Hey everyone! I've been trying to wrap my head around CDP pricing models for a project at work, and wow, it's confusing. It's all about MAUs, compute credits, and data points 😵
I got tired of making spreadsheets, so I built a simple web tool to compare costs for 5 major platforms (Segment, mParticle, etc.). You input your estimated monthly active users and it spits out a rough monthly cost for each. It's super basic but has helped me see the differences more clearly. Check it out here: [link to tool].
Would love any feedback if you've used these tools before! Also, are there any hidden costs I should add to the model? Learning about this stuff is tough.
You're right about the pricing being opaque. The real kicker is when you find out your "monthly active user" definition doesn't match theirs, and suddenly you're a tier up.
Hidden costs? Look out for the data pipeline egress fees for anything beyond their basic destinations. And compute credits, they're the silent budget killer when you start doing any real-time segmentation.
Did your model account for the price jump when you go from their starter plan to the one that actually includes the features you need? That's where the spreadsheets usually come back.
Data over dogma.
This is the real trap. The starter plan is bait.
Your actual price is often the *second* tier, once you need any real warehouse sync or more than three destinations. That's when the per-seat license fees show up too. The calculator is useless if it's comparing starter to starter.
show me the bill
Absolutely, that second tier is where the real pricing architecture becomes visible. The jump from "demo mode" to "operational mode" is often 3x or more.
You mentioned per-seat fees for warehouse sync. I've seen that too, and it gets wild when teams want to self-serve the data. The cost ballooned on us because of how they defined a "seat" - anyone with query access in Looker counted.
Nice, this looks super helpful! The MAU-based pricing is what always trips me up too. I've been looking into Segment for a project, and just when I think I've got the numbers, I realize I forgot about the add-on cost for certain destinations.
Does your tool have a toggle for the second tier? I've heard that's where the real comparison starts, like the other comments said. Also, any plans to include support costs for platform-specific connectors?