The Ledger · Index
Every calculator
All 97 of them. Search for what you need to price. Or filter by what the number rests on, which is the thing worth knowing before you trust any of it.
Start a Business
Three to eight cents of margin on the dollar. The oven is the easy part.
How much does it cost to open a bakery?→
No industry, no benchmark, no data. This one just adds up the numbers you give it.
Business startup cost calculator→
The equipment is the business, and it decides whether you keep eight cents on the dollar or twenty.
How much does it cost to start a car wash?→
Almost nothing to start, and half are gone within five years. Those two facts are related.
How much does it cost to start a cleaning business?→
Three to nine cents on the dollar. The espresso machine is not what decides it.
How much does it cost to start a coffee shop?→
The state sets your ratios, and your ratios set your revenue. Everything else is detail.
How much does it cost to start a daycare?→
Six to fourteen cents on the dollar. The cart is the cheap part.
How much does it cost to start a food cart?→
A truck is a restaurant with a smaller kitchen and the same thin margin.
Food truck startup cost calculator→
Five to fifteen cents on the dollar, and the lease is signed before the first member is.
How much does it cost to start a gym?→
Eight to fifteen cents on the dollar. The chair is the unit of production.
How much does it cost to open a hair salon?→
Twelve to twenty-eight cents on the dollar, and half are gone within five years.
How much does it cost to start a junk removal business?→
Ten to twenty-five cents on the dollar, and half are gone within five years.
How much does it cost to start a landscaping business?→
Fifteen to thirty cents on the dollar, and the utility buildout is what catches people.
How much does it cost to start a laundromat?→
Eight to eighteen cents on the dollar. The table is the unit, and so is the licence.
How much does it cost to start a nail salon?→
Twenty to forty cents on the dollar, and half are gone within five years.
Pressure washing startup cost calculator→
Three to seven cents on the dollar. Every payback figure here assumes you are still trading.
How much does it cost to start a restaurant?→
Five to twelve cents on the dollar, and half are gone within five years.
How much does it cost to start a trucking company?→
Ten to twenty-five cents on the dollar. The machine is cheap. The location is the business.
How much does it cost to start a vending machine business?→
Local Service Pricing
Stop comparing the repair bill with the price of a new one. They buy different amounts of time.
Is it worth repairing, or should I replace it?→
The per-room price gets you in the door. The stain and pet treatments quoted on the day are where the bill actually lands.
Carpet cleaning cost calculator→
You are billed per WORKER-hour, not per hour.
How much does an electrician charge an hour?→
The difference above is a saving only if the job needs no licence, and one question decides that.
How much does a handyman cost?→
A cleaner takes home about $17 an hour, and it barely matters which way they are employed.
How much does house cleaning cost?→
Junk removal is sold by volume, not by the item. What decides your bill is how much of the truck you fill, and the minimum charge on a small load.
Junk removal cost calculator→
The grass is almost free. You are paying for the truck to arrive.
How much should lawn mowing cost?→
There is no category for a lockout anywhere in the Economic Census.
How much does a locksmith cost?→
The US military publishes the entire rate table it uses to move a household, and almost nobody has looked at it.
How much do movers cost?→
A personal trainer earns a median of $22.67 an hour. The median across every occupation in America is $24.51.
How much does a personal trainer cost?→
The contract is a subscription, and the whole decision is one division.
How much does pest control cost?→
There is no plumber's hourly rate in the federal statistics, and this page is the explanation rather than a workaround.
How much does a plumber charge an hour?→
Pressure washing is priced by the square foot, but the minimum charge is what you actually pay on a small job.
Pressure washing cost calculator→
Per visit or seasonal is a bet on the winter. There is a number of plows above which the flat contract wins, and below which it does not.
Snow removal cost calculator→
In 2024, 99 tree trimmers and pruners were killed at work. Thirty-nine fell. Thirty-nine were struck by something.
How much does tree removal cost?→
Equipment Payments
Depreciation is not the cash. It is the value the equipment loses each year on paper, and the method you pick decides how fast that shows up.
Equipment depreciation calculator→
A lease payment is two things: what the equipment loses in value, and rent on the money. The residual decides most of it.
Equipment lease calculator→
A lease almost always wins on the monthly payment and often loses on the total. Compare the cost to own, not the number on the invoice.
Equipment lease vs. buy calculator→
The monthly payment is not the cost. The interest over the term is, and a long term hides a large one behind a comfortable payment.
Equipment loan calculator→
The fuel gauge is the cheap part. Ownership and maintenance per hour are what people leave out, and they price jobs at a loss because of it.
Equipment operating cost calculator→
A machine pays for itself out of the net, not the revenue. Subtract what it costs to run before you count what it earns.
Equipment payback calculator→
Rent or buy is not about the equipment. It is about how many days a year you use it, and there is a break-even where owning wins.
Equipment rent vs. buy calculator→
The purchase price is the deposit, not the cost. Fuel, maintenance, and insurance over the years usually dwarf it.
Equipment total cost of ownership calculator→
Home Projects
Insulation is the one home upgrade that really does pay for itself. Whether YOURS does depends almost entirely on what is already up there.
How much does attic insulation cost?→
The "average bathroom remodel" is a mean, and a mean is not a typical job.
How much does a bathroom remodel cost?→
Carpet comes in rolls twelve feet wide, so you do not buy your floor. You buy the roll.
How much does carpet installation cost?→
The "average cost to build a house" you have read everywhere is the wrong average.
How much does it cost to build a house?→
The famous average is not a deck.
How much does it cost to build a deck?→
Half of contractor-hired driveway and walkway jobs cost less than $4,349, and only 21% top $10,000.
How much does a new driveway cost?→
Two state transportation departments publish what they actually pay for six-foot chain link, and they are TWICE APART.
How much does fence installation cost?→
Flooring contractors bill 4.45 times the wage they pay their own installers. That is the widest markup of the 19 specialty building trades, and the Census measures it.
How much does flooring installation cost?→
There is no such thing as a foundation repair contractor, and that is not a figure of speech.
How much does foundation repair cost?→
A spring change is an hour or two. That is $110 to $220 of labor.
How much does garage door spring replacement cost?→
The government files gutter contractors and siding contractors in the same class, and that tells you who to call.
How much does it cost to install gutters?→
A typical new heat pump is cheaper to run than a modern gas furnace in only 4 of the 43 states for which the government has published a 2025 gas price.
How much does a heat pump cost to install and run?→
The $2,000 federal heat pump tax credit no longer exists.
How much does HVAC replacement cost?→
The paint is the cheap part, and it is not close.
How much does it cost to paint a room?→
Half of American kitchen remodels done by a contractor cost less than $14,135.
How much does a kitchen remodel cost?→
The EPA draws a line, and almost nobody in this industry will tell you where it is.
How much does mold remediation cost?→
Roofing carries the second-widest markup of any building trade, and the Census measures it.
How much does a roof replacement cost?→
The "average siding cost" you have read is not a whole-house re-side, and that is why it always feels low.
How much does siding cost?→
Sod is a crop, and the government counts crops.
How much does it cost to sod a lawn?→
The 30% federal solar tax credit is gone.
How much do solar panels cost?→
The cheapest water heater to buy is the most expensive one to own.
How much does a water heater cost?→
A standby generator is insurance, not an investment, and the honest way to price insurance is against how often you claim on it.
How much does a whole-house generator cost?→
Most people do not replace every window, and the ones who do are outliers.
How much does window replacement cost?→
Events & Weddings
The venue is the headline, but food per head is what scales. Every extra guest is another plate, another favor, another slice.
Birthday party cost calculator→
"The FTC's Funeral Rule does not cover cemeteries and mausoleums unless they sell both funeral goods and funeral services."
How much does a burial cost?→
A per-head price that does not fall as the guest list grows is telling you something.
How much does catering cost per person?→
You have a legal right to an itemised price list, and three out of four Americans do not know it.
How much does cremation cost?→
Flights and rooms are the easy part to price. The days in between, food and activities, are where a honeymoon quietly doubles.
Honeymoon budget calculator→
An open bar is a drink count, not a per-head price. Nail down how many drinks get poured and the cost falls out.
Open bar cost calculator→
Venue and catering eat nearly half of every wedding budget. The other dozen lines fight over what is left.
Wedding budget calculator→
A wedding cake is priced per serving, not per cake. The tiers are for show; the slice count is the bill.
Wedding cake cost calculator→
We are not going to divide your quote by the hours, and that refusal is the point.
How much do wedding flowers cost?→
A photographer earns a median of $21.47 an hour. The median across every occupation in America is $24.51.
How much does a wedding photographer cost?→
On a percentage fee, the person advising you on what to spend is paid more when you spend more.
How much does a wedding planner cost?→
Creators & Freelancers
Your RPM decides the whole number, and it comes from your dashboard, not a guess. Ad money is usually the smallest slice.
Creator earnings calculator→
You have to clear one of the two doors, not both.
How much estimated tax do I have to pay?→
You have to charge about twice the salaried hourly wage to take home the salaried pay.
What should I charge as a freelancer?→
A fixed bid is your hourly rate in disguise, plus the revisions and fees people forget to bill. Price those in or eat them.
Freelance project quote calculator→
The easy method stops dead at $1,500.
How much is the home office deduction worth?→
The 2,080-hour year is a full-time myth for freelancers. Your annual figure is your rate times the hours you actually bill, not the ones on a calendar.
Hourly to salary calculator→
A late fee is not a penalty you invent after the fact. If it is not in the contract before the work, it is a request, not a charge.
Invoice late fee calculator→
A dollar of deduction does not cut your taxable income by a dollar.
What is the mileage deduction actually worth?→
The saving is real, it is smaller than the sum you have read, and it has a floor of fixed costs underneath it.
Would an S-corp actually save me money?→
This is your FEDERAL tax. It is not your whole tax bill.
How much tax do you owe on 1099 income?→
Markup and margin are not the same number, and mistaking one for the other is how a 30% markup becomes a 23% margin.
Subcontractor markup calculator→
Pet Costs
Two questions decide what you are buying, and neither is usually on the website.
How much does dog boarding cost?→
The per-visit price is not the cost. Grooming is a subscription your dog's coat signed you up for, six to eight times a year.
Dog grooming cost calculator→
A group class is cheaper because the trainer is paid by six people at once.
How much does dog training cost?→
A $20 walk sounds cheap until you count the weeks. Five days a week is a part-time salary you are paying someone else.
Dog walking cost calculator→
The adoption fee is the small part. The first year is spay or neuter, the vaccine series, the litter box life, and twelve months of food.
Kitten first-year cost calculator→
The monthly cost people quote leaves out the annual bills. Amortize the vet visit, the grooming, and the insurance and the real monthly number jumps.
Monthly dog cost calculator→
The price is published. The terms mostly are not, and the terms are what you actually need.
How much does it cost to put a dog or cat to sleep?→
Pet insurance is a hedge, not an investment, and the regulators publish the proof.
Is pet insurance worth it?→
The purchase price is the small part. The first year is setup costs plus twelve months of food, insurance, and everyday bills.
Puppy first-year cost calculator→
A government has paid veterinarians for thousands of these and published exactly what it paid.
How much does it cost to spay or neuter a dog or cat?→
Two people, and one of them earns 2.75 times the other.
How much does a vet visit cost?→
Nothing rests on that source.