Blogging tool pricing, with a dated price history
One page per tool. Every plan, what you actually pay on the first invoice, and every price reading we have taken since July 2026, kept on the page with its date.
Why this exists
A vendor pricing page shows one number: today’s. When it changes, nothing records that it changed, and the review posts that quote it are stale within weeks. We read these 16 pricing pages on a schedule, in US dollars, and we keep every reading. That log is the part you cannot get anywhere else, and it has already caught six price rises that were not announced anywhere.
What the log has caught so far
These are findings from our own dated readings, not from vendor announcements. None of these changes was announced on the pages where they happened.
- Six introductory hosting prices rose between 20 July and 4 September 2026 and not one renewal price moved. Bluehost and Hostinger each raised all three of their published introductory rates. Every renewal rate on both sites stayed exactly where it was.
- Bluehost’s ecommerce introductory price rose from $6.99 to $14.99 in 46 days while its renewal rate stayed at $21.99. The discount shrank by more than half. The page described it the same way before and after.
- Semrush quietly dropped 95 cents. The month-to-month SEO plan read $139.95 on 20 July 2026 and $139 on 29 August. The annual rate did not change.
- Divi’s Pro bundle moved $41 in six days, from $277 a year on 29 August 2026 to $236 on 4 September, with a percentage-off banner on the card both times.
- Six of the 16 advertise a monthly price you cannot buy by the month. Surfer, Bluehost, SiteGround, Hostinger, Kit and beehiiv all headline a monthly figure that is only available on an annual or multi-year prepayment. We call this an unbuyable month, and we counted nine of them across the 30 tools in our cost index.
Every tool we price-check
Entry price is the cheapest paid plan as the vendor advertises it. Paid on day one is what the first invoice actually comes to.
| Tool | Category | Entry price | Paid day one | Unbuyable month | First reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush | SEO software | $139/mo | $139 | No | 2026-07-20 |
| Ahrefs | SEO software | $129/mo | $129 | No | 2026-08-29 |
| Surfer SEO | SEO software | $49/mo billed yearly | $588 | Yes | 2026-07-20 |
| SE Ranking | SEO software | $129/mo | $129 | No | 2026-08-29 |
| Mangools | SEO software | $37.70/mo billed yearly | $452.40 | No | 2026-08-29 |
| Grammarly | Writing software | $12/mo billed yearly | $144 | No | 2026-07-20 |
| Jasper | AI writing | $59/mo per seat billed yearly | $708 | No | 2026-07-20 |
| Canva | Design software | US$180/yr | $180 | No | 2026-07-20 |
| Divi | WordPress | $89/yr | $89 | No | 2026-08-29 |
| WP Rocket | WordPress | $59.95/yr | $59.95 | No | 2026-09-03 |
| Bluehost | Hosting | $3.99/mo on a 36-month term | $143.64 | Yes | 2026-07-20 |
| SiteGround | Hosting | $2.99/mo on a 12-month term | $35.88 | Yes | 2026-07-20 |
| Hostinger | Hosting | $2.99/mo on a 48-month term | $143.52 | Yes | 2026-07-20 |
| Cloudways | Hosting | $14/mo | $14 | No | 2026-09-03 |
| Kit | $33/mo billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers | $39 | Yes | 2026-07-20 | |
| beehiiv | $43/mo billed yearly | $49 | Yes | 2026-09-03 |
What each tool’s affiliate programme pays
A site that recommends one of these tools can usually earn from the sale. This table shows what each vendor’s own public affiliate page offered a referring site on the day we read it. The commission is the vendor’s published rate, the cookie window is how long after a click a purchase still counts, and the payout threshold is how much a referrer must earn before the vendor pays out. Click a date to open the page we read.
| Tool | Commission | Cookie window | Payout threshold | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush | $100 to $450 a sale by product and sales tier, plus $10 a free trial. One-off | 120 days | Not published | 16 Oct 2026 |
| Ahrefs | No programme | None | None | 16 Oct 2026 |
| Surfer SEO | 75% to 125% of the first monthly payment, or 15% to 25% of the first yearly payment, by tier. One-off | 90 days | Not published | 16 Oct 2026 |
| SE Ranking | 30% of subscription sales. Duration not stated | 120 days | $50 | 16 Oct 2026 |
| Mangools | Up to 35%, lifetime recurring | 30 days | $150 | 16 Oct 2026 |
| Grammarly | $20 a Pro upgrade, plus $0.20 a free sign-up. One-off | 90 days | Not published | 16 Oct 2026 |
| Jasper | No open programme | None | None | 16 Oct 2026 |
| Canva | No open programme | None | None | 16 Oct 2026 |
| Divi | 50% of new purchases and all renewals | 30 days | $200 | 16 Oct 2026 |
| WP Rocket | 20% a sale | 30 days | Not published | 16 Oct 2026 |
| Bluehost | From $65 a qualified sale. One-off | 30 days | Not published | 16 Oct 2026 |
| SiteGround | $50 a sale at 1 to 5 sales a month, $75 at 6 to 10, up to $100 at 11 to 20. One-off | 60 days | No minimum | 16 Oct 2026 |
| Hostinger | 40% revenue share on first purchase. No commission on renewals or one-month plans | 30 days | $100 and 3 approved sales (PayPal) | 16 Oct 2026 |
| Cloudways | Up to $125 a sale by monthly volume, or $30 a sale plus 7% lifetime | 90 days | $250 (PayPal) | 16 Oct 2026 |
| Kit | 50% for 12 months, then 10% to 20% recurring at Bronze, Silver or Gold status | Not published | $5 | 16 Oct 2026 |
| beehiiv | 50% to 60% for 12 months, by tier | 60 days | Not published | 16 Oct 2026 |
What the 16 October 2026 reading shows:
- Three of the 16 run no open affiliate programme. Ahrefs says it does not have one, Canva says its Canvassador Program is closed for applications, and Jasper’s partner page says independent affiliates are not eligible.
- Five of the 13 open programmes keep paying after the first payment. Mangools, Elegant Themes, Kit, beehiiv and the Cloudways hybrid plan pay on renewals for a year or longer. Semrush, Surfer, Grammarly, Bluehost, SiteGround and Hostinger pay once. SE Ranking and WP Rocket do not say.
- Six of the 13 publish no payout threshold on their own pages. Where one is published it runs from $5 at Kit to $250 at Cloudways, and SiteGround says it has none.
- Cookie windows run from 30 days to 120 days. Semrush and SE Ranking allow 120 days. Mangools, Elegant Themes, WP Rocket, Bluehost and Hostinger allow 30. Kit does not publish one.
- Three vendors gave two different answers on the same day. SiteGround’s US page pays $50, $75 and up to $100 across its three sales tiers while its UK page shows £30, £50 and up to £65 for the same tiers. Hostinger’s FAQ says up to 40 percent and its programme page says at least 40 percent. Cloudways shows $100 a sale, up to $125 a sale and up to $350 on one page.
We read these terms on the same schedule as the prices and keep every reading. When a rate changes, the old one stays in our records with its date.
How these pages are maintained
The method. Every figure is read from the vendor’s own pricing page from a United States connection, so the currency is US dollars. Pages that render their prices in JavaScript are read in a browser, because a plain fetch of the Cloudways pricing page returns a figure three dollars below the one a buyer sees.
Readings are taken monthly and recorded whether or not anything moved. Nothing is copied from another review. Affiliate terms are read from each vendor’s own affiliate or partner page, never from a roundup, and are shown as published without currency conversion. Where our own earlier record disagrees with a fresh reading in a way we cannot resolve, both readings stay on the page and we say which one to use.
Questions about these pricing pages
Why keep a price history for software?
Because a pricing page only ever shows today. If a tool raises its introductory rate by a dollar and leaves its renewal rate alone, nothing on the vendor site records that, and no review notices. We read these pages on a schedule and keep every reading, so the change is visible.
How often are these prices checked?
Monthly. Each page carries the date of every reading we hold, including the readings where nothing changed, because a run of unchanged dates is itself information.
What currency are the prices in?
US dollars. We read from a United States connection every time. Several of these vendors price by country, so a British or European browser is shown different figures on the same page.
Why do you show what each tool pays affiliates?
Because most sites that recommend software earn a commission when you buy, and the size of that commission is rarely shown next to the recommendation. We read each vendor’s own affiliate page and list the commission, the cookie window and the payout threshold beside the price, with the date we read them, so you can weigh any recommendation against what the recommender stands to make. That includes ours.
What does paid on day one mean?
The amount that actually leaves your account on the first payment. A tool advertised at $49 a month on annual billing takes $588 on day one. We call a monthly price that cannot be bought by the month an unbuyable month, and 6 of the 16 tools here have one.
https://bloggingtitan.com/pricing/