Why one-time instead of a subscription
Research is not a thing you consume evenly every month. You look hard at a market for two weeks, decide, and then do not need it again until the next decision. A subscription bills you for the quiet months and pressures you to use it when you have nothing to research, which is how people end up scanning communities they do not care about to feel like the money was worth it.
A pack removes that. Buy $19 or $49 worth of scans, use them across whatever timeline your actual decisions take, and stop thinking about it. The scans do not expire, so there is no reason to rush and no renewal date to defend.
The honest trade is that you pay up front rather than monthly, and if you only ever need one scan then the free one is genuinely all you need. That is fine. We would rather you use the free scan and the already-published research than buy a pack you do not have a use for.
What one scan actually does
A scan reads recent posts from the communities you pick, groups the ones describing the same underlying problem, and scores each group from 0 to 100 on how acute, frequent and recent it is. Every problem it returns links back to the exact threads behind it, so you can open them and read people in their own words rather than trusting a summary.
Depth is what separates the packs. The free scan covers one subreddit with 3 pieces of evidence per problem. Founder covers 2 with up to 10, and Builder covers 5 with up to 30. More evidence per problem is usually the thing that changes a decision, because one loud complaint and a pattern across thirty threads look identical until you can see both.
Judge it before you pay
Scoring and evidence quality are far easier to judge by looking at real output than by reading a feature list, and we would rather you did. Nothing below asks for an account.
- Scored pain points for r/shopify — a finished scan, exactly as it comes out
- The full research database — every community we have published
- Is IdeaFast worth it? — including who it is not for
Pricing questions
Is IdeaFast a subscription?
No. Plans are a one-time purchase that adds a fixed number of scans to your balance. Nothing renews, there are no billing periods, and there is nothing to cancel.
Do the scans expire?
No. Scans stay on your balance until you use them. An unused scan is still there next month and next year.
What counts as one scan?
One scan reads a community, clusters the recurring complaints, scores each cluster, and returns the evidence behind every one. A deep 90-day scan pulls more posts per subreddit and costs two scans instead of one.
Is there a free tier?
Yes. Your first scan is free and does not need a card. Separately, research for dozens of communities is already published on this site and readable without an account at all.
Can I get a refund?
An unused plan is fully refundable within 7 days of purchase. Once you have run a scan from that purchase it is non-refundable, because the AI and data costs behind it have already been incurred. Genuine billing errors are fixed or refunded with no time limit.
What happens when I run out of scans?
Nothing breaks and nothing auto-charges without you setting it up. Your existing research stays readable. You buy another pack when you want more scans.
The full policy, including auto-recharge and billing errors, is on the refund page.