How is this technology ranking decided?

Mechanically. The 20 approved technology listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.

Is this list re-ordered for startups?

No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the startups framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.

How much does technology software cost?

Across the 20 technology tools listed here, paid plans start between $0.10 and $49 a month, with a median entry price of $10.50. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $240 a month (Auth0). 7 of 20 also publish a $0 plan.

What is the cheapest technology software?

3 of the 20 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Datadog has the lowest published entry price at $0.10 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.

Is there free technology software?

Yes, 7 of 20 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 3 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.

What features should technology software have?

Judging by what vendors put in their own published pricing tiers, the most frequently named capabilities in this category are advanced features (2 of 9 tools that publish plan detail), advanced permissions (2) and advanced security (2). Treat those as the category baseline. Anything named by only one vendor, such as access management or basic dashboards, is a differentiator rather than a standard, so it is worth deciding whether you need it before it narrows your shortlist to one.

How is technology software usually billed?

open-source (3), subscription (3), usage-based (2), freemium (1), counted across the 20 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 3 of 20 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.

What does technology software actually cover?

The 20 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are collaboration (5), security (3), automation (2), enterprise (2), identity (2). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under technology may overlap on very little.

How many pricing tiers do technology tools offer?

9 of 20 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3 tiers. 6 of 20 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.

How many technology tools are listed on Softwr?

20 approved technology listings appear on this page, including Aha!, Amplitude, Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/technology, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Technology · ranked shortlist

Best Technology software for Startups in 2026

20 approved technology listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.

Tools ranked: 20
Entry price range: $0.10-$49
Publish a $0 plan: 7 of 20

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.

Where the ratings come from

No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.

What the pool is

Approved technology listings, capped at 20 per page; 20 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the technology category page.

The ranking

Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.

#1
Aha!
Highest rated here
Roadmapping software for product builders
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $29 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $59 plus a tier sold by quote.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
4 tiers
Tags
roadmapping, product-management, strategy, Enterprise
Aha! breakdown Compare with Amplitude
#2
Amplitude
The digital analytics platform to understand your users
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $49 a month.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
4 tiers
Tags
analytics, product-analytics, user-behavior, data-platform
Amplitude breakdown Compare with Apache Hadoop
#3
A
Apache Hadoop
Open-source software for reliable, scalable, distributed computing
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
open-source
Apache Hadoop breakdown Compare with Apache Spark
#4
A
Apache Spark
A multi-language engine for data engineering, data science, and machine learning
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
open-source
Apache Spark breakdown Compare with Asana
#5
Asana
Manage your team's work, projects, & tasks online
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $10.99 a month, with no free plan.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
project-management, collaboration, workflow, task-tracking
Asana breakdown Compare with Attio
#6
Attio
The CRM built for the next generation of companies
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $29 a month, with no free plan.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $119 plus a tier sold by quote.
Billing
subscription
Published tiers
4 tiers
Tags
crm, sales, modern, flexible
Attio breakdown Compare with Auth0
#7
Auth0
Secure access for everyone
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $35 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $240.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
authentication, identity, developer-tools, security
Auth0 breakdown Compare with Checkmk
#8
Checkmk
Comprehensive IT monitoring, open and flexible
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
Checkmk breakdown Compare with ClickUp
#9
ClickUp
One app to replace them all
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $7 a month.
- 5 published tiers, topping out at $12 plus a tier sold by quote.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
5 tiers
Tags
project-management, productivity, collaboration, all-in-one
ClickUp breakdown Compare with CloudAMQP
#10
C
CloudAMQP
Managed RabbitMQ and LavinMQ clusters, hosted and fully managed
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
usage-based
CloudAMQP breakdown Compare with Coda
#11
Coda
The doc that brings it all together
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $10 a month, with no free plan.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
documents, No-Code, collaboration, automation
Coda breakdown Compare with Confluent Cloud
#12
C
Confluent Cloud
The data streaming platform built on Apache Kafka, delivered as a fully managed cloud service
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
Confluent Cloud breakdown Compare with Dashlane
#13
Dashlane
Password management made easy for businesses
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $4.99 a month, with no free plan.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
1 tier
Tags
security, password-management, vpn, identity
Dashlane breakdown Compare with Datadog
#14
Datadog
Modern monitoring & security
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $0.10 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $31.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
monitoring, observability, security, apm
Datadog breakdown Compare with Docker
#15
Docker
Accelerate how you build, share, and run applications
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $11 a month, with no free plan.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
containers, devops, microservices, deployment
Docker breakdown Compare with Dropbox
#16
Dropbox
Cloud storage and file synchronization service
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $9.99 a month.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
2 tiers
Tags
cloud storage, file sync, collaboration, backup
Dropbox breakdown Compare with Eclipse
#17
Eclipse
The Eclipse Foundation - home to a global community
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
java, ide, Open Source, development
Eclipse breakdown Compare with Envoy
#18
E
Envoy
An open source edge and service proxy, designed for cloud-native and AI-native applications
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
open-source
Envoy breakdown Compare with etcd
#19
E
etcd
A strongly consistent, distributed key-value store
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
usage-based
etcd breakdown Compare with Excalidraw
#20
Excalidraw
Virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn like diagrams
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $6 a month, with no free plan.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
1 tier
Tags
whiteboard, diagram, opensource, collaboration
Excalidraw breakdown

What technology software costs

Counted from the published pricing of the 20 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.

Cheapest paid plan: $0.10Datadog
Median entry price: $10.50across 12 priced
Dearest entry price: $49Amplitude
Publish a $0 plan: 7of 20

Paid technology plans in this set start anywhere from $0.10 a month for Datadog to $49 for Amplitude. The median entry price across the 12 tools that publish one is $10.50, half of them start below that figure and half above it.

Entry price is not the ceiling. The dearest published tier anywhere in this category is Auth0's at $240 a month, 4.9× the highest entry price on the page. Read the top of each ladder as well as the bottom, because that is where you land after two years of growth.

7 of 20 publish a $0 plan, and 3 of those charge nothing at all. 8 tools have no free tier of any kind.

3 of 20 keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote, which in practice means the number you end up paying at the top end is not on this page or on theirs.

Datadog pricing Amplitude pricing Auth0 plans

How these vendors bill

The billing model each of the 20 technology listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.

open-source: 3
subscription: 3
usage-based: 2
freemium: 1

Separately, 3 of 20 publish at least one tier with no price attached. Those are sold by quote, so the top of the ladder is negotiable, and unknowable, until you talk to sales.

What comes as standard, and what you pay extra for

Every capability named in a published pricing tier by any of the 9 technology tools here that break their plans down, counted once per vendor. This measures what vendors choose to advertise as a selling point, not everything the software does, an absence below is silence, not a missing feature.

Named most often

Advanced features , 2 of 9
Advanced permissions , 2 of 9
Advanced security , 2 of 9
API access , 2 of 9
Custom branding , 2 of 9

Named by fewer

Premium support , 2 of 9
Priority support , 2 of 9

Named by exactly one vendor: Access management, Basic dashboards, Custom integrations, File sync, Real-time streaming, Strategy setting. Those are differentiators rather than table stakes.

What “Technology” covers in practice

The subject tags that recur across these 20 listings, with the number of tools carrying each. A category label is a filing decision; this is the closer read of what is actually filed under it.

collaboration5
security3
automation2
Enterprise2
identity2
productivity2
project-management2
workflow2

Carried by a single tool: all-in-one, backup, deployment, documents, java, observability, product-management, task-tracking. If one of those is the reason you are here, the category page is the wrong lens, go straight to that product.

How to choose between them

Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.

Start with the free tiers if there are enough of them

7 of 20 technology tools here publish a $0 plan, which is enough to run a real trial without a purchase order. A free tier is worth more than a free trial when you are evaluating: a trial expires on the vendor's schedule, a free plan expires when you outgrow it. The thing to check before you commit is which of the capabilities below sit above the free line, starting with advanced features, the single most frequently named capability in this category's published tiers.

Read the spread before you read the features

$0.10 to $49 is a $48.90 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $49 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.

Check which tier you actually land on

6 of 20 tools here publish three or more tiers, and the median vendor in this category ships 3 of them. The advertised price is the first rung, and the things teams tend to need, advanced features, advanced permissions, advanced security, are named in higher plans far more often than in entry ones. Price your shortlist at the tier that contains what you need, not at the tier on the pricing page's left edge.

The billing model matters more than the headline number

This category splits across 4 billing models: open-source on 3 listings, subscription on 3, and 2 other arrangements across the rest. A per-user price and a flat subscription at the same headline figure are not the same purchase, the first one grows with headcount and the second does not. Multiply by your real team size before you compare two numbers side by side.

Compare technology tools directly

Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.

Go straight to the numbers

Build your own comparison See the shortlist instead

Questions people ask about technology software

Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.

How is this technology ranking decided?: Mechanically. The 20 approved technology listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
Is this list re-ordered for startups?: No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the startups framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.
How much does technology software cost?: Across the 20 technology tools listed here, paid plans start between $0.10 and $49 a month, with a median entry price of $10.50. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $240 a month (Auth0). 7 of 20 also publish a $0 plan.
What is the cheapest technology software?: 3 of the 20 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Datadog has the lowest published entry price at $0.10 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
Is there free technology software?: Yes, 7 of 20 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 3 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.
What features should technology software have?: Judging by what vendors put in their own published pricing tiers, the most frequently named capabilities in this category are advanced features (2 of 9 tools that publish plan detail), advanced permissions (2) and advanced security (2). Treat those as the category baseline. Anything named by only one vendor, such as access management or basic dashboards, is a differentiator rather than a standard, so it is worth deciding whether you need it before it narrows your shortlist to one.
How is technology software usually billed?: open-source (3), subscription (3), usage-based (2), freemium (1), counted across the 20 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 3 of 20 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.
What does technology software actually cover?: The 20 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are collaboration (5), security (3), automation (2), enterprise (2), identity (2). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under technology may overlap on very little.
How many pricing tiers do technology tools offer?: 9 of 20 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3 tiers. 6 of 20 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.
How many technology tools are listed on Softwr?: 20 approved technology listings appear on this page, including Aha!, Amplitude, Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/technology, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Keep reading

Neighbouring categories

Adjacent in the same taxonomy, not a ranking.

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Where the ratings come from

What the pool is

The ranking

Aha!

Amplitude

Apache Hadoop

Apache Spark

Asana

Attio

Auth0

Checkmk

ClickUp

CloudAMQP

Coda

Confluent Cloud

Dashlane

Datadog

Docker

Dropbox

Eclipse

Envoy

etcd

Excalidraw