Costs and pricing
Part of How to budget for commerce reviews and UGC
Four commerce reviews cost lines and what each one covers
Breaks a commerce reviews budget into four cost lines, with illustrative annual ranges in pounds, UK platform licence bands and questions to ask a supplier.
What to take away
- A single UK storefront can run a review programme for roughly £2,700 to £13,900 a year once licence, metered collection, moderation and internal time are counted. Every range below is an illustrative planning band, not a quoted rate.
- Google prices review data by request on its Places API billing page, and the SKU tiers changed in March 2025, so any per-request figure needs a checked-on date.
- Published app tiers sit far below quote-only contractsJudge.me lists entry tiers, while Trustpilot, Feefo and Reviews.io price by contract.
- Location count drives the metered line more than the headline licence does.
- A cost guide is auditable only when every figure carries a source and the date it was read.
What a commerce reviews budget actually costs
Price four lines separately, because each one is charged on a different basis.
| Cost line | Illustrative annual range, one UK storefront | Charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Platform licence | £0 to £3,600 | Tier, seats, locations |
| Review collection | £300 to £2,500 | Requests, metered |
| Moderation and replies | £2,400 to £6,000 | Responding hours |
| Skills and reporting | £0 to £1,800 | Course fees or analyst time |
All figures are in pounds sterling and clearly labelled as illustrative ranges.
Collection is the only line that scales with request volume. It punishes a long list of locations and product pages, so start with the request count rather than the licence.
The fuller framework in Budget for commerce reviews costs and pricing without overspending builds these four lines into an England budget template. It also includes the internal time most supplier quotes leave out.
Which dated sources should back the figures
Google's Places API usage and billing page states how review data requests are charged and where volume thresholds apply. Google re-tiered those SKUs in March 2025, so write the date you read the page beside the figure.
LinkedIn's advertising pricing page explains auction bidding. That is why a user-generated content plan needs a low and a high figure instead of one number.
The CIM data and insights course listings list the fees for each course. Those fees put a dated price on the training route before you commit to hiring an analyst.
Give every source a checked-on note in the same format. A reviewer can then see which line moved and when.
Example: moving reporting in-house in a two-store shop
Example: a two-store retailer pays £4,800 a year for a licence and £900 for metered collection. It replaces a £9,000 agency retainer with £7,500 of internal analyst time. The annual total rises by about £1,200, and reporting stays in-house.
The point is not that the switch is cheaper. It is that the cost shape changes, and a dated model shows the change instead of hiding it.
UK review platform licence bands
How it prices
- Judge.me
- Published app tiers
- Reviews.io
- Published plans and quotes
- Trustpilot
- Quote only
- Feefo
- Quote only
Indicative band
- Judge.me
- Free tier plus a low monthly paid tier, under £20
- Reviews.io
- Low hundreds per month, single store
- Trustpilot
- Mid hundreds to four figures per month
- Feefo
- Mid hundreds upward, with a minimum term
These bands come from public listing pages and UK contract quotes. Treat them as planning anchors, then replace each one with a real quote.
The fee shapes behind them are set out in Five commerce reviews pricing models and what each one costs, which explains which models load cost onto your budget and which stay flat.
What to ask a supplier before you sign
Ask four questions before you compare two quotes.
- What is metered, and what is capped?
- Which features are charged per seat?
- Who owns the review content, and how is it exported?
- What reporting cadence is included in the fee?
Two suppliers can quote £4,000 and £7,000 for the same scope, and the gap usually sits in collection limits and reporting seats.
Seat fees are the most common surprise. A quote built for two report users will not cover a merchandising team of six.
Cadence is the quiet one. Monthly dashboards cost less to produce than weekly ones, and the difference shows up at every renewal.
Supplier questions before signing
- What is metered?
- What is capped?
- What is charged per seat?
- Who owns the review content?
- How can content be exported?
- What is the reporting cadence?
Leave yourself a written answer to each question. Verbal assurances do not survive a change of account manager.
Ownership and exit wording matter as much as the headline fee. Seven clauses to check in commerce reviews commercial contracts covers the clauses that decide what switching costs.
Common questions
What is the biggest line in a review budget?
Moderation and replies, because it is human time. Software can be forecast; responding to reviews scales with review volume.
Can I rely on a vendor's own rate card?
Only if it carries a date. Vendors change tiers, and Google's March 2025 SKU change is the clearest recent example.
How often should the figures be updated?
At least once a year, and whenever location count, channel mix or reporting cadence changes.
Do I need training to analyse review data?
Not always. Course fees from providers such as CIM give you a dated price for the training route before you commit to a hire.
