AIBM RESEARCH · REPORT 01 · JULY 2026The sticker price is the whole story for only 33% of business software
We hand-researched the pricing of 247 business tools and wrote down, with evidence, every structure that moves the real cost away from the advertised one. The result: 166 of 247 tools (67%) 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.
67%
has ≥1 documented cost caveat
166 of 247 tools
28%
meters usage on top of the plan
credits, overages, % fees
8%
publishes no usable price at all
quote or sales call required
40%
has a genuinely free tier
the good news
The report in 2 minutes
What moves the real price
Share of the 247-tool corpus with each documented structure (a tool can carry several):
🧮 Usage-metered70 · 28%
🪑 Per-seat pricing66 · 27%
🧩 Add-ons extra44 · 18%
📅 Annual commit22 · 9%
🔒 Hidden pricing19 · 8%
📈 Renewal jump7 · 3%
🧮 Usage-metered: 70 of 247 tools (28%)
Credits, overages or percentage fees on top of the subscription. Most common in Growth & Revenue. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“The 'free' plan is the most expensive one once you have real volume: a 5% commission on every sale overtakes Pro's $60 flat fee around $30k/year in processed re”
Momence review →“The plan is metered by response volume, not by surveys — a viral NPS month can push you a tier up, and the free plan's 30-day retention quietly deletes your his”
Survicate review →“On top of the subscription Circle takes a commission on every sale you make through the platform (roughly 2% on Professional, 1% on Business, 0.5% on Plus) plus”
Circle review →🪑 Per-seat pricing: 66 of 247 tools (27%)
Cost scales with every user you add. Most common in Operations & Workflow. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“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 wor”
Miro review →“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).”
Typewise review →“(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 monitorin”
Calilio review →🧩 Add-ons extra: 44 of 247 tools (18%)
Key features are paid add-ons on top of the plan. Most common in Growth & Revenue. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“Payroll is an add-on at $39/mo + $6/person; catch-up bookkeeping runs ~$99/month.”
Heard review →“The channel caps are the business model — each tier buys a few more destinations, and every extra teammate is a separate $25/mo seat on top of the plan.”
Restream review →“On top of the subscription Circle takes a commission on every sale you make through the platform (roughly 2% on Professional, 1% on Business, 0.5% on Plus) plus”
Circle review →📅 Annual commit: 22 of 247 tools (9%)
Best price (or any price) requires an annual/quarterly commitment. Most common in Operations & Workflow. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“(2026) Annual billing only: Lite about $129/mo (monthly done-for-you bookkeeping + quarterly tax estimates; annual tax filing NOT included — a ~$750 one-off), E”
Heard review →“Mind the billing asymmetry too: Starter is monthly-only while Growth and up expect an annual commitment.”
Survicate review →🔒 Hidden pricing: 19 of 247 tools (8%)
No public price list — quote or sales call needed. Most common in Operations & Workflow. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“(2026) No public price list — enterprise quote-based only ('book an intro').”
Evolve review →“(2026) Quote-based with a documented floor: their site lists pricing starting around $450/mo, scaling with volume and channels, and they explicitly target store”
ExpertSender review →“It's built for enterprise support floors, and the economics follow: the headline per-user price is the entry, while the real deployments (custom language models”
Typewise review →📈 Renewal jump: 7 of 247 tools (3%)
Intro price rises substantially at renewal. Most common in IT & Productivity. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“It's the classic budget-host trade-off: the sticker price only holds if you prepay years up front, and independent reviews report renewals run higher than the i”
UltaHost review →“The honest catch: renewal rates jump 43-100% after year one.”
IDrive review →“Note the renewal: standard rates run roughly 3x the intro price (often ~$9.95–$14.95/mo).”
ChemiCloud review →🆓 Free tier: 100 of 247 tools (40%)
A genuinely free plan or version exists. Most common in Growth & Revenue. Documented examples from the dossiers:
“(2026) A free plan (multistream to 2 channels, with Restream branding); Standard about $16/mo billed annually ($19 monthly, 3 channels), Professional $39/mo ann”
Restream review →“(2026) Three tiers after the 2025 restructure: Basic at $0/mo but with a 5% Momence fee on every transaction (plus ~4% passed to clients), Pro about $60/mo with”
Momence 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 247 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 247 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 247 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.