The Essential pricing

TL;DR: The Essential does not publish a price list we can verify, which is normal for Consumer companies at this stage. Below: what we can confirm, how to get a real quote, and 8 comparable tools to benchmark the number against.

What is verifiable about The Essential pricing, how to get a real quote, and 8 comparable tools to price it against.

Company
The Essential
Category
Consumer
YC batch
Winter 2017
Status
Active
Team size
11
Public price list
Not published

Last verified:

Does The Essential publish its pricing?

Not in any source we can verify. The Essential is a Y Combinator-backed Consumer company from the Winter 2017 batch, and companies at this stage usually quote per customer rather than publish rate cards. We will not guess at a number — anything quoted elsewhere without a source is guesswork too. The company profile we work from is the Y Combinator listing; the current figure has to come from The Essential directly.

How to get an accurate The Essential quote

  1. Ask for pricing at your actual volume, not the headline tier — per-seat and usage pricing diverge fast.
  2. Ask what happens at renewal. Uplift caps matter more than the first-year discount.
  3. Get the onboarding, migration and support costs in writing separately.
  4. Ask for a month-to-month option. If it does not exist, that tells you about the annual price.
  5. Quote a competitor from the table below. It is the fastest way to a real number.

The Essential pricing compared to competitors

These are the closest comparable tools, matched on what The Essential actually does. Price each one alongside it — stage and team size are a reasonable proxy for where a vendor sits on price.

Compare againstWhat it doesStageTeam
Fractal Labs—YC Winter 20244
BrainTripping—YC Summer 20121
Mixed Media Labs—YC Winter 2010—
Grid—YC Summer 2012—
Vote.org—YC Summer 2016—
Craft CoffeeBetter coffee for less moneyYC Summer 2014—
RedbeanMake games and stories with AIYC Summer 20216
Biographicon—YC Summer 20072

Is The Essential worth the cost?

That depends on a number we cannot see, so judge it on what we can: The Essential is currently Active with a team of around 11. A small team means faster support and more negotiating room, but more risk of the product changing direction. A larger or public vendor costs more and moves slower. If price is the deciding factor, the earlier-batch companies in the table are usually the ones still competing on it.

See all The Essential alternatives compared →

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