Pricing trends across 60 developer tool categories. See which categories have rising prices, free tier removals, and new deals.

Pricing Trends by Category

513 tracked pricing changes across 60 categories, by the rule at what counts as a change. Ranked by volatility.

Read the full State of Free Tiers Report — data-driven analysis of erosion patterns, category trends, and which vendors are still expanding.
Categories with pricing changes
AI / ML ↑ Prices rising 100 changes 96 neg 2 pos Databases ↑ Prices rising 38 changes 26 neg 12 pos Cloud Hosting ↑ Prices rising 30 changes 25 neg 4 pos Dev Utilities ↑ Prices rising 27 changes 20 neg 6 pos AI Coding ↑ Prices rising 26 changes 21 neg 4 pos Cloud IaaS ↑ Prices rising 23 changes 15 neg 5 pos Startup Perks ↑ Prices rising 19 changes 16 neg 3 pos Monitoring ↑ Prices rising 18 changes 14 neg 3 pos Analytics ↑ Prices rising 18 changes 10 neg 6 pos Storage ↑ Prices rising 14 changes 12 neg 1 pos Security ↑ Prices rising 14 changes 8 neg 5 pos Email ↑ Prices rising 13 changes 9 neg 2 pos Testing ↑ Prices rising 12 changes 11 neg Infrastructure ↑ Prices rising 11 changes 8 neg 3 pos Messaging ↑ Prices rising 11 changes 8 neg 1 pos Design ↑ Prices rising 10 changes 5 neg 3 pos API Gateway ↑ Prices rising 9 changes 8 neg 1 pos CI/CD ↑ Prices rising 8 changes 5 neg 3 pos Auth ↑ Prices rising 8 changes 7 neg 1 pos Project Management ↑ Prices rising 8 changes 8 neg API Development ↑ Prices rising 8 changes 7 neg 1 pos Forms ↑ Prices rising 6 changes 6 neg Communication ↑ Prices rising 6 changes 4 neg 1 pos Search ↑ Prices rising 5 changes 4 neg IDE & Code Editors ↑ Prices rising 5 changes 4 neg Web Scraping ↔ Stable 4 changes 2 neg 2 pos Payments ↔ Stable 4 changes 2 neg 2 pos Team Collaboration ↑ Prices rising 4 changes 2 neg 1 pos Maps/Geolocation ↑ Prices rising 4 changes 2 neg 1 pos Logging ↑ Prices rising 4 changes 4 neg Error Tracking ↑ Prices rising 4 changes 3 neg 1 pos Mobile Development ↑ Prices rising 4 changes 3 neg 1 pos Browser Automation ↔ Stable 4 changes 2 neg 2 pos Source Control ↑ Prices rising 3 changes 2 neg 1 pos Low-Code Platforms ↑ Prices rising 3 changes 3 neg Container Registry ↔ Stable 2 changes 1 neg 1 pos CDN ↑ Prices rising 2 changes 2 neg Video ↔ Stable 2 changes 1 neg 1 pos Workflow Automation ↑ Prices rising 2 changes 2 neg Feature Flags ↑ Prices rising 2 changes 2 neg Productivity & Notes ↑ Prices rising 2 changes 2 neg Headless CMS ↑ Prices rising 2 changes 2 neg Server Management ↔ Stable 2 changes 1 neg 1 pos DNS & Domain Management ↔ Stable 2 changes 1 neg 1 pos Tunneling & Networking ↑ Prices rising 2 changes 2 neg Cloud Storage ↑ Prices rising 1 change 1 neg Background Jobs ↓ Prices declining 1 change 1 pos Documentation ↑ Prices rising 1 change 1 neg Notebooks & Data Science ↑ Prices rising 1 change 1 neg Consumer Email ↑ Prices rising 1 change 1 neg Localization ↓ Prices declining 1 change 1 pos Secrets Management ↓ Prices declining 1 change 1 pos Education ↑ Prices rising 1 change 1 neg
Stable categories (no tracked changes)
Code Quality ↔ Stable 0 changes Communication & Messaging ↔ Stable 0 changes Design & Creative ↔ Stable 0 changes Diagramming ↔ Stable 0 changes Password Managers ↔ Stable 0 changes Status Pages ↔ Stable 0 changes VPN & Privacy ↔ Stable 0 changes