How We Compare Platforms

Most pricing comparisons copy the number off a pricing page and stop. We do the arithmetic instead. This page explains exactly how, so you can check our work.

What we do

1. We use primary sources as a rule. Every price, fee and limit on this site comes from the vendor’s own published pricing page, terms of service, or help documentation whenever possible. We do not cite other comparison sites. Where we could not verify something directly, we say so in the article and in the relevant table.

We normally verify provider pricing in a rendered page, not from static HTML alone. JavaScript-rendered tabs, sliders and billing-period toggles can mix values or expose the wrong billing period when they are read statically, so the rendered state is the one we record when the source is marked “rendered browser.” A missing method is not treated as rendered confirmation.

Some sources cannot be reached reliably from this site’s location, or do not render reliably there. For those specific sources, the operator performs the check directly using the available provider material. Some Stripe and Patreon checks use this route; in this dataset, it also covers the Circle monthly-billing availability and the Podia transaction-fee separation confirmed on 2026-08-26. The data marks that route as “operator manual verification”; it is separate from an automated rendered-page check. The source list shows the method alongside each source that carries this explicit manual-verification record.

There is a third route: “static web retrieval.” This means that the public page or help document was fetched directly and its static response was checked, without claiming that the post-rendered page or its interactive controls were inspected. The boundary-result sources and trial-card evidence added or updated in the limits research on 2026-08-31 use this route. Their source records show “static web retrieval” so readers can distinguish them from rendered-browser and operator-manual checks. An omitted route in these boundary evidence records fails validation; it never silently becomes rendered confirmation.

Some records combine those static attributes with a user’s screen confirmation. They are marked “static web retrieval + user screen confirmation.” This means the static billing data was checked and the user selected the named billing state in the provider’s pricing screen; it is a distinct route from “rendered browser” and does not upgrade other records from the same page. In this cohort, only Passion.io’s three monthly plan-price records use that combined route; its annual price records and other evidence remain static retrieval.

The single Teachable Help Center page recorded in the official-source-conflict article uses a separate route, “user screen confirmation + PDF text-layer extraction.” The user confirmed the page on screen, and the quoted wording was confirmed by extracting the PDF’s text layer. This route does not claim Codex static retrieval or rendered-browser inspection of that page, and it applies only to that one Help Center record.

As of 2026-08-25, Stripe’s US pricing page is not reachable from this site’s location: the US routes and country-selector links redirect to the Japanese pricing page, the country-picker button does not open a dialog, and Stripe’s documentation is fixed to Japanese. The final direct verification date for Stripe’s US rates therefore remains 2026-08-21. The numeric support remains available in Circle’s public paywall transaction-fees document, which gives a vendor-side example that itemizes the Stripe Payments and Stripe Billing components verbatim.

2. We calculate the total cost, not the sticker price. For any platform that takes a cut of your revenue, the subscription is usually the smaller expense. Every cost figure we publish includes:

• the monthly subscription
• the platform’s transaction fee
• card processing, modelled at 2.9% + $0.30

3. We check whether a fee is all-in or stacked. This is the single most misreported detail in this category. Some platforms quote a rate that already includes card processing. Others quote their own cut and charge processing separately. a 2.0% stacked platform fee plus Stripe costs more than a 2.9% all-in fee in the scenarios we model. We state which is which, every time.

4. We model subscription surcharges separately.

5. We state our assumptions. Unless an article says otherwise, our scenarios assume members are billed $50/member/month, one transaction per member per month. Different price points and billing frequencies change the result, and we show how.

6. We date every figure. Each article carries a “last verified” date. Prices change without notice and most comparison content on the web is one to two years stale.

The three dates shown below an article title have separate meanings. Published is when the article was first published. Updated is the last substantive editorial change to the article. Pricing verified is the most recent date covered pricing evidence was checked; a source check does not by itself make the article newly updated.

When a later operator-manual check confirms an existing claim without changing its value or scope, that confirmation remains attached to the source record; it does not silently rewrite the article. A changed claim or calculation requires the article to be updated as well.

7. We re-verify quarterly where the source remains reachable. Every accessible source is rechecked at least every three months. When a vendor changes terms, we update the article and note what changed.

A narrow documentation exception

This site also records a limited set of non-price conditions when a provider states them in official pricing, help, developer, or migration documentation. The record keeps the provider’s object and conditions attached, and shows the source URL, checked date, and verification method. “Not recorded” means the reviewed material did not answer that question at the same scope; it is not evidence that the provider does not support it.

This exception does not turn the site into a feature-review or product-ranking site. Quality, ease of use, completeness, support performance, migration success, data loss, and recommendations remain outside the scope. We do not test a capability that the provider has not documented, and we do not convert different provider terms into a universal score.

Billing-period and certainty rules

Every comparison uses the same billing period for every platform. The standard basis is annual billing: Circle publishes its plan prices on an annual-billing basis only, while Mighty Networks and Podia show annual billing by default. Circle’s monthly-billing availability is explicitly recorded as “not offered” after three checks of its plan tabs; this is different from a monthly price that has simply not been recorded. We do not mix a monthly figure from one platform with an annual figure from another or fill a missing value with an estimate.

We distinguish confirmed charges from inferred charges. The Stripe Billing surcharge is confirmed for Circle only. For Mighty Networks, Podia and Heartbeat, it remains an inferred range. Each article discloses the evidence stage behind an inference: the account type, whether Subscription is used, who bears the fee, and the published rate.

The comparison is deliberately narrow. Patreon is excluded from numerical comparison because its rate could not be directly verified. Circle Plus and Mighty Pro are excluded because their plan prices are not publicly disclosed. Feature quality, ease of use, cancellation rates, support performance, and product rankings are outside the scope; the documentation exception above records only provider-stated conditions.

What we do not do

We do not claim hands-on experience we do not have. This is an editorial research site. When we compare platforms, we are comparing published terms, documentation and feature lists — not reporting on months of personal use. If an article ever describes first-hand testing, it will say so explicitly and describe the conditions.

We do not accept payment for placement or ranking. No vendor pays to appear here, to rank higher, or to have criticism removed. No vendor reviews our articles before publication.

We do not hide inconvenient findings. We earn affiliate commissions from some of the platforms we cover. Where a platform we do not earn from is cheaper or better for a given use case, we say so plainly. You can verify this by reading the three-platform cost comparison, including its source links and arithmetic.

We do not fabricate statistics. Every number is either calculated from published pricing (and you can reproduce it) or cited to its source. Vendor marketing claims are labelled as vendor claims.

How we make money

We use affiliate links. If you sign up for a platform through one of our links, we may receive a commission from the vendor at no additional cost to you.

This creates an obvious conflict of interest, and the only honest way to handle it is transparency plus verifiable arithmetic. Every cost figure on this site can be recalculated from the vendor’s own pricing page in about two minutes. If our maths is wrong, you can catch us.

Corrections

If you find an error — a stale price, a miscalculation, a mischaracterised feature — email us and we will fix it and note the correction. We would rather be corrected than be wrong.