SaaS Pricing Guide 2026: What Every Tool Actually Costs
By the ToolVS Research Team Β· Last Updated: Β· 100 tools verified
The Bottom Line
SaaS prices rose 11.4% in 2024 and the trend continued into 2026. The median SaaS tool costs $15-25/user/month, but hidden fees add 15-30% to that. Below is every major tool's actual pricing β verified this month β including the gotchas vendors don't put on their pricing pages. 56 of these 100 tools offer a free plan, but only about 30 have free tiers generous enough to actually use.
I put this page together because I was tired of visiting 100 different pricing pages to compare costs. Every vendor designs their pricing page to make their tool look cheaper than it is. So I collected the real numbers, verified them, and added the gotchas they don't mention.
Warning: What βstarting priceβ actually means
Most "starting at" prices shown here are the annual billing rate. Monthly billing typically costs 15-30% more. The gotcha column reveals the real surprises. For the deep dive on hidden fees, see our Hidden Fees Database.
Project Management Pricing
| Tool | Free? | Starting Price | Per User | Annual Discount | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday.com | Yes | $9/seat/mo | $9-19 | 18% off | Min 3 seats on paid plans |
| Asana | Yes | $10.99/user/mo | $10.99-24.99 | ~20% off | Advanced features locked to Business tier |
| ClickUp | Yes | $7/user/mo | $7-12 | ~15% off | Free plan has 100MB storage limit |
| Jira | Yes | $8.15/user/mo | $8.15-16 | Monthly only for cloud | Complex pricing tiers, add-ons extra |
| Notion | Yes | $10/user/mo | $10-18 | ~20% off | Free plan limited to 1 member for teams |
| Linear | Yes | $8/user/mo | $8 | ~15% off | Free plan caps at 250 issues |
| Smartsheet | No | $9/user/mo | $9-32 | Required | No monthly billing option |
| Wrike | Yes | $9.80/user/mo | $9.80-24.80 | Required | Annual billing only, complex tier structure |
| Basecamp | No | $15/user/mo | Flat $299/mo | ~15% off | Per-user or flat rate β flat rate good for 10+ users |
| Trello | Yes | $5/user/mo | $5-17.50 | ~15% off | Free plan limited to 10 boards |
CRM Pricing
| Tool | Free? | Starting Price | Per User | Annual Discount | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot CRM | Yes | $20/mo | Seat-based from $50 | ~10% off | Onboarding fee $3,000+ for Pro/Enterprise |
| Salesforce | No | $25/user/mo | $25-330 | Required | Annual only, implementation can cost $10K+ |
| Pipedrive | No | $14/user/mo | $14-99 | ~17% off | LeadBooster add-on $32.50/mo extra |
| Zoho CRM | Yes | $14/user/mo | $14-52 | ~34% off | Big annual discount but complex feature tiers |
| Freshsales | Yes | $9/user/mo | $9-59 | ~20% off | Freddy AI features only on Pro+ |
| Close | No | $29/user/mo | $29-149 | ~15% off | Built-in calling costs extra per minute |
| Copper | No | $23/user/mo | $23-134 | Required | Google Workspace only β no standalone version |
| Keap | No | $249/mo | Includes 2 users | ~20% off | Extra users $29/mo each, steep entry price |
| Nutshell | No | $16/user/mo | $16-67 | ~15% off | Marketing features require separate add-on |
| Agile CRM | Yes | $8.99/user/mo | $8.99-47.99 | ~40% off | Huge discount for 2-year commitment |
Email Marketing Pricing
| Tool | Free? | Starting Price | Per User | Annual Discount | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailchimp | Yes | $13/mo | Contact-based | ~15% off | Prices spike as list grows; charges for unsubscribed contacts |
| ActiveCampaign | No | $15/mo | Contact-based | ~20% off | CRM features locked to Plus tier ($49/mo+) |
| ConvertKit | Yes | $25/mo | Subscriber-based | ~17% off | Free plan has no automations or sequences |
| MailerLite | Yes | $9/mo | Subscriber-based | ~15% off | Website builder limited on free plan |
| Brevo | Yes | $25/mo | Email volume-based | ~10% off | Daily send limit on free; Brevo branding until $65/mo |
| Klaviyo | Yes | $20/mo | Contact-based | No annual discount | No annual discount available; gets expensive fast |
| Beehiiv | Yes | $39/mo | Subscriber-based | ~20% off | Monetization features only on Scale ($99/mo) |
| GetResponse | Yes | $15.58/mo | Contact-based | ~18% off | Webinar features locked to Plus tier |
| Constant Contact | No | $12/mo | Contact-based | ~15% off | No free plan; trial requires credit card in some regions |
| Flodesk | No | $38/mo | Flat rate unlimited | $418/yr | Flat pricing is great for big lists but expensive for small ones |
Design Pricing
| Tool | Free? | Starting Price | Per User | Annual Discount | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canva | Yes | $12.99/mo | $12.99 (1 person) | ~17% off | Pro features (Brand Kit, BG Remover) behind paywall |
| Figma | Yes | $15/editor/mo | $15-75 | ~20% off | Free limited to 3 projects; Dev Mode extra on some plans |
| Adobe Creative Cloud | No | $22.99/mo | $22.99-59.99 | Required | Early termination fee = 50% of remaining months |
| Midjourney | No | $10/mo | $10-120 | ~20% off | No free tier anymore; images not fully copyright-clear |
| Sketch | No | $10/editor/mo | $10 | $120/yr | Mac only β no Windows or web version |
| InVision | No | N/A | N/A | N/A | Shutting down in 2026 β migrate to Figma/Penpot |
| Photoshop | No | $22.99/mo | $22.99 | Required | Part of Adobe CC; early cancellation fee applies |
| GIMP | Yes | $0 | $0 | N/A | Steeper learning curve than paid alternatives |
| Penpot | Yes | $0 | $0 | N/A | Smaller plugin ecosystem than Figma |
| Visme | Yes | $12.25/mo | $12.25-24.75 | ~25% off | Free plan very limited β 5 projects, Visme branding |
Communication Pricing
| Tool | Free? | Starting Price | Per User | Annual Discount | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slack | Yes | $7.25/user/mo | $7.25-12.50 | ~15% off | 90-day message history on free; lost messages gone forever |
| Microsoft Teams | Yes | $4/user/mo | $4-12.50 | Part of M365 | Best value bundled with Microsoft 365 |
| Zoom | Yes | $13.33/user/mo | $13.33-21.99 | ~15% off | 40-min limit on free group calls |
| Google Meet | Yes | $6/user/mo | $6-18 | Part of Workspace | Recording only on paid plans |
| Discord | Yes | $9.99/mo Nitro | $2.99-9.99 | ~15% off | Not designed for formal business communication |
| Loom | Yes | $12.50/mo | $12.50 | ~15% off | 5-min video cap on free; 25 video limit |
| Intercom | No | $39/seat/mo | $39-139 | ~15% off | Resolution-based pricing can spike costs unpredictably |
| Zendesk | No | $19/agent/mo | $19-115 | Required | Annual billing only; add-ons (AI, advanced analytics) extra |
| Freshdesk | Yes | $15/agent/mo | $15-79 | ~20% off | Free plan limited to 2 agents |
| Crisp | Yes | $25/mo/workspace | Workspace-based | ~10% off | Free plan lacks chatbot and automation |
Developer Tools Pricing
| Tool | Free? | Starting Price | Per User | Annual Discount | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub | Yes | $4/user/mo | $4-21 | ~15% off | Advanced security features only on Enterprise |
| GitLab | Yes | $29/user/mo | $29-99 | Required | Big jump from free to paid; annual billing only |
| Vercel | Yes | $20/user/mo | $20 | Monthly only | Commercial use requires Pro plan |
| Netlify | Yes | $19/user/mo | $19 | Monthly only | Build minutes and bandwidth limits on free |
| Supabase | Yes | $25/mo | Project-based | ~15% off | Free projects paused after 1 week inactivity |
| Firebase | Yes | Pay-as-you-go | Usage-based | N/A | Costs can spike unpredictably with traffic |
| AWS | Yes | Pay-as-you-go | Usage-based | Reserved instances save 30-60% | 12-month free tier expires; billing is complex |
| Datadog | Yes | $15/host/mo | $15-34/host | ~20% off | APM, logs, and synthetics all billed separately |
| Sentry | Yes | $26/mo | Event-based | ~15% off | Overage charges per extra event |
| Postman | Yes | $14/user/mo | $14-49 | ~18% off | Collection runs and mock servers capped on free |
Accounting Pricing
| Tool | Free? | Starting Price | Per User | Annual Discount | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks | No | $30/mo | $30-200 | 50% off first year promo | Introductory pricing doubles after year 1 |
| Xero | No | $15/mo | $15-78 | Monthly only | Early plan limits to 20 invoices/month |
| FreshBooks | No | $17/mo | $17-55 | ~10% off | Lite plan limited to 5 billable clients |
| Wave | Yes | $0 | $0 | N/A | Payroll ($20/mo) and payments (2.9%) cost extra |
| Zoho Books | Yes | $15/org/mo | $15-60 | ~20% off | Free plan limited to $50K annual revenue |
| Sage | No | $17/mo | $17-180 | ~15% off | Complex product lineup; easy to pick wrong tier |
| NetSuite | No | $999/mo + $99/user | $99+ | Required (multi-year) | Implementation costs $25K-100K+; enterprise-only |
| Bench | No | $249/mo | Flat rate | ~10% off | Bookkeeping service, not software β human bookkeepers |
| Pilot | No | $499/mo | Flat rate | ~10% off | High-touch service for startups; expensive but done-for-you |
| Invoice Ninja | Yes | $10/mo | $10-14 | ~20% off | Self-hosted version free; cloud version has limits |
AI Tools Pricing
| Tool | Free? | Starting Price | Per User | Annual Discount | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Yes | $20/mo (Plus) | $20-200 | No annual option | Free tier has usage caps during peak; GPT-4o limited |
| Claude | Yes | $20/mo (Pro) | $20-100 | No annual option | Free tier has strict daily message limits |
| Gemini | Yes | $19.99/mo | $19.99 | Part of Google One AI | Best features need Google Workspace integration |
| Perplexity | Yes | $20/mo (Pro) | $20 | $200/yr | Free limited to 5 Pro searches/day |
| GitHub Copilot | No | $10/mo | $10-39 | $100/yr | Enterprise features only at $39/user/mo |
| Cursor | Yes | $20/mo (Pro) | $20-40 | $192/yr | 2,000 completions on free; Pro still has slow request caps |
| Jasper | No | $39/mo | $39-59 | ~20% off | Word limits on lower tiers; enterprise pricing opaque |
| Copy.ai | Yes | $49/mo | $49 | ~25% off | Free plan has 2,000 words/mo limit |
| Midjourney | No | $10/mo | $10-120 | ~20% off | No free tier; Discord-only interface |
| ElevenLabs | Yes | $5/mo | $5-330 | ~20% off | Free voices limited; commercial license needs paid plan |
Website Builder Pricing
| Tool | Free? | Starting Price | Per User | Annual Discount | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | No | $39/mo | $39-399 | ~25% off | Transaction fees 0.5-2% unless using Shopify Payments |
| Wix | Yes | $17/mo | $17-159 | ~15% off | Can't switch templates after publishing |
| Squarespace | No | $16/mo | $16-52 | ~30% off | E-commerce features only on Business tier+ |
| Webflow | Yes | $14/mo | $14-39/site | ~22% off | CMS and e-commerce are separate pricing |
| WordPress.org | Yes | Hosting from $3/mo | N/A | Hosting deals | Free software but hosting, themes, plugins cost money |
| Framer | Yes | $5/mo | $5-15/site | ~20% off | Free limited to 1K visitors/mo |
| Ghost | Yes | $9/mo (hosted) | $9-199 | ~20% off | Self-hosted free but requires technical setup |
| BigCommerce | No | $29/mo | $29-299 | ~15% off | Revenue caps per plan; forced upgrade at thresholds |
| WooCommerce | Yes | Hosting from $3/mo | N/A | N/A | Extensions and hosting add up fast |
| Carrd | Yes | $9/yr | $9-49/yr | Annual only | Single-page sites only; no blog or CMS |
Security Pricing
| Tool | Free? | Starting Price | Per User | Annual Discount | Gotcha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Password | No | $2.99/mo | $2.99-7.99 | Required | No free plan; annual billing only |
| Bitwarden | Yes | $10/yr | $10-60/yr | Annual only | Cheapest premium at $10/year β hard to beat |
| NordVPN | No | $3.39/mo | $3.39-14.99 | ~60% off (2-year) | Biggest discounts require 2-year commitment |
| ExpressVPN | No | $6.67/mo | $6.67-12.95 | ~35% off | Most expensive major VPN; speeds justify it |
| Surfshark | No | $2.19/mo | $2.19-15.45 | ~80% off (2-year) | Unlimited devices; best value VPN |
| Dashlane | Yes | $4.99/mo | $4.99-8 | Required | Free plan limited to 25 passwords β barely usable |
| LastPass | Yes | $3/mo | $3-6 | Required | Free limited to mobile OR desktop, not both |
| Cloudflare | Yes | $20/mo (Pro) | Domain-based | Monthly OK | Free plan covers basics; WAF needs Pro |
| Auth0 | Yes | $23/mo | MAU-based | ~15% off | Pricing jumps significantly past 1K MAU on paid |
| Okta | No | $2/user/mo | $2-15 | Required | Workforce vs Customer Identity priced separately |
Editor's Take: The Real Cost of SaaS in 2026
After verifying all 100 tools, the pattern is clear: the advertised price is almost never what you actually pay. Annual billing discounts, per-user pricing that scales differently than expected, mandatory add-ons, and "implementation fees" can easily double the sticker price.
My biggest advice: always ask for the total annual cost including all users, integrations, and add-ons before committing. Don't just look at the "per user per month" number on the pricing page. That number is designed to make the tool look cheap.
And if a vendor won't show pricing on their website? That usually means it's expensive. "Contact sales" is code for "we price based on how much we think you can pay." Use our Negotiation Cheat Sheet to fight back.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does CRM software cost in 2026?
CRM software ranges from $0 (HubSpot Free) to $300+/user/month (Salesforce Enterprise). The most popular mid-range options cost $14-65/user/month. HubSpot offers the most generous free plan. For small businesses, expect to pay $15-50/user/month. See our HubSpot vs Salesforce comparison for a detailed breakdown.
What hidden fees should I watch for with SaaS pricing?
The most common hidden fees: implementation/onboarding ($500-50,000), data migration, overage charges, premium support (20-30% of license), API access fees, mandatory training, and platform fees. On average, hidden fees add 15-30% to the advertised price. We document all of them in our Hidden Fees Database.
Is it cheaper to pay annually or monthly?
Annual billing saves 15-20% on average. Some tools offer up to 40% off for annual. The trade-off is committing without monthly flexibility. Our advice: use a tool for 2-3 months on monthly billing, then switch to annual once you're sure. The savings are significant but not worth it if you end up paying for a tool you don't use.
Related Resources
Methodology
All prices were verified directly from each vendor's pricing page in April 2026. We checked both monthly and annual rates, noted minimum seat requirements, and documented any fees not shown on the main pricing page. For tools with usage-based pricing, we calculated costs for a typical 10-person team. We update this page monthly.
Want to know what you should actually pay?
Use our budget calculator to model your entire SaaS stack, or check the negotiation guide for tips on getting a better deal.
Last updated: