Cross-Border EngineOne person, global business

Home / Blog

Free versus paid: where the line actually sits

What the free tier covers, what paid adds, who genuinely needs it, and three things to do before upgrading. No pitch, just the boundary so you can decide.

Two answers are common and both are useless: the free tier is worthless, or paid solves everything. This page only draws the boundary.

What free covers

A free account runs three live price checks per day and returns marketplace, price, currency, product link and update time, which is enough to build a price band.

Free also includes the built-in text to speech tool: up to 3,000 characters per run, split into as many as eight segments. That covers product voice-over and short video narration without another subscription.

In short, free answers two basic questions: what is this selling for right now, and how do I get a usable voice track.

What paid adds

Paid adds frequency and depth. Frequency: the standard tier allows 40 checks a day, enough to re-check a dozen products weekly. Depth: price history, trend and an extrapolated range instead of a single snapshot.

The tier above adds video generation with an on-camera presenter. That only pays off if you are actually producing short-form video.

Who genuinely needs to upgrade

Anyone re-checking more than ten products a week. Three checks a day sounds like 21 a week, but each check should cover several marketplaces, so the real SKU coverage sits under ten.

Anyone judging direction. A snapshot tells you the price now, not where it is heading.

Anyone sharing data with a team. One person checking alone fits the free tier; three people needing the same numbers do not.

Three things to do before upgrading

First, run the free tier for a full week and see whether three checks is actually tight, rather than assuming.

Second, write down your current process. If the process is already messy, a new tool makes it messier.

Third, estimate the time saved. If it is under two hours a week, the subscription is not the constraint.

Trial and refunds

Before paying, use the free tier to verify that the data is useful to you. Accurate data with a small quota beats inaccurate data with a large one.

Refund and cancellation terms are stated on the pricing page and applied as written, with no hidden conditions.

Common questions

Get the weekly sourcing brief

One email a week: real price comparisons, category verdicts, and how to use the tooling. No ads, unsubscribe anytime.

Keep reading