
has a genuinely free tier
the good news
The report in 2 minutes
What moves the real price
Share of the 406-tool corpus with each documented structure (a tool can carry several):
🧮 Usage-metered174 · 43%
🪑 Per-seat pricing120 · 30%
🧩 Add-ons extra114 · 28%
📅 Annual commit84 · 21%
🔒 Hidden pricing23 · 6%
📈 Renewal jump13 · 3%
🧮 Usage-metered: 174 of 406 tools (43%)
Credits, overages or percentage fees on top of the subscription. Most common in Growth & Revenue. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“It carries unlimited subscribers and segmentation, the abandoned-cart recovery campaign, scheduled promotional campaigns, AI-generated campaign content, intelli”
Meeri review →“Both carry a 30-day guarantee and need no credit card to start, and every migration begins with a free demo of up to 10 products, customers and orders.”
MigrationPro review →“Free covers up to 250 of those and is unusually complete: the point program, VIP tiers, a referral program, twelve-plus ways to earn points, product, cart, popu”
Essential Loyalty review →🪑 Per-seat pricing: 120 of 406 tools (30%)
Cost scales with every user you add. Most common in Operations & Workflow. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“Starter is advertised at $7 per seat a month against a list price of $20 per seat a month, under a banner reading “Save up to 65% on Starter — new customers onl”
HubSpot review →“Ask for the per-employee-per-month rate and the per-payroll-run fee separately.”
ADP review →“Starter is €2.99 per user per month with a 5-user minimum, Plus is €4.99 per user with a 10-user minimum plus a €25.00 monthly subscription fee on top of the pe”
Planday review →🧩 Add-ons extra: 114 of 406 tools (28%)
Key features are paid add-ons on top of the plan. Most common in Growth & Revenue. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“The Automated app plan, where you run the migration yourself, starts at $29 based on store size, with add-ons selected and paid individually.”
MigrationPro review →“Pro $19.99 a month or $167.92 a year adds blocking by email, name, address and phone, the Bot Killer for TOR, proxy and VPN traffic, an add-ons blocker, a right”
Blocky review →“Enterprise does the same thing at $7,000 on top of $43,200 a year.”
HubSpot review →📅 Annual commit: 84 of 406 tools (21%)
Best price (or any price) requires an annual/quarterly commitment. Most common in Growth & Revenue. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“Annual billing saves a stated 20% on every paid tier and each carries a 7-day free trial.”
Way review →“(read 2026-08-19 on castmagic.io/pricing) Three published tiers plus an enterprise band, and the page opens on annual billing with a 'Save 30%' label, so every ”
Castmagic review →🔒 Hidden pricing: 23 of 406 tools (6%)
No public price list — quote or sales call needed. Most common in Operations & Workflow. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“Advanced, for over $10K a month in ad spend: custom pricing plus 3% of ad spend above $10K.”
Teikametrics review →“Everything else
Compliancely sells carries no public price at all: the business verification and credit-risk report packages, address verification, Form I-9, IR”
Compliancely review →“(2026) A genuinely free plan (up to 20 responses a month); paid tiers run roughly $17/mo (Essentials) to about $60/mo (Premium), with Enterprise above that (con”
FlexiQuiz review →📈 Renewal jump: 13 of 406 tools (3%)
Intro price rises substantially at renewal. Most common in IT & Productivity. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“So $7 is an introductory rate and $20 is what the seat costs afterwards — a 186% step for a system that by then holds your contact database, which is the single”
HubSpot review →“The promotional rate is 90% off for three months, so Lite is $23 rather than $2.30 from month four.”
FreshBooks review →“Treat the higher number as the list price a renewal may return to, and the lower one as an introductory rate with an end date you should ask about.”
Boulevard review →🆓 Free tier: 182 of 406 tools (45%)
A genuinely free plan or version exists. Most common in Growth & Revenue. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“The vendor's own site sells the same two tiers at the same prices, calling Basic free forever and Pro's allowance 3,000 notification impressions a month, and it”
Meeri review →“The Shopify app is a shoppable-video widget priced at $0, $15, $49 and $199 a month.”
Storista review →“The listing header says free to install, and there is a free tier, but it is not for you unless you are an agency: Agency is limited to Shopify Partner developm”
BackupMaster review →Prices also move after you sign
Transparency is not only about today’s price list — it’s about whether the price you signed at survives. Our
Price Watch registry documents the hikes, free-tier cuts and intro-to-renewal jumps we found, each with its evidence, and since July 2026 we snapshot all 406 pricing pages monthly so new moves get caught automatically.
Methodology — and its honest limits
How the numbers are made. Every tool in the corpus has a hand-researched dossier. A flag only counts when the dossier contains an explicit evidence sentence for it — the exact classification rules are the same ones that power the Honest Software Atlas, and this page is rebuilt from the corpus, so the numbers cannot drift from the source.
What this corpus is not. It is not a random sample of the software market: it covers the 406 tools we research and review, which skews toward tools with affiliate programs. Percentages describe this corpus, not the entire industry. We publish the raw data so anyone can re-run the analysis: open dataset (CC BY 4.0) · MCP server · how we review.
Cite this report
AIBuilder Marketplace Research (July 2026). “SaaS Pricing Transparency Report 2026: a hand-researched corpus of 406 business tools.” https://aibuildermarketplace.com/research/saas-pricing-transparency-2026/
Press & data questions: daniel@aibuildermarketplace.com — we share the underlying evidence sentences for any stat on request.
AIBuilder Marketplace earns affiliate commissions on some tools it covers; this report flags partners and non-partners by exactly the same rules, and per the manifesto we may earn a commission from tools this research criticises — it never changes the numbers.