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Calculate the cost per visitor, signup, and paying customer from a startup launch. Include your time and compare distribution channels using the same measurement window.
Illustrative example — replace these numbers with your results. Use one currency throughout. Calculations run in this page; no account is required.
Listing fees, ads, and other channel costs.
Preparation, submission, and follow-up.
Your estimate; use 0 to compare cash costs only.
Unique visitors in your chosen measurement window.
Unique people who signed up in the same cohort.
People from that cohort who became customers.
“Not available” means the denominator is zero. A channel with no customers does not have a zero acquisition cost.
Add the money you spent to the value of the time you invested. Divide that total by the visitors, signups, or customers attributed to the channel. Use the same currency and measurement window for every channel you compare.
For example, a fictional launch with a 50-unit listing fee and two hours valued at 25 units each costs 100 units in total. With 100 visitors, 10 signups, and two paying customers, that is 1 per visitor, 10 per signup, and 50 per customer. These inputs illustrate the calculation; they are not BuildHop results or an industry benchmark.
Choose a window long enough for your signup and purchase process. Count unique visitors from one channel, then the signups and customers belonging to that group. Do not divide this week’s spend by all customers your business has ever acquired. If customers arrive through several touchpoints, document how you assign credit and keep that approach consistent.
For a free product, cost per signup may be more useful than cost per paying customer. If your funnel skips signup entirely, use your own direct visitor-to-customer calculation instead of forcing those events into this tool’s signup cohort.
It shows acquisition costs and conversion rates, not return on investment. To assess return, you also need attributable revenue, service costs, refunds, and an appropriate time period. A lower cost per signup alone does not prove a channel is profitable, particularly when those signups do not keep using the product.
Enter zero customers. The calculator will still show cost per visitor and signup when those counts are available. Treat the result as an early observation, then inspect audience fit and onboarding before spending more on the same channel.
