A public SaaS pricing comparison template
Capture the billing rules before comparing the price tags.
Start with one buying question: which offer meets this customer’s requirements at this workload? Keep advertised facts, calculations and interpretation separate.
Copy this evidence table
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Product and plan | Exact public name |
| Source and checked date | Direct URL and date checked |
| Billing basis | Monthly or annual; currency; contract minimum |
| Meter | What counts as a seat, event, contact or other unit |
| Included allowance | Amount, period and reset rules |
| Limits and overages | Published rate, tier behavior or “not disclosed” |
| Required features | Available, unavailable, higher tier or unclear |
| Scenario cost | Formula and inputs, including required upgrades |
| Open questions | Facts public material does not establish |
| Interpretation | A clearly labeled hypothesis to test |
A filled example
| Field | Seat Plan | Usage Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Billing basis | $20/seat; minimum three seats | $49 base |
| Meter | Licensed seats | Events per month |
| Allowance | No event charge in this exercise | 10,000 events |
| Overage | None in this exercise | $0.004 per extra event |
| Scenario total | $20 × 5 = $100/month | $49 + (40,000 × $0.004) = $209/month |
| Required features | Assumed equivalent for illustration | Assumed equivalent for illustration |
| Unknowns to resolve for real vendors | User definitions, limits, upgrade gates | Event definitions, rounding, upgrade gates |
Interpret the result carefully
The Seat Plan would cost less for this workload. That is a calculation under stated assumptions. It does not establish which offer customers prefer or which business would earn more.
Before sharing a real comparison, reopen every source, recalculate both scenarios and flag unresolved fields. “Not disclosed” is more useful than an invented answer. Our privacy analytics sample shows this approach with real public vendor sources and explicit limits.
More resources: Seat vs usage scenarios · Comparison template · Packaging checklist