The Data Stack Price Hike Index
How much cost and forced work data and BI vendors push onto customers each month, built from 58 source-linked changes. The index starts at 100 in January 2025 and moves with every tracked change.
166.5 today · base 100 = Jan 2025
Each block is one tracked change in its effective month, weighted by how much it pushes cost or forced work onto customers (price increase 3 · billing-model change, SKU retirement, end of support 2 · license, free-tier 1.5 · packaging, M&A 1 · price cut −2). Faded blocks haven’t taken effect yet. 5 rolling changes (dated by each customer’s own renewal) and 1 change after December 2027 aren’t plotted. List prices only.
Where the sticker price changed
Where the pressure lands pressure points by category and quarter
Outlined cell = this quarter. Price cuts aren’t subtracted here. Rolling (renewal-dated) changes aren’t placed in a quarter.
By change type
| Type | Weight | Changes | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| End of support | 2 | 23 | 46 |
| Price increase | 3 | 6 | 18 |
| Billing model change | 2 | 5 | 10 |
| Packaging change | 1 | 8 | 8 |
| SKU retirement | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| M&A | 1 | 8 | 8 |
| License change | 1.5 | 2 | 3 |
| Free tier change | 1.5 | 1 | 1.5 |
| Price cut | -2 | 1 | -2 |
Most pressure, by vendor
Method
Every change on VizCanary has an effective date (or is “rolling”, applying at each customer’s renewal), a vendor source and a verbatim quote. The index gives each change a weight for how much cost or forced work it creates: price increase 3; billing-model change, SKU retirement, end of support 2; license change, free-tier change 1.5; packaging change, acquisition/merger 1; price cut −2. Each month’s points are the sum of the changes that take effect that month. The index adds them up over time from a base of 100.
It counts changes, not dollars: one list-price hike on a widely used SKU and one on a niche add-on score the same. List prices only. Negotiated discounts aren’t visible. Future months show changes that are already announced, so they fill in as vendors announce more. The raw data is free to reuse (CC BY 4.0).