$200/Month Wasted on Amazon Tools

I audited my stack. Here’s what I cut.

Last quarter I added up everything I was paying for Amazon tools.

$99/month for Helium 10. $19/month for Keepa. $15/month for Sellerboard. A few smaller subscriptions I’d forgotten about.

Total: $196/month. $2,352/year.

Then I asked myself a harder question: which of these tools do I actually open every week?

The Audit

I tracked my tool usage for 30 days. Not what I thought I used — what I actually opened.

Tool Monthly Cost How Often I Used It What I Used It For Helium 10 $99 2–3x/month Cerebro (keyword research) only Keepa $19 Weekly Price history, sales rank Sellerboard $15 Daily Profit dashboard Chrome extensions ~$15 Rarely Forgot what they do Campaign creation (manual) $0 (but 14+ hrs/month) Every launch Most expensive “free” tool

The finding that hurt most: $99/month for Helium 10, only using one feature. That’s $1,188/year for Cerebro.

What I Cut

Helium 10 ($99 → $0) — Replaced Cerebro with SellerSprite’s free tier. 80% coverage. The other 20% comes from Amazon’s own search term reports — real conversion data beats estimated search volume.

Chrome extensions (~$15 → $0) — Cancelled three I couldn’t even remember subscribing to.

Savings: $1,368/year

What I Keep

Keepa ($19) ✅ — Non-negotiable. Price history and sales rank for product research. Nothing else gives this data at this price.

Sellerboard ($15) ✅ — Daily profit dashboard. Does what Helium 10’s “Profits” does but more focused and $84/month cheaper.

What I Added

AMZTool ($9.90) ← I built this, full disclosure

This replaced the most expensive “tool” in my stack — my own time.

Before: 14+ hours/month on manual campaign creation.

After: ~30 minutes/month for the same output.

14 hours of manual work was costing me far more than any subscription.

The New Stack

Tool Monthly Cost AMZTool $9.90 Keepa $19 Sellerboard $15 SellerSprite $0 Amazon native reports $0 Total $43.90

Before: $196/month ($2,352/year)

After: $43.90/month ($527/year)

Saved: $1,825/year — enough for 2–3 new product launch budgets.

How to Do Your Own Audit

1. List every tool you’re paying for — check credit card statements, not memory
2. Track actual usage for 30 days — what you open, how often, what for
3. For each tool, ask: “If I cancelled today, what would I actually lose?”
4. Find the hidden cost: How many hours on tasks that could be automated?

The last one is the killer. “Free” manual work is usually the most expensive line item.

The Bottom Line

Your tool stack should match your workflow, not your aspirations. Don’t pay $99/month for 30 features you might use someday. Pay for 2–3 tools that solve your actual daily bottlenecks.

What’s yours?

I’m William — 5 years Amazon, $10M+ in sales. AMZTool — free to try. X/Twitter