NS1 (IBM) Hidden Costs 2026
What they don't show you on the pricing page
NS1 (IBM) costs Free to $349 per per month as of June 2026, with 4 plans available including a free tier. Plans: Free Developer (free), Essentials at $99/per month, and Standard at $349/per month. Enterprise pricing is available on request. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: Yes
NS1 (IBM) offers 4 pricing tiers: Free Developer, Essentials, Standard, Premium. A free plan is available. Paid plans include Essentials at $99/user/month, Standard at $349/user/month. The Essentials plan is small to mid-size businesses.
NS1 (IBM) true cost runs -96% above the listed $0-$349/per month price as of June 2026. For a 25-person team, expect ~$1,875 in year-one costs vs the $52,350 base license. Key hidden costs: traffic steering billed separately by query volume, dedicated dns instances are additional cost, dns for china region requires separate pricing. Verified from 1 sources by CostBench.
Example: True Cost for 25 Users
| License (25 × $174.5 × 12) | $52,350/yr |
| Implementation (one-time) | +$15,000–$50,000 |
| Premium Support (20%) | +$10,470/yr |
| Training (25 × $500) | +$12,500 |
| Admin (part-time) | +$15,000–$25,000/yr |
| Estimated Year 1 Total | ~$1,875 |