Every lifetime-deal tier, ranked by what it costs per month of cover
We sorted every lifetime deal on the SaaSChef menu by cost per month of cover: the cheapest licence to hold, the most expensive, and the tiers that break even fastest.
SaaSChef scores lifetime deals on what they cost against their expected term — but the menu reads top-down by score, which hides the more useful number. So we worked it out from the current menu: cost per month of cover, from the deal price divided by the practical term the licence is expected to last. It is the same maths we use in lifetime deal vs monthly, just applied a tier at a time.
The cheapest cover on the menu
The best value per month of cover is Snapmock's $29 mockup licence: 12 months of cover at roughly $2.42 a month, against a $79 list price with break-even inside three months. Tied on price is Screengrab Pro at $25 (also a 12-month term, $2.08 a month) — though its as-yet-unscored state should temper enthusiasm; see our menu criteria for why we do not publish a menu page for deals we have not finished testing.
Long terms change the ranking
Ranked purely by monthly cost, short cheap licences come out on top. Ranked by resilience, the long terms win: Kanbanly covers 48 months for $29 (about $0.60 a month), and the TidyCal $39 booking licence covers 60 months at about $0.65 — which is a large part of why TidyCal took a 9.1/10 on the TidyCal review.
The tier trap: entry vs flagship
Several vendors list two tiers. The pattern: the upgrade multiplies the price but rarely multiplies the term. Copyforge's $49 copy licence (24 months, roughly $2.04 a month) versus its $99 team tier; Formwise's $59 ($159 list) versus its early-bird $39 — the smaller tier is nearly always better value per month of cover. Inkwell AI is the sharpest example: the same product sold at $29 in one window and $59 in another (36 months either way), a $0.42-versus-$1.64 spread for identical cover. We covered the aftermath in the Inkwell AI review.
The full ranking
| Deal | Price | Term | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screengrab Pro | $25 | 12 mo | $2.08 |
| Snapmock | $29 | 12 mo | $2.42 |
| TidyCal | $39 | 60 mo | $0.65 |
| Linkvault | $39 | 12 mo | $3.25 |
| Copyforge | $49 | 24 mo | $2.04 |
| Deskhero | $59 | 12 mo | $4.92 |
| Inkwell AI ($59 window) | $59 | 36 mo | $1.64 |
| Metricsprout | $69 | 36 mo | $1.92 |
| Wavecast | $79 | 24 mo | $3.29 |
| Kanbanly | $29 | 48 mo | $0.60 |
| Mailwright | $49 | 12 mo | $4.08 |
What the ranking does not price in
Cost per month of cover assumes the term holds. It often does not: we keep a Graveyard of tiers that were re-priced, restricted or discontinued after purchase, including two form-builder tiers that folded within two months of their first listing. Read the terms — and our piece on deals that changed after purchase — before trusting any number in the table above.
The takeaway
If you buy on price alone, you will overpay for short-term licences and skip the long ones that look expensive up front. Compute the per-month number, compare it with the vendor's own monthly plan, and check the Graveyard for that vendor's track record. The full scored menu is at saaschef.com/deals.
Published 7 October 2026