Starting Cost
Minimum Viable Plan
What you pay from day one to run all three automations — inbound triage, outbound B2B, and social media.
| Tool | Starting Plan | Monthly Cost | When to Upgrade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace | Business Starter | £14 | If you add more staff email accounts |
| Zapier | Starter | $19.99 (~£16) | If task usage exceeds 750/month — watch this closely |
| Claude API | Pay per use | ~$5 – 10 (~£4 – 8) | Scales with usage, no plan needed |
| ManyChat | Free | Free | Over 1,000 Instagram/Facebook contacts |
| Google Places API | Free credit | Free | Very unlikely at this scale (£200/mo credit) |
| Hunter.io | Free | Free | Over 25 email lookups/month — see note below |
| WhatsApp Business API | Meta Cloud API | Free | Over 1,000 business-initiated messages/month |
Hunter free tier note: 25 email lookups per month covers about one day of outbound at full pace. To run the campaign daily, either upgrade Hunter to Starter ($34/month, 500 lookups) or run the outbound automation 2–3 days a week while testing. Adding Hunter Starter brings the monthly total to around £60–65.
All Tools
Full Pricing Breakdown
Every tier for every tool. Highlighted card is the recommended starting plan.
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Business Starter
£14
per user / month
- Gmail with custom domain
- Google Sheets & Drive included
- 30 GB storage per user
- Zapier OAuth integration
- Google Cloud account (Places API)
One user account covers everything needed for these automations.
Google Workspace
Business Standard
£10.40
per user / month
- Everything in Starter
- 2 TB storage per user
- Meeting recordings
- Shared drives
Only needed if storage or shared drives become a requirement.
Google Workspace
Business Plus
£15.60
per user / month
- Everything in Standard
- 5 TB storage per user
- Advanced security controls
- eDiscovery & audit
Enterprise feature set. Not needed at this stage.
Zapier
Zapier
Free
$0
per month
- 5 Zaps
- 100 tasks / month
- Single-step Zaps only
Not viable. 100 tasks is gone in a day with the inbound automation alone.
Zapier
Starter
$19.99
per month (~£16)
- 20 Zaps
- 750 tasks / month
- Multi-step Zaps
- Filters & conditions
- Webhooks included
Workable if email volume stays moderate. Monitor task usage weekly in the first month.
Zapier
Professional
$49
per month (~£39)
- Unlimited Zaps
- 2,000 tasks / month
- Paths & branching logic
- Custom logic steps
- Priority support
Recommended once automations are running well and task limits are being hit.
Claude API (Anthropic)
Claude API
Pay Per Use
~$5–10
per month at this scale (~£4–8)
- No monthly subscription
- Charged per token (input + output)
- Claude Haiku: cheapest, fast, good for short emails
- Claude Sonnet: better quality, moderate cost
- $5 free credit on sign-up
At 20 outbound emails/day plus social replies, expect $5–15/month. Use Haiku for volume tasks to keep costs low.
Claude API
Haiku (Cheapest Model)
$0.80
per million input tokens
- Fastest response time
- Best for short, repetitive tasks
- Ideal for outbound email drafts
- Good for social media replies
Use this model for all automated drafting to minimise API costs.
Claude API
Sonnet (Recommended Model)
$3
per million input tokens
- Better reasoning and quality
- Handles nuanced conversations
- Good for complex DM replies
- Slightly slower than Haiku
Use Sonnet for inbound support replies where quality matters more than speed.
ManyChat
ManyChat
Free
$0
per month
- Up to 1,000 contacts
- Instagram DMs & comment-to-DM flows
- Facebook Messenger automation
- Keyword triggers
- Zapier integration
- Basic flow builder
More than enough to start. Only upgrade when contacts exceed 1,000.
ManyChat
Pro
$15
per month (~£12)
- Unlimited contacts
- AI-powered reply features
- Advanced flow conditions
- Email & SMS channels
- A/B testing
- Priority support
AI features on the Pro plan can reduce Claude API usage for simpler replies.
Hunter.io
Hunter.io
Free
$0
per month
- 25 email searches / month
- 25 email verifications / month
- Zapier integration
Start here. Covers roughly one day of full outbound pace. Run the campaign 2–3 days/week to stay within the limit while testing.
Hunter.io
Starter
$34
per month (~£27)
- 500 searches / month
- 500 verifications / month
- Enough for 25 businesses/day
Upgrade to this once the outbound campaign is running daily and producing results.
Hunter.io
Growth
$104
per month (~£82)
- 5,000 searches / month
- Full team access
- Bulk tasks
Only needed at high outreach volume. Not required at this stage.
Free Tools
Google Places API
Free Credit
$0
effective monthly cost
- $200 free Google Cloud credit / month
- Places search: ~$0.032 per call
- $200 credit = ~6,200 searches free
- 20 searches/day = ~$0.64/month
Will not cost anything at this scale. Requires a Google Cloud account with billing enabled (won't charge within the credit).
WhatsApp Business
Meta Cloud API
$0
per month to start
- 1,000 free conversations / month
- Business-initiated messages: ~$0.05 each after free tier
- Requires Meta Business account
- Free tier covers all escalation alerts
1,000 escalation alerts per month is far more than needed. Effectively free.
Google Sheets
Included in Workspace
$0
additional cost
- Included with Google Workspace
- Shared automation log
- Three sheets: Inbound, Outbound, Social
- Zapier reads and writes automatically
No extra cost. Already covered by the Workspace subscription.
Growth Path
When to Upgrade
Start cheap, watch these signals, upgrade when they trigger.
-
1
Zapier Starter → Professional ($49/mo)
When your Zapier task count hits 600+ per month or you need more than 20 Zaps. Check the Zapier dashboard weekly in the first month. The Professional plan also unlocks branching logic which makes automations smarter.
-
2
Hunter Free → Starter ($34/mo)
When the outbound campaign is running daily and producing replies or conversions. The free tier is fine for testing at 2–3 days a week. Starter gives 500 searches/month which covers a daily cap of 20 businesses comfortably.
-
3
ManyChat Free → Pro ($15/mo)
When your combined Instagram and Facebook contact count approaches 1,000. The Pro plan also has built-in AI reply features that can handle simpler social interactions without calling Claude, which reduces API costs.
-
4
Make (Integromat) as a Zapier alternative
If Zapier costs become a concern, Make offers 10,000 operations per month for $9. The interface is different but it handles all the same integrations. Worth switching if you are consistently on Zapier Professional and want to cut that cost significantly.