What we compare
Every price comes from the provider's own page; latest check Oct 30, 2026.
Shop or restaurant
Online seller
- Shipping 8 shipping platforms compared. Label prices, carriers and shipping software, by total cost.
- 3PL & fulfillment 24 3PLs compared. What 3PLs publish, their minimums, and what you only learn in a quote.
Tools: 3PL cost calculator
- Seller fees 10 selling platforms compared. What eBay, Etsy, Amazon, PayPal and your own store take from each sale.
Tools: eBay seller fees · Fees on Etsy · PayPal fees
Payroll
Trades or home service
- Field service software 19 job apps compared. Job management apps priced for your crew size, with card fees added in.
Tools: Cost calculator · Card fees by app
- AI receptionist 10 AI answering services compared. What each AI receptionist and answering service costs for the calls you get, per minute, call or caller.
- Leads for contractors 10 lead platforms compared. What lead platforms charge, who else gets the lead, and what a won job really costs.
Tools: Cost per job calculator
What we found
Trades or home service · job apps
$664 to $870 a month
Job app plus card fees for a 5-person crew billing $20,000 a month by card, at all 7 apps with full prices. The card rate moves the total more than the plan price.
See every appShop or restaurant · card fees
$503 to $679 a month
The same $20,000 month of card sales (500 payments) at 6 providers' published in-person rates, monthly fees included. PayPal POS is lowest.
Check your own rateOnline store · cost per order
$10.15 to $18.42 per $50 order
Platform cut, card fees and postage to sell and ship one $50 online order, before the product itself.
See every fee
How Honest Fees works
- Published prices only. Every rate and fee comes from the provider’s own site, with the date we checked it and a link to the source. No quotes from sales calls, no “starting at” numbers passed off as typical.
- The total cost, not just the headline rate. Monthly fees, hardware, contract terms, how long payouts take and what it costs to leave are part of what you pay, so they’re part of what we compare.
- Every option, paid or not. Some providers pay us a referral fee and some don’t. That never decides what we recommend. Read how we make money and our editorial policy.
Latest price checks
Checked every day. Last run November 1: we re-read 370 provider pages, and the prices still match on 361 of them. Latest price change we confirmed: October 28 (Houzz Pro). See every change
Last confirmed in full
- MoShipCo ↗ Fulfillment Oct 30
- Shippo ↗ Shipping Oct 29
- Dialzara ↗ AI receptionist Oct 27
- Goodcall ↗ AI receptionist Oct 27
- ServiceTitan ↗ Field service software Oct 26
Who checks the prices
Honest Fees is published by Ian Chang, founder of SyncSpark Solutions Inc., a web and search company that helps small businesses get found online and win more customers. Honest Fees is the same goal from the other side: helping owners see what they really pay before they choose.
Common questions
What does Honest Fees compare?
The running costs most small businesses never compare closely: card processing and POS, shipping, marketplace seller fees, 3PL fulfillment, field service software, payroll and contractor lead platforms. For each provider we show the published rates, monthly fees, contract terms and the costs that sit outside the headline rate, such as hardware, payout delays and cancellation fees.
Do you get paid by the providers you list?
Some of them. When you sign up through some of our links, the provider may pay us a referral fee. It costs you nothing extra and it never changes the prices we show or what we recommend. We also list providers that pay us nothing when they are the better fit. How it works is explained on our How we make money page.
Where do your prices come from?
From each provider's own website: their pricing pages, terms and fee schedules. Every page shows when it was last updated, and every price links to its source. If a provider doesn't publish a price, we say so instead of guessing.
How often are prices checked?
Every day an automated check re-reads each provider's pricing page and flags anything that changed. We confirm each change in a browser before we update a price, and re-check every page in full at least every three months. The most recent checks are listed on this page.