How much does a CRO audit cost?
There is no single market rate, because CRO audits are sold in four different shapes — agency projects, freelance day rates, software subscriptions, and your own team's time. The right question is not what an audit costs but which model is cheapest for the number of pages you actually need reviewed, and how often.
The four ways a CRO audit is priced
Almost every quote you receive will fall into one of four models. They are not interchangeable — each is priced around a different constraint, which is why the same work can look wildly different in cost depending on who you ask.
| Model | Priced by | Cheapest when |
|---|---|---|
| Agency project | Scope and seniority | You need strategy and execution, not just findings |
| Freelance consultant | Day rate | One deep review of a small number of pages |
| Software subscription | Volume of audits | You need many pages reviewed, repeatedly |
| In-house team time | Opportunity cost | You already have the expertise and the hours |
Why we are not quoting you a market rate
Published figures for agency audits vary by an order of magnitude depending on scope, region and seniority, and any range printed on a page like this is a guess dressed as research. Plenty of sites publish one anyway. It is worth treating those numbers with the same suspicion you would apply to any statistic without a stated methodology.
What is knowable is the shape of each model and what moves the number inside it. Our own pricing is on the pricing page rather than restated here, for the same reason: it is set live and anything written into this page would be frozen the moment it shipped.
What actually drives the cost
Four variables account for most of the difference between quotes, and only one of them is about the auditor.
- Number of page templates, not pages. Most sites have three or four patterns; auditing fifty product pages individually costs more and tells you almost nothing extra.
- Depth of evidence. A review against a rubric is cheap. Adding session recordings, user testing or an experiment programme is where costs multiply, because those need participants and time.
- Whether execution is included. Findings are a fraction of the cost of implementing them. Many agency quotes bundle both, which makes them look expensive next to a diagnosis-only price.
- Frequency. A one-off audit is a snapshot; the value comes from re-running it after changes. Anything priced per audit gets expensive the moment auditing becomes a habit rather than an event.
Working out your real cost per page
Divide the total by the number of page templates you genuinely need reviewed, then multiply by how many times a year you will want to repeat it. That single calculation reorders most quotes, because fixed-fee models look attractive on the first audit and poor on the fourth.
Add your own time honestly. A cheap audit that produces a hundred undifferentiated findings costs a week of someone senior deciding what to ignore, and that week is rarely counted in the comparison.
When the cheapest option is the wrong one
If you do not yet know which page is losing you money, the cheapest broad diagnosis is the right first purchase — a deep audit of the wrong page is the most expensive mistake available here.
If you already know the page and the problem, a deep review or an experiment is worth more than another list of findings. And if you need someone to make the changes rather than name them, a diagnosis-only product of any price is the wrong purchase, however cheap it looks.
What we charge
Our audits are priced by volume: a subscription that includes a number of audits per month, with a free scan available so you can judge the output before paying anything. Current plans and prices are on the pricing page.
The honest framing is that this model is cheapest when you have several page templates and intend to re-audit them. If you need one deep review of a single page, a consultant will serve you better, and it is worth saying so rather than pretending one model wins everywhere.
Internal links
Related audit paths
FAQ
Questions teams ask before they audit
How much does a CRO audit cost?
It depends entirely on the model. Agency projects are priced by scope and seniority, consultants by day rate, software by volume of audits, and in-house work by your own time. The useful comparison is cost per page template per year, not a headline figure.
Is a free CRO audit worth anything?
A free automated pass is useful for triage — deciding which page deserves a closer look. It is not a substitute for a deep review of a page you already know is underperforming. Judge a free audit by whether its findings are specific enough to act on, not by its length.
Why do agency quotes vary so much?
Mostly because of what is bundled. A quote that includes implementation, user research or an experiment programme is not comparable to one that delivers findings. Ask what is included before comparing two numbers.
Is a CRO audit cheaper than a redesign?
Substantially, and that is the main argument for running one first. An audit scopes a redesign to the elements that are actually costing conversions, rather than rebuilding pages that were working.
How often should I pay for an audit?
Re-audit after any significant change to a high-intent page, and otherwise on a regular cycle if you ship frequently. This is the variable most cost comparisons miss: per-audit pricing looks cheap once and expensive as a habit.
Do I need an audit or an A/B test?
An audit tells you what is likely wrong; a test tells you whether a specific change fixed it. Testing without a diagnosis means guessing at variants, and diagnosing without testing means never confirming you were right. Most teams need the audit first because it is cheaper and narrows what is worth testing.