What does a whistleblowing channel cost?
Most published answers to this question give you a per-employee range and leave it there. That range is not the useful part. What decides your bill is the pricing model underneath it — and the costs that sit outside the monthly rate entirely.
The four pricing models
Almost every whistleblowing platform on the market uses one of these four. The model matters more than the rate, because it decides what happens to your bill when you hire.
- Per employee, per month
- The most common model, and the reason published price comparisons show ranges rather than numbers. Your cost rises every time you hire, whether or not anyone files a report. Watch for a minimum seat count, which sets a floor well above the headline rate.
- Per report received
- Cheap while nothing happens, and most expensive in the year you most need it to work. It also creates an incentive nobody should want: a channel that costs money each time somebody uses it.
- Headcount bands
- A fixed price per band — 1–49, 50–249, 250+. Predictable inside a band, and a step change the month you cross one. Ask where the next boundary sits before you sign.
- Flat rate
- One price, any headcount, any number of reports. The least common model, and the only one where the number you are quoted is the number you pay in three years' time.
What the sticker price leaves out
The monthly rate is rarely the whole bill. When you compare vendors, ask each one for the total cost of the first year, including:
- Setup, onboarding and configuration fees — sometimes a multiple of a month's subscription
- Languages beyond the first, if you employ people who do not share one
- Data residency — whether EEA hosting is standard or a paid tier
- Per-case charges once you pass an included volume of reports
- Training for the people who receive and investigate reports
- Contract length and notice period — a year's lock-in is common
- External case handling, if reports are routed to a law firm rather than handled in-house
The last one is usually the largest, and it is the one most comparisons omit. A whistleblowing report about the person who would normally investigate it cannot be handled internally, and the cost of somebody independent picking it up belongs in this calculation.
The same product at three sizes
An illustration rather than a quote from any vendor: take a mid-range per-employee rate of €4 per employee per month and compare it with a flat price as the company grows.
| Employees | At €4 per employee / month | Report Securely |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | €200 / month | €99 / month |
| 200 | €800 / month | €99 / month |
| 1,000 | €4,000 / month | €99 / month |
The €4 figure is illustrative, not a published rate from any named vendor. Use your own quotes — the point is the shape of the two lines, not the exact numbers.
What Report Securely costs
€99 per month, in every market we serve, for any number of employees and any number of reports. A 90-day free trial first, and no notice period after it.
Included rather than priced separately: every European language, EEA data residency, anonymous two-way dialogue with the reporter, and the case log an auditor will ask for. Where reports are routed to an external law firm, that firm's work is its own engagement — we would rather say so here than leave it out of a comparison you are trying to make honestly.
Questions buyers ask
- How much does a whistleblowing channel cost?
- It depends far more on the pricing model than on the rate. Per-employee pricing scales with headcount, so the same product costs a 50-person company a fraction of what it costs a 1,000-person one. Flat-rate pricing does not move at all. Report Securely is flat: €99 per month, any number of employees, after a 90-day free trial.
- Is whistleblowing software priced per employee?
- Most vendors price per employee per month, which is why published comparisons show such wide ranges — the rate is only half the number, and headcount is the other half. Some vendors instead charge per report received, or place you in a headcount band. A flat monthly price is the least common model and the easiest to budget.
- What costs are not in the price?
- Setup and onboarding fees, extra languages, data-residency options, per-case charges once you pass an included volume, training for the people who handle reports, and — the largest one — external case handling if reports are routed to a law firm. Ask for the total of the first year, not the monthly rate.
- Do small companies have to pay for a whistleblowing channel?
- The obligation depends on where you are and how many people you employ, not on what you spend. The EU Whistleblower Directive (2019/1937) applies from 50 employees; several national laws reach smaller organisations, and Norway's Working Environment Act requires internal whistleblowing routines from five. A channel can be an email address or a postbox — the cost question is really about what it takes to run one properly.
