Calculate Fraud Detection Pricing With ShieldLabs' 5,000 Free Tier

Fraud detection vendors bill by identification, transaction, subscription tier or usage. Compare the included volume, overage unit and billing period before comparing headline prices. ShieldLabs includes 5,000 identifications once on Free, then monthly plans at $99, $399 and $999 for Starter, Growth and Scale. Annual billing has lower effective monthly prices.

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TL;DR:

• Compare the price with your actual scored-visit volume and the plan's included identifications, not just unique visitors.
• Check what happens above the included volume: additional billing, an upgrade requirement or a service pause vary by vendor.
• Overage charges often result from traffic spikes, real-time scoring requirements, or additional signals like data enrichment, increasing overall costs unexpectedly.
• Vendors that publish transparent, real-world projected bills based on your actual traffic enable more accurate budgeting before signing a contract.
• ShieldLabs publishes both monthly and annual prices; the lower annual effective monthly rate requires paying for the year.

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Common pricing models buyers will see

Fraud detection vendors typically price around one of three billing shapes, and the choice affects both predictability and unit cost as volume grows.

• Per-identification or per-query pricing charges for each visitor lookup or scoring event, which suits low-volume teams but can become expensive without volume discounts as traffic scales.
• Tiered subscription pricing bundles a fixed number of identifications into a monthly rate with overage charges beyond the cap, which tends to favor teams with steady, forecastable traffic.
• Usage or compute-based pricing bills by the hour for model training and hosting, a structure common among vendors offering custom machine learning models rather than a shared detection engine.
• Hybrid pricing layers add-ons such as data storage, premium signal enrichment, or dedicated infrastructure fees on top of a base rate.

The right model depends on measured volume and how the vendor handles traffic above a plan's included amount. Compare the same number of scored visits under each offer; do not assume that a higher tier adds better detection or that every vendor bills extra usage the same way.

Price the checks against the user actions you need to protect. The web-app fraud prevention strategy guide maps those actions across signup, login, benefits and checkout.

Primary cost drivers and where hidden fees come from

The headline per-unit rate rarely tells the whole story. Several variables push the final invoice higher than the advertised price suggests.

• Volume and traffic spikes: average monthly volume might fit comfortably in a tier, but burst traffic around promotions or seasonal peaks can trigger overage charges.
• Latency and real-time scoring: real-time decisioning requires more compute than batch processing, and vendors often price the two differently.
• Data retention and storage: keeping months of historical identification data for investigations or trend analysis adds ongoing storage fees.
• Premium signals and enrichment: deeper lookups such as anti-detect browser detection or device history enrichment are sometimes billed separately from the base identification fee.
• Support tiering and minimum commitments: onboarding assistance, SLAs, and annual minimums can add a meaningful fixed cost on top of usage.

Pro Tip: Ask any vendor for a 90-day projected bill built from your actual traffic pattern, not just their published rate card, so burst and overage behavior show up before you sign.

How to calculate your monthly cost with worked examples

Estimating a monthly bill starts with scored-visit volume, the billing period and any separate retention or signal charges a vendor applies.

1. Define your inputs. Count the visits or API calls the vendor would bill as identifications. A unique-visitor count is a different metric and can understate usage.
2. Run a concrete example. At 100,000 identifications a month, ShieldLabs Growth includes the volume within its 150,000 monthly allocation. Check another vendor's unit and allowance separately.
3. Model a high-volume month. ShieldLabs Scale includes 500,000 identifications a month. Above that, use the current pricing terms or a direct quote rather than assuming a compute-based contract.
4. Apply the ShieldLabs example. A team starts with 5,000 free identifications, one time, without a card. On monthly billing, Starter includes 25,000 identifications for $99, Growth includes 150,000 for $399, and Scale includes 500,000 for $999.
5. Run a sensitivity check. Model both average and peak months, including what the vendor does when the included volume is reached.

How to evaluate plans and choose the best pricing model

A structured evaluation prevents surprises after signup. Before committing to any plan, work through a short checklist with both your finance and engineering teams.

• Confirm how an "identification" is counted, since definitions vary between a unique visitor, a session, or every API call.
• Request a sample invoice or projected bill based on your actual traffic profile rather than relying on the published rate card alone.
• Ask about overage behavior, minimum commitments, and data egress fees, which rarely appear in the headline price.
• Confirm named signals and ready-made detections so your team can see why a visit or linked account was flagged.
• Decide between a short pilot and an annual contract based on how much budget predictability your organization needs versus how much flexibility you want while validating results.

Teams evaluating multiple vendors side by side often benefit from a structured comparison of fraud detection software options before narrowing down to a pricing model.

ShieldLabs: published pricing and product facts to test with real traffic

ShieldLabs prices by identifications, meaning scored visits, rather than seats. The Free plan includes 5,000 identifications one time without a card. Paid plans currently include the same product capabilities and differ by included monthly volume:

Plan	Monthly billing	Identifications included each month
Starter	$99/month	25,000
Growth	$399/month	150,000
Scale	$999/month	500,000

Annual billing lowers the effective monthly prices to $79, $319 and $799 respectively, billed for the year. Check the live pricing page for the current total and any usage above the included volume.

Every scored visit returns a Risk Score and named risk signals from 300+ device and network signals. ShieldLabs also detects Multi-accounting, Account sharing, Impossible travel and Account takeover as High-Risk Events. Compare those results with your own traffic before selecting a tier.

Comparison of pricing transparency and contract terms among providers

Fraud detection vendors vary widely in how openly they price their products. Some publish exact monthly rates and let a prospective buyer calculate an estimated bill before ever speaking to sales. Others require a discovery call to get any number at all, with final pricing negotiated case by case based on volume, contract length, and feature bundling.

That difference in transparency changes how buyers shop. A published rate card lets a technical team model costs against real traffic and compare vendors on equal footing within an afternoon. A quote-only model, by contrast, means the real comparison only happens after sales conversations with each finalist, which slows procurement and makes early-stage budgeting harder.

Contract terms follow a similar pattern. Some vendors offer month-to-month billing with no minimum commitment, which suits teams still validating whether detection spend is justified by the fraud losses it addresses. Others require annual contracts with minimum volume commitments, often in exchange for a lower effective per-unit rate. Annual commitments tend to make sense once a team has already validated results on a shorter engagement and wants predictable budgeting going forward.

Buyers comparing options should ask each vendor directly whether the published price is final or a starting point for negotiation, and whether overage, support, and onboarding are included or billed separately. The answer often matters more than the headline number itself.

Validate cost on your traffic

Use the 5,000 one-time Free identifications to estimate monthly volume and inspect the detections on real visits. Then compare that volume with Starter, Growth and Scale on the pricing page. A Free allocation does not reset each month, and a plan's monthly included volume is a separate number from its price.

Sources

• ShieldLabs pricing and plan allowances
• TransUnion: H2 2025 global fraud report
• Value Detection Rate paper

FAQ

How do you calculate a fraud detection rate?

Fraud detection rate is typically the share of actual fraudulent events correctly flagged out of all fraud attempts, but for cost decisions many practitioners prefer a monetary-outcome metric instead. The Value Detection Rate measures the dollar value of fraud captured relative to total fraudulent value, which aligns detection performance more directly to financial benefit than raw accuracy.

What is the best fraud detection tool for my budget?

The best fit depends on traffic volume and billing period. ShieldLabs publishes monthly prices of $99, $399 and $999, plus lower effective monthly rates on annual billing. Its Free plan includes 5,000 identifications, one time, so you can inspect detections and estimate volume before choosing a paid tier.

Is there a free option to test fraud detection pricing before buying?

Yes, several vendors offer free tiers or trials so buyers can validate real costs against real traffic before paying. ShieldLabs offers 5,000 free identifications, one time, without a card, so you can estimate paid volume before choosing a plan.

How do overage charges typically work in tiered pricing plans?

Plan behavior varies: a vendor may bill additional usage, require an upgrade or pause identification above the allowance. Check the current terms and model peak traffic before choosing a tier.

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