RealCostLabs is an independent testing lab for marketing software. We price every tool at realistic usage — real list sizes, real seat counts, renewal prices instead of first-year teasers — and score each one on a fixed formula, regardless of affiliate commissions.
The lab covers email marketing platforms, CRMs, SEO software and all-in-one marketing suites: 20+ tools tested, each with a full review, a true-cost breakdown and a Lab Score out of 10. Category guides rank the tools side by side so you can see what a working setup actually costs per month before you commit. A Real Cost calculator estimates your bill at your subscriber count, seat count or plan tier.
The Lab Score weights five factors: value at scale (30%), quality (20%), feature depth (20%), ease of use (15%) and support (15%), adapted per category. Prices are read directly from vendor pricing pages and marked with their verification date. Rankings are never sold — the site earns affiliate commissions on some links, but scores and positions are set by the formula alone.
RealCostLabs is written for small businesses, marketers and founders who are tired of finding the real price on the invoice instead of the pricing page. Everything is free to read, with no paywall and no account required. Popular starting points include the CRM cost guide, the email marketing rankings and head-to-head comparisons like Semrush vs SE Ranking.
Under the hood the site runs on WordPress with a custom scoring pipeline. Pricing data is refreshed against official vendor pages, and every review states when its numbers were last verified. When a vendor changes its tiers, the affected reviews and the calculator are updated together so comparisons stay consistent across the whole lab.
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