Costs & Contracts
Part of Marketing technology costs and contracts
Comparing contact-based, seat-based and usage-based pricing
Compare the billable units, limits and change rules behind contact, seat and usage pricing for marketing tools.
Compare contact-based, seat-based and usage-based pricing by the event that raises the bill, how the supplier measures it and what can change the charge later. One marketing product may combine contacts, seats and metered usage in the same order.
| Model | Forecasting input | Decision question |
|---|---|---|
| Contact-based | Billable records or a selected tier | Which statuses count, and is a peak or scheduled count used? |
| Seat-based | People needing each paid access level | Can purchased capacity be reduced during the term? |
| Usage-based | Credits, sends or other metered actions | What consumes a unit, and what happens at the allowance or cap? |
Use the proposed edition and order to check each unit. All stored records, all employees and all campaigns are unlikely to equal a billable unit without checking its definition.
Contact-based: count the right records
On a paid monthly Mailchimp plan, you choose how many contacts to store; that limit determines the pricing tier and monthly send limit. Archived and cleaned contacts do not count towards the contact limit.
Mailchimp calculates the monthly bill using the peak contact total during the billing period, so a temporary import can matter even if records are later archived. Legacy pricing differs, so check the account’s plan.
HubSpot Marketing Hub distinguishes marketing from non-marketing contacts for applicable subscriptions. Marketing contacts count towards the tier; non-marketing contacts are not billed.
Exceeding a marketing-contact tier by even one contact can trigger an automatic upgrade, and the higher tier remains billed until renewal even if the count later falls. A change from marketing to non-marketing status takes effect on an update date: monthly subscriptions use their renewal date, while yearly subscriptions use the first day of each month.
Forecast the contacts the team intends to market to, then check which statuses count and how the tier changes during the term.
Key Pricing Rules Across Platforms
- Mailchimp Contact Limit
- Peak contacts in billing period; archived/cleaned contacts not counted
- HubSpot Marketing Contacts
- Only marketing contacts billed; non-marketing contacts excluded
- HubSpot Tier Upgrade Rule
- Exceeding tier by one contact triggers upgrade; remains until renewal
Seat-based: map paid access to work
List who needs to edit, administer or only view information, including agency users. HubSpot distinguishes Core from View-Only Seats; View-Only Seats let users view data without making changes.
HubSpot’s current seat guidance says seats must be unassigned before removal, cannot be reduced below the subscription’s minimum commitment, and removing seats does not change the current invoice. Seats-based pricing applies to new accounts and subscriptions created after 5 March 2024; some earlier accounts that have not migrated use a legacy model.
Ask how additional seats are billed and when a scheduled removal changes charges. Deleting an inactive user is not the same as cancelling a purchased entitlement.
Seat-Based Access Levels in HubSpot
- Core SeatsFull access to edit, administer, and manage data
- View-Only SeatsRead-only access; no changes permitted
Usage-based: model the action
Mailchimp’s Pay As You Go plan lets you buy email credits as you send. Check which sending actions consume credits, how credit use is counted and whether any allowance or cap applies.
Mailchimp’s paid monthly plans also have send limits. If the contact or send limit is exceeded, Mailchimp charges for add-on contact blocks; multiple blocks may apply, and their size and price depend on the plan and pricing tier. On Standard, the send limit is 12 times the contact limit, and a 1,000-contact add-on block includes 12,000 additional sends.
Twilio’s Usage Records API reports account activity by period and usage category. Records include a count and unit—for example, calls or SMS messages—and can include the total price and currency.
Twilio usage triggers can notify an application when a category reaches a daily, monthly, yearly or all-time threshold, helping identify a usage cap or runaway requests. Ask whether reaching a threshold triggers an alert, a hard cap or a chargeable overage.
How Mailchimp’s Pay As You Go Plan Works
- Purchase Email CreditsBuy credits as needed for sending emails
- Send EmailsEach send consumes one credit (subject to plan rules)
- Monitor UsageCheck credit balance before sending at scale
- Replenish or UpgradeTop up credits or switch to a paid plan if needed
Compare exposure and control
Use the same commitment period and required workload for each proposal. Check an ordinary case, a peak case and a sustained increase, then record which controls are available and when they affect billing.
A low-use month may not reverse a contact-tier upgrade or a seat commitment. Choose a model whose billable unit the team can forecast and manage while completing the required work; no model is inherently cheapest.
