Anticode Open builder

Build a SaaS pricing calculator that shows each customer their cost on every plan

When pricing depends on seats, usage or add-ons, a table of plans makes customers do maths before they'll talk to you. A SaaS pricing calculator lets them type their own numbers and see what each plan would cost, and which is cheapest. Anticode can build one to sit beside your pricing page. The hard part isn't the code: it's keeping its numbers identical to the prices you actually charge.

Updated · By the Anticode team

Model your pricing before you build

Write the pricing rules out as a short spec. If you can't, the calculator will expose the ambiguity to customers. For each plan you need:

  • Base fee per month and per year, and the annual discount if there is one.
  • Included allowance: seats, API calls, projects, storage, messages, whatever the unit is.
  • Overage: the rate per unit above the allowance, and whether it's tiered (each band at its own rate) or volume (the whole quantity at the band's rate). These give very different totals.
  • Limits: hard caps that force an upgrade, such as a plan that allows at most five seats.
  • Add-ons: optional extras with their own price.
  • Minimums and rounding: billed in blocks of 1,000 calls, for example.

Tiered versus volume pricing is where most calculators go wrong. Make the spec state which applies and include a worked example you've checked by hand.

What the calculator shows

Inputs come first: sliders or number fields for each usage unit, sized to real customer ranges, and a monthly or annual toggle. Results follow as one column per plan with the total, a breakdown of base, overage and add-ons, and a marker on the cheapest plan that fits. A plan whose limits the usage exceeds should be shown greyed with the reason ("Up to 5 seats") rather than hidden, so people understand why it isn't an option.

Plan buttons can lead to checkout. Anticode points buy buttons at a payment link from your own provider (Stripe Payment Links, PayPal, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Shopify or Whop), and there is one payment link per account, so every buy button opens the same checkout; for several plans, point it at a plan list or multi-product checkout at your provider. For custom or enterprise usage, a contact form in the app sends the visitor's numbers to you as an enquiry, by email and in your Anticode dashboard.

Keeping it in step with your real prices

A calculator that quotes last year's prices costs you trust and support time. Some ways to keep it honest:

  1. One source of numbers. Put plan prices and allowances in one clearly labelled table at the top of the app's data, not scattered through the logic. Changing a price becomes a change request ("Pro is now 49 a month") or a single edit.
  2. Owner-editable plans. Ask for the plans to come from a CMS collection with fields for name, base price and allowance. You then edit prices in the Anticode dashboard and the app reads them, read-only, without a rebuild.
  3. A dated note. "Prices as of October 2026, before tax" under the results.
  4. A check list. When you change pricing, check the calculator in the same release as the pricing page.

The plan prices and allowances can't be fetched from your billing system, because apps here have no network. Whatever the calculator shows comes from what you've entered in Anticode.

A request that works

"A usage based pricing calculator for our email API. Plans: Starter, Growth, Scale, with monthly base fees, included emails and graduated overage per 1,000 (tiered, not volume). Inputs: emails per month on a log slider from 1,000 to 5 million, and dedicated IP add-on. Monthly or annual toggle with two months free annually. Highlight the cheapest plan; plan buttons open our checkout page at our payment provider, which lists all three plans; Scale shows 'Talk to us' with a contact form. Plans come from a CMS collection so we can edit prices." Give the actual figures in your request; the model won't invent them.

See also the pricing page guide and the payment links feature.

Limits

  • No live billing data. It can't read a logged-in customer's actual usage or current plan.
  • No checkout inside the app. Payment happens on your provider's page via the link.
  • No quotes stored for the customer. A visitor's numbers stay in their browser unless they send the enquiry form.
  • No tax calculation. Show prices before tax and say so.

Questions people ask

Is a SaaS pricing calculator worth it for simple per-seat pricing?

Probably not. Seats times price is easy. Calculators earn their place with usage, tiers or several dimensions.

Can I see what visitors typed into the calculator?

Only if they send the contact form, which includes the figures you ask it to. Otherwise inputs stay in their browser; Anticode's analytics count page views, not inputs.

Can it apply a discount code?

It can show a discounted figure for a code you define in the app, but the actual discount must also be set up with your payment provider.