How we check prices and score tools

CinchStack exists to answer one question for people running an online business: which software should I use, and what will it really cost me? This page explains exactly how we get the numbers, how we decide what to recommend, and what we do not claim. If anything here does not match what you see on a page, tell us.

Right now we track 22 tools from 414 vendor pages. The oldest price record was last checked on 26 September 2026 and the newest on 27 September 2026.

How we read a price

Every price starts on the vendor’s own pricing page. We never copy prices from review sites, marketplaces or other blogs, because those go stale.

1. We open the page in a real browser set to a US location and save a plain-text copy of what it shows, with the date. Where a page has a monthly and a yearly switch, we save both views. We also save the vendor’s help articles on billing, add-ons and usage fees, because that is where most of the real cost hides.
2. We record each plan, add-on and usage fee from those saved copies: the month-to-month price, the effective monthly price when you pay yearly, and whether it is charged per account, per seat or per site.
3. Every figure must appear in a saved copy. If a price exists only behind a login, a sales call or an interactive calculator we could not capture, it does not become a number on this site. It goes on the page’s list of things we could not verify, in plain words.
4. A second, independent check goes through every figure again against the saved copies before anything is published, looking specifically for the common mistakes: a yearly price shown as monthly, a per-seat price shown as flat, a “from” price that assumes a minimum number of seats, or a plan the vendor no longer sells.

All prices are US list prices in US dollars. Some vendors charge different amounts in other countries; where they do, the tool’s pricing page says so. Taxes are not included.

How we work out the real monthly bill

A headline price rarely tells you what you will pay. So for every tool we work out the monthly bill for three standard businesses: one person, a small team of five and a growing team of fifteen. Not everyone in a business uses every tool, so each size counts what that job needs: the five-person team gets two seats in an SEO tool but five in a docs workspace. We use the same assumptions for every tool that does the same job, so the totals can be compared side by side.

Job in your stack	One person	Five-person team	Fifteen-person team
CRM and automation	1 user, 1,000 contacts, 2,000 emails and 200 text messages a month	3 users, 5,000 contacts, 20,000 emails, 1,000 texts	8 users, 25,000 contacts, 100,000 emails, 5,000 texts
Selling (store, courses, funnels)	$3,000 a month in sales, 1 staff account	$30,000 in sales, 3 staff accounts	$150,000 in sales, 8 staff accounts
Website	1 site, 1 editor, about 20 pages	3 editors, about 200 content items	8 editors, about 1,000 content items
SEO	1 user, about 500 tracked keywords	2 users, about 1,500 keywords	4 users, about 5,000 keywords
Email marketing	1,000 subscribers	10,000 subscribers	50,000 subscribers
Docs and projects	1 seat	5 seats	15 seats

For each size we pick the plan that business would actually need, checking the plan’s limits, and add every line that makes up the bill: the subscription, extra seats, contact tiers, required add-ons, usage fees and platform transaction fees. Each bill shows its lines, so you can see what is counted and change the assumptions in your head.

A few rules keep the totals honest:

• Month-to-month billing is used wherever it is offered, because that is what you pay before you commit. When a plan is sold only yearly, we use its monthly equivalent and say so.
• Card processing fees on selling platforms are listed separately and not added to the total, because every platform charges them at a similar rate.
• Each bill has a confidence level. High means every line came straight from the vendor’s page. Medium means a line depends on a usage estimate. Low means a needed figure could not be verified.

How we keep prices current

Every Monday an automated check re-opens each vendor’s pricing page and confirms that the prices we show are still there. When a price, plan or limit changes, we update the record and log the change, with the date and the source, on the price changes page. Every pricing page shows the date its prices were last verified.

Some vendors block automated visits. When that happens the check says so, and the page keeps the date of our last manual check rather than pretending to be newer.

How we score tools

Each tool gets one score out of five, based on six factors. The factors are about what matters to a small business paying the bill, not about feature counts.

The procedure:

1. Two independent passes. Each pass scores all six factors from one to five, gives a one-sentence reason for each, and gives an overall score. Neither pass sees the other.
2. Calibration. Both passes compare against every tool already scored, so a 4 means the same thing across the site.
3. If a tool pays us a commission, or runs an affiliate program we have joined or may join, we publish the lower of the two scores. Otherwise we publish the average of the two, rounded down.
4. The overall score is a judgement, not a formula. It is not the average of the six factors, because the factors do not matter equally for every job.
5. Thin evidence means no score. If we cannot find enough to judge a tool fairly, the page says “Not scored” rather than showing a made-up number.

Every tool page shows the six factor scores and the reason behind each one, under “Why we score it”.

How we choose the stack picks

Each stack page recommends one tool for each job a business of that kind needs done, and names alternatives with the situation in which each one is the better choice. We choose on fit and total cost for that business, not on commission. When a tool that pays us is recommended, the highest-scored option is shown beside it. When the right answer is a tool that does not pay us, or no tool at all, we say that.

What we do not claim

• We have not used every tool as a paying customer. Our prices come from the vendors’ published pages, and our scores come from that pricing evidence plus what is publicly documented. Where a page reflects our own hands-on use, it says so and gives the date.
• The monthly bills are estimates for the stated assumptions. Your bill depends on your usage and on the offer the vendor gives you when you sign up.
• We do not give financial, tax or legal advice.

How we use AI

We use AI tools to help capture vendor pages, organise what they say into records, and cross-check every figure against the saved copies. Every number on the site is tied to a dated copy of the vendor’s own page, and anything that cannot be traced that way is not published as a number. The recommendations and scores follow the rules on this page, and the editor is responsible for everything we publish.

Corrections

If you find a wrong or outdated price, send it to us. We check it against the vendor’s page and, if we were wrong, correct it within the week and log the correction on the changes page. Vendors can use the same form; we treat their messages exactly like anyone else’s and correct only what their public pricing page supports.

How we are funded is explained on How we earn.