Suppose you open three competitors’ pricing pages. One offers a plan at 99 a month, another at 129, and the third asks you to leave your details. We already have the beginnings of a table and perhaps a temptation to decide who is cheap and who is expensive. But the large number on the page does not yet tell us what the customer will pay or receive. These numbers are illustrative examples, rather than prices of products I have checked.
At this point, the accountant in me starts asking questions. Ninety-nine in which currency? For one user or a team? Paid monthly or annually? And what happens when the customer needs the feature that brought them to the product in the first place? Sometimes the small print explains the business model.
Choose a customer before comparing prices
Decide whom the comparison is for. Take a three-person team with a defined workload and two essential capabilities. Now we can find the appropriate plan in each product, rather than automatically compare every website’s cheapest plan.
One company’s entry plan might include everything needed, while another requires the next tier. That is precisely the kind of information competitor pricing research should uncover.
Monthly, paid once a year
Suppose the page shows 99 a month, billed annually in advance. In this example, a year costs 1,188 in the same currency, payable upfront. A plan priced at 129 with monthly billing may allow a shorter commitment. Compare the cost for the same period, the payment timing and the commitment conditions.
Keep reading beyond the headline. Is the price per user? Is there a minimum number of users, an allowance, an add-on or a setup cost? Mark unpublished details as unknown. A visible question mark is easier to work with than a later discovery that we assumed a necessary extra was included.
Keep the price and its conditions together
For each plan relevant to your scenario, record:
- Product and plan name, a specific source link and check date.
- Amount, currency and whether tax inclusion is known.
- Billing unit, commitment period and payment timing.
- Allowances, required capabilities and separately priced extras.
- Offer conditions and the later price, when published.
If you add a currency conversion, retain the original price and specify the rate, source and date. Treat it as an estimate for comparison. Missing tax information should remain missing rather than quietly become a tax-exclusive price.
What about “contact sales”?
Record “quote required.” I suggest resisting the assumption that this must be the most expensive plan. The price might depend on scope, implementation or customer type. Until we investigate, these are questions to ask rather than findings to enter in the table.
You can record the information requested before a quote and decide what to clarify later. There is no need to invent a price range to fill the column.
So what should we charge?
Competitor research helps us understand market packages, how companies communicate value and how audiences differ. Setting our own price also requires costs, customer value and evidence of willingness to pay. A number on a competitor’s website does not tell us that our customer will agree to it.
Before opening another ten pricing pages, try building one comparison you can explain. Use the same customer and scenario, prices with their conditions and sources you can reopen. AI can help with that work, and your judgment remains necessary. Mikud.AI can organize these findings within your research, so your next spreadsheet tells us a little more than “They charge 99.”