How we compare and price software
Draft, not indexed. The stage scenarios and scoring weights below are proposals awaiting owner sign-off.
The software pages on Adlega answer one question a vendor pricing page cannot: what does this tool cost your SaaS company, in burn, runway and gross margin, at your stage. This page explains where every number comes from and how picks are made.
1. Prices: read on the vendor's own page, dated
- Every price is read on the vendor's own pricing page, checked in both the raw page source and the rendered page (prices often sit behind a monthly/yearly toggle), and cross-checked against the vendor's FAQ, help docs or checkout where they exist.
- Every price table shows the source link and the date it was verified. When two vendor sources disagree, the page says so instead of silently picking one.
- For vendors that do not publish prices, the page says "quote-based". Any number shown for them comes from a named third party (for example Vendr purchase data) and is labelled "reported by" that source, with the date.
- Prices are stored once, in a structured file per vendor, and every table and cost model on the site is generated from that file, so two pages cannot disagree.
2. Keeping prices current
- An automated check renders each tracked pricing page and flags any change to the recorded prices. A flagged change is reviewed by a person and the page is updated or corrected.
- Every vendor is also re-checked by hand each quarter for promotions, trial terms, add-ons and renamed plans that an automated check can miss.
- Rate-type numbers (interest yields, FX fees) change often; we link to the vendor's live figure with an "as of" date rather than printing a stale one.
- Every price change and every correction is logged publicly on the price changes and corrections page.
3. Founder cost models: three stage scenarios
Each tool is costed at three illustrative SaaS companies. The scenarios are deliberately simple so the arithmetic can be checked by hand; the linked calculators let you replace them with your own numbers.
| Scenario | Team | MRR | Monthly burn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-seed | 3 people | $10,000 | $40,000 |
| Seed | 12 people | $50,000 | $150,000 |
| Series A | 40 people | $250,000 | $600,000 |
For each scenario we show the monthly and annual cost, the cost as a share of monthly burn, and the runway it consumes over a year. Tools that sit in cost of goods sold (billing, payment processing, merchant of record) are also shown in gross-margin points, because that is where they hit a SaaS P&L.
4. How "best for" picks are made
We never name a single "best" tool. Picks are "best for" a stated kind of company, scored on published criteria:
| Criterion | Weight | What we look at |
|---|---|---|
| Cost at the stated stage | 35% | Total cost in the scenario above, including add-ons and minimums |
| Fit for a SaaS company | 25% | Recurring-revenue workflows, the integrations a SaaS stack needs, entity and currency support |
| Self-serve and time to value | 15% | Can a founder sign up, try and pay without a sales call |
| Pricing transparency | 15% | Published prices, clear units, no surprise minimums |
| Vendor stability | 10% | Acquisitions, shutdowns, price changes in the last two years |
Commissions and sponsorships never change a score, a pick, an order or a price. See the editorial policy.
5. What "tested" means
A page says a product was tested only when we created an account and used the plan named on the page. Screenshots on those pages are ours and dated. Where a product is sales-gated or needs a bank-grade identity check we could not complete, the page says "Not hands-on tested", gives the reason, and states that the prices come from the vendor's published pages on the date shown.
6. Adlega is our product
Adlega makes financial forecasting software. On pages that compare forecasting and FP&A tools, Adlega is one of the products compared. Those pages say so at the top, state the criteria, include a paragraph on where Adlega is weaker, and place Adlega by fit, never first by default.
7. AI assistance
Drafts are written with AI assistance. Every price, figure and factual claim is verified by a person against the vendor's page or the cited source on the date stated, and every calculation is re-derived before publishing.
8. Corrections
If you find a wrong price or claim, email [email protected]. Material corrections are made on the page and logged with the date on the price changes and corrections page.