Reviewed by Christine James, Editor
- Companies tracked
- 224
- Anonymous bills
- 283
- Published reviews
- 260
- Listed alternatives
- 435
- Votes cast
- 57
- Published stories
- 15
Moderation record
What We Approved and Turned Down
Live counts, all time. Every item is checked by a person before it goes live.
| Type | Approved | Turned down | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 60 | 10 | 43 edited for grammar or punctuation only |
| Public posts | 228 | 131 | Hidden when the post is off-topic, unclear or a duplicate |
| Pricing-page checks | 64 | 33 | Rejected when the page was unreadable or the price didn't match |
| Alternative listings | 435 | 106 | Rejected when the site didn't load, was a duplicate or wasn't a real product |
Editorial standards
How We Decide What Goes Live
Who approves
Christine James reviews submissions before they go live. Nothing is published automatically.
What we edit
Grammar and punctuation only. The original text is kept. Ratings, prices and meaning are never changed.
How sources are checked
Every outside number links to where it came from: a vendor's own page, an announcement or the original post.
Report a mistake
Tell us on the contact page. If a number is wrong, we fix it and list the fix below.
Corrections
- Nov 2026Price Radar: rows mixing monthly and yearly prices were put on one monthly basis; a few suspect increases were removed.
- Nov 2026Price Radar: one price announcement covering several plans now counts as one change, not several.
- Nov 2026Layoffs tracker: job counts that repeated the percentage were removed from the download.
- Nov 2026Salesforce: the date of a Price Radar change was corrected to the vendor's announcement date.
- Nov 2026Directory: AI-native tools such as Vercel were moved from the company list to the alternatives side.
Trust
How We Earn Trust
As more software gets built with AI, the number of choices grows faster than anyone can check them. These are the rules we follow so you can rely on what you read here. Read our mission.
The team behind this record has spent two decades on the vendor side of software pricing, which is why every number shows its source and sample size.
- 1
Every listing is checked before it goes live.
A person reviews each submission and its website. Nothing is published automatically.
- 2
Every number shows where it came from.
Each figure carries its count or a source link. Estimates are labeled and stay in the calculators.
- 3
Company claims are kept apart from customer experience.
Posts by a company's own staff or its competitors never count as reviews. When we use a figure they state, we name who said it.
- 4
Votes can't be bought or stuffed.
No sign-in is needed, but repeat voting is limited, and no one pays for a higher spot.
- 5
No vendor or AI money.
HissingKitty takes no money from software vendors, AI companies or the builders listed here. Listings and rankings can't be bought.
- 6
We correct in public.
Anyone can ask for a fix or a removal through the Contact page.
The path
How a Number Gets on the Site
Step 1
Shared
A bill, review, listing or post comes in.
Step 2
Checked
A person approves it. Nothing goes live on its own.
Step 3
Live with its count
It shows right away, with how many it's based on.
Step 4
Everywhere at once
Company, category, home and research pages update.
Sources
Where Every Number Comes From
Anonymous bills
Buyers using the estimator or adding a price to a review, and bills teams state in public posts, approved by our reviewer.
Amounts outside a sensible range are ignored. Per-user list prices are not counted as bills. No name, email or company is stored with a bill.
Shown: Median yearly bill, lowest to highest, with the count.
Never: Who shared it, seats or cost per person.
Reviews
Teams who pay for the software, through the review form.
A person checks and approves every review.
Shown: Rating, review text, company size range.
Never: Your email. Your name unless you choose to show it.
Replacement reports
Reviewers who reported what replaced their software.
Email confirmed, then approved by a person.
Shown: What replaced it, what it costs and whether they'd do it again.
Never: The email. The name unless shown.
Public posts
Posts on X and other public sites, found by us or our nightly search.
A person opens the original post and approves it. Numbers only as the post states them.
Shown: The quote, author as posted, and a link to the original.
Never: Figures the post doesn't state.
Listings and votes
AI-native alternatives and Built for you companies, through the listing form or our nightly search.
A person approves every listing, and its site must load. Search finds are tagged.
Shown: Name, site, one line, optional price or build quote, vote score.
Never: The contact email.
Estimator answers
The Build vs. Buy estimator: how much of a tool a team uses and what bothers them.
Saved without name, email or company.
Shown: Usage and reasons teams leave, each with its count.
Never: Any single team's answers.
Stories
The team in writing, or published reporting we link to.
Every number tied to its source; our own math labeled. Live only with a recorded approval date.
Shown: The story, its sources, a summary on company pages.
Never: Numbers we can't source.
Published prices
The vendor's own pricing page.
We record the link and the month we checked.
Shown: Plan names and list prices, with source and date.
Never: A price without its source.
Counts
Every Number Shows What It's Based On
What teams pay
$48,000 /yr
Median of 3 teams
Example for illustration.
- 1
The number
A median, never an average a single big bill can skew.
- 2
Its count
Always beside it, from the first data point.
- 3
The range
Lowest to highest, so you see the spread.
Labels
Build It, Build Part of It or Keep Paying
From answers to "Would you do it again?" in each category.
A label needs 10 answers in a category. Below that it is marked as the editor's view. Every other number shows from the first.
Company pages
Why Teams Leave
Each approved review is matched against a fixed list of reasons, and each estimator answer adds the ones that team picked. One review can count toward more than one.
- Price grows with use
- Paying for what they don't use
- Slow and clunky
- Can't see what drives revenue
- Locked into a contract
- Hard to connect to other tools
- Wanted it built their way
- Missing features
- Needed feature costs a higher plan
How much teams use
From "How much of it does your team use?" The headline is the share using about half or less.
Cost to switch
Median starting price a month from AI-native listings that shared one.
Cost to build
Median typical quote from builders that shared one. Until then, build times from published stories.
Rankings
How Listings Are Ranked
- 142
An AI-native CRM
AI-native alternative
- 231
A custom build firm
Built for you
- 318
Another AI-native CRM
AI-native alternative
- Example for illustration.
Score = up minus down
Ties go to the newer listing.
No sign-in
One vote per browser and network. Changing it replaces it.
30 votes an hour
Per network, across all listings. Unusual voting is flagged.
No paid placement
Rank comes from votes only.
Privacy
What We Never Show
- Names, unless you show yours
- Emails (only the Spend Audit asks, and we never share them)
- Seat counts
- Cost per person
- Headcount
- Any single team's answers
- Any single renewal quote
- Network addresses
- Spreadsheets from the Spend Audit
Network addresses are stored only as a one-way code made with a private key. the Spend Audit reads spreadsheets in your browser; costs never reach us.
Estimates
Only in the Build vs. Buy estimator, and labeled there. It uses typical build costs per category, a 12% yearly renewal increase and your numbers.
Corrections and Removal
Tell us what's wrong and where on the contact page. Anyone who added something can ask us to remove it. Vendors can't pay for changes.
Common Questions
With so many new AI-built tools, how do I know which to trust?
Start with evidence, not the pitch. Every listing here was checked by a person, and every number shows its count or source. Look at what teams report paying, why they left and how votes rank each option, then ask who owns your data and who fixes it when it breaks.
Why do numbers show from the first data point?
Hiding a number until there are five hides real information. Every number shows its count instead, so you can judge how much weight to give it.
Can a vendor pay to change or remove something?
No. Vendors can't pay to change, rank or remove a report, review or listing. They can ask for a correction through the contact page like anyone else.
Are any numbers estimates?
Only in the Build vs. Buy estimator, and they are labeled there. Company, category and research pages show reported data only.
What happens to a spreadsheet I add to the Spend Audit?
It is read in your browser and never sent to us. The link you share carries tool names only, no costs.
How is the monthly research built?
From that month's data only. Each edition updates as data arrives and freezes at month end. Predictions are labeled as our view.