The eight ways tools bill
We read the pricing page of every tool in our research and recorded the unit each one bills on. Where a tool mixes units, we recorded the one that sets the base price. The table shows how many tools use each unit and the median entry price among those with a usable US dollar figure.
| Billing unit | Tools | Share | Median entry price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat plan | 81 | 51.9% | $39.99 (79 with a usable price) |
| Per seat (user, staff or agent) | 22 | 14.1% | $32.88 (22 with a usable price) |
| Contact count or send volume | 16 | 10.3% | $33 (13 with a usable price) |
| Per brand, channel or profile | 12 | 7.7% | $10 (9 with a usable price) |
| Usage (per order, photo, minute or task) | 10 | 6.4% | $12 (5 with a usable price) |
| Per location, property or device | 7 | 4.5% | $25.52 (5 with a usable price) |
| Commission or transaction fee | 6 | 3.8% | Too few to compare (2) |
| Not stated | 2 | 1.3% | Too few to compare (1) |
Share of the 156 tools that publish pricing. Median entry price uses only tools with a usable US dollar figure; see the methods note in the pricing report.
Medians tell you where a model usually starts, not what you will pay. The next sections show how each unit behaves once you put real numbers into it.
Flat plans: read the caps
A flat plan charges one price for a bundle of limits. It is the most common model in the data and the easiest to budget. The catch is in the caps. Blaze.ai Starter is $79 a month with 1 user, 3 posting accounts and 600 credits. Growth is $149 with 10 posting accounts and unlimited users. A business with four social accounts is already on the second plan.
Flat does not always mean simple. Practina is free to start and then $199 a month for Pro. RealEstateContent.ai is $119 a month or $999 a year, and states that every social feature is included with no add-ons and no usage limits. That second kind of flat plan is the one to look for if you want a predictable bill.
Per seat: count the people
Per-seat tools charge for each person with a login. 22 tools bill this way. It suits a business where one person runs marketing and gets expensive as soon as others need access.
| Tool | Entry price | Three users |
|---|---|---|
| Hootsuite | $99 per user a month | $297 a month |
| Agorapulse | $79 per user a month, billed annually | $237 a month |
| Jasper | $59 per seat a month, billed yearly | $177 a month |
| KaamCam | $19.99 per seat a month | $59.97 a month |
Three-user figures are our arithmetic from each vendor's stated entry price, before add-ons.
Some tools mix a base fee with a per-person fee. Markate is $49.95 a month for the owner and $5 a month for each employee. Fons is $19.95 a month plus $4.95 for each extra staff member.
Per location: define a location
7 tools bill per location, property, listing or device. This model is fair when each location needs its own work, and costly when it does not. The definition matters more than the price.
Service Stories prices from $29 a month per location up to $499 per location for its full tier, and defines a location on its own pricing page: six auto shops count as six locations, while a plumber covering ten service areas from one office counts as one. Marqii charges $90 per location a month for Base, billed per location on an annual contract. StayFi bills per WiFi access point rather than per property.
A worked example: a business with three shops on Service Stories pays from $87 a month at the entry tier and $1,497 a month at the full tier. The same business on a flat plan pays one price whether it has one shop or three, as long as the plan covers enough accounts.
Per brand or channel: count your profiles
12 tools charge per brand, social channel or profile. Buffer bills about $5 per channel a month on Essentials and about $10 on Team, with unlimited team members. Publer charges per social account, with every tenth account free. Emelyn is $29 per brand a month, and Native is $79 for one brand with extra brands at $39.
This model is cheap for a single business with a few profiles and grows with every location page or client brand you add. Agencies usually look for a workspace plan instead, such as Native Agency at $499 for ten client workspaces.
Contacts and volume: watch the list
Email tools mostly bill on how many contacts you store or how many emails you send. 16 tools in the data work this way. Mailchimp's entry prices are introductory for 12 months before the standard rate applies, and its free plan now covers 250 contacts. Constant Contact sets each plan's monthly send limit at ten times your contact count and charges $0.002 a send above it.
Customer.io bills on stored profiles. A large list of people you never email still raises the bill, so clean your list before you migrate it.
Credits: work out a real month
18 tools meter the core work in credits, usually on top of a flat plan. The entry plan often covers a light month, not a normal one. Blotato Starter is $29 a month with 1,250 credits; reviewers on its card in our research estimate that covers about 24 faceless videos, so a daily video publisher moves to the $97 plan. Sintra.ai includes 250 monthly credits that do not roll over.
Credits that roll over are worth more than credits that expire. Emelyn's 1,500 monthly credits roll over; Dripify's data credits are valid for 30 days with no rollover. Before you buy, ask the vendor how many credits one of your normal weeks uses.
Usage and commission: ask about new clients
A few tools have no monthly fee and charge per unit of output or take a share of revenue. RestoGPT prices per order. Stallion Leads charges $23 to $25 per lead. Lessonface takes 15% of the lesson rate when it found the student and 5% when the teacher did.
Commission also appears inside plans that look like subscriptions. Booksy Biz starts at $29.99 a month and takes a 30% commission on clients acquired through its marketplace boost. Fresha's free tier takes a 20% one-time commission on new clients from its marketplace. Commission can be a fair trade for new demand, but it is a cost that grows with your success.
Annual billing: what the discount is worth
18 tools state an annual discount as a percentage. The median is 20%, and the range runs from 15 to 33%. Annual billing makes sense once a trial has shown the tool does the job. Before that, a year up front is a bet.
Keep reading
Every figure on this page comes from the marketing software pricing report, which shows how each number was worked out. For the terms that sit next to these prices, read contract red flags. For ranked tools, see the best AI marketing tools. Side-by-sides that compare billing in detail include MoFlo vs Buffer, MoFlo vs Hootsuite and MoFlo vs Mailchimp. All comparisons are on the comparisons page.
