How we research AI tool pricing
Where our figures come from, what we do when sources contradict each other, what we have not done yet, and why no vendor can buy a ranking.
What we have not done
We have not run these tools in production. This site is pricing and plan research: we read what vendors publish, check it against other sources, and report what we find, including the places where those sources disagree with each other.
That limitation appears at the top of every review as well, not only here. If an article ever claims hands-on use, it will say exactly what was used, for how long, and on what kind of work. None currently do.
The five rules we do not break
The vendor page is the source
Every price starts at the vendor's own pricing page, read directly rather than copied from another article. Most published software pricing is out of date because it was copied once and never rechecked. Ours carries the month it was verified, at the top of the page.
Cross-checked before publication
Figures are checked a second time against independent pricing trackers and recent reporting. Where those agree with the vendor, we state the number plainly. Where they do not, we say so.
We report uncertainty instead of hiding it
Some vendors genuinely do not have one answer. Canva has restructured team pricing more than once, Close CRM tier names differ between sources, and Synthesia is quoted anywhere from $18 to $29. In those cases we publish the range, explain why it varies, and tell you to confirm directly rather than inventing a precise figure that reads better.
Nothing is for sale
No vendor has paid for a mention, a position, or a rating, and none ever will. We do not run sponsored posts, we do not send drafts to vendors for approval, and we do not remove a criticism because somebody asked.
Rechecked as pricing moves
Software pricing changes without notice, and often. QuickBooks raised prices in August 2026, Xero raises across all tiers in October 2026, and CapCut roughly doubled between late 2025 and early 2026. When we find a change we update the article and move its last-updated date.
What the ratings mean
Ratings are an editorial judgement about a tool's published plans: what the entry tier actually includes, how steep the jump to the next one is, whether the pricing is transparent, and whether the free tier is genuinely usable or a demo. They are not performance scores, because we have not measured performance.
- 4.5 to 5.0
- Transparent pricing, and the entry tier does what the product is for.
- 4.0 to 4.4
- Strong, with a caveat worth reading before you buy.
- 3.5 to 3.9
- Works, but the pricing structure has a trap in it somewhere.
- 3.0 to 3.4
- Priced above what a small business gets from it.
- Below 3.0
- We would not spend our own money on it at this price.
How this is funded
Two ways: display advertising, and affiliate commission on some outbound links. Both are disclosed. Neither influences a rating, a ranking, or whether a tool appears here at all.
A commission is not a paid placement
These two get treated as the same thing, and they are not. The difference is most of what this page exists to say, so here it is plainly.
A paid placement is a vendor paying to be included, to rank higher, or to be written about more kindly. We do not sell that. There is no price for it, no rate card, and no arrangement under which one could exist. When a vendor asks, the answer is no, and the asking does not change the review.
An affiliate commission is a share of a sale, paid after the fact, when a reader signs up through a link. The vendor has no say in whether we link to them, what we write, or where they place. They generally find out we recommended them when the referral shows up in their dashboard.
The standard we hold ourselves to is simple enough to check: the ranking should be identical whether or not a commission exists. Which necessarily means a good deal of what we recommend earns us nothing. Pointing someone at a free plan pays zero no matter what programme the vendor runs, and a free plan is what we recommend most often to somebody just starting out.
Advertising is filled by a third-party network. Advertisers cannot choose which articles they appear beside and have no editorial input on any of them.
Affiliate links carry the sponsored link attribute, and any article containing one says so in a notice above the text rather than in the footer.
Correcting mistakes
Prices move and we will get some wrong. If you find a figure that does not match what a vendor is charging today, tell us on the contact page and we will check it and update the article. Corrections are noted in the piece rather than made quietly.