Why most RFP software still charges per seat

Most RFP software still charges per seat because it lets vendors scale revenue with your team size rather than the value you get from the tool. Look at Loopio, Responsive, RFPio, Proposify or Arphie (as of mid-2026) and you'll find the same pattern: no public number, just a form to book a demo. That gap between what buyers search for and what's actually published is the real story, not the exact figure behind it.

The per-seat model, hidden in plain sight

As of mid-2026, Loopio, Responsive, RFPio, Proposify and Arphie all keep pricing behind a demo request, and per-seat charges get baked into whatever quote you eventually get. Search their pricing pages hoping for a number and you land on a contact form instead.

That's not an accident. Per-seat pricing scales with your team size, so it makes sense for a vendor to keep the number private until they know how many people you'll license.

What that actually costs you

The real cost isn't the extra seat fee, it's what teams do to avoid it: passing round one login, keeping a single power user as the bottleneck, leaving sales or legal out of the tool entirely. That defeats the point of buying collaborative software in the first place.

Fewer eyes on every answer before it goes out is exactly the risk RFP software is meant to reduce. You end up paying for restricted access, not for the work getting done.

Why unlimited-user pricing exists

Airprose prices by tier, not by headcount: Base at 149 pounds a month, Growth at 399, Scale at 849, and every tier includes unlimited users. Add your whole proposal team, subject matter experts and reviewers without a seat conversation.

The numbers sit on the pricing page, and you can start free with no card, so there's no demo gate before you see what it costs.

How to price-check before you commit

Ask any RFP vendor two questions before a demo: what does this cost with my actual number of users, and is that price public anywhere. If the answer to the second is no, budget extra time for negotiation.

Also check what a seat actually buys. Sometimes it's read-only access for reviewers, not real drafting rights, so know the headcount you need before the sales call, not after it.