What this site is
Agency Toolbench compares the tools a freelancer or small agency needs to do client work: hosting for client sites, a CRM and funnel builder, SEO tools and payroll. Each guide compares two or three options on what you will actually pay, what the plan limits are, what support you get and what goes wrong.
How we research
Every guide follows the same steps:
- Read the vendor's own pages. Pricing, plan limits, terms of service, refund policy and partner pages. Not press releases or other review sites.
- Look for the catch. Add-on fees, usage charges, renewal prices, promo end dates and contract terms. These are what change your real monthly bill.
- Check public ratings on Trustpilot or Capterra, and link them so you can read the bad reviews yourself.
- Say what we couldn't confirm. If a page doesn't answer something, we write "check the vendor's site" instead of guessing.
- Re-check monthly, and log every change at the bottom of the guide.
What we don't do: we don't run speed or uptime tests, we don't claim to have used every tool, and we never invent reviews, results or testimonials.
Corrections
Prices and terms change often, and we make mistakes. If you spot one, email us with the page and the source. We fix it, date the fix, and note it in the guide's change log.
How we make money
Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you sign up through one, the vendor may pay us a commission, at no extra cost to you. Vendors cannot pay to be listed or to rank higher, and a commission does not change what a guide says about a tool's drawbacks.
Who runs it
I started Agency Toolbench because choosing tools for client work means reading a lot of small print: plan limits, add-ons, renewal prices and refund rules that are easy to miss. I do that reading and put it side by side, in plain language, with the sources linked.
I'm a researcher, not a lab. If something on this site doesn't match what you see on a vendor's page today, trust the vendor's page and let me know.