Eight of the twenty sim racing tools we track charge for something without printing the number on the page that describes it. Usually that is not a trick: the charge sits inside an app store, on Patreon, or behind a hardware purchase. But a blank cannot be compared against Track Titan's Plus tier at $7.99 a month or RaceLab Pro at €4.90. Here is what each of the eight sites does say about cost, exactly as the page stated it on the verification date, and the priced rival to hold each one against.
The tools with an unpriced paid tier
| Tool | Free part (as stated) | Paid part with no price shown | What the page does say about it |
|---|---|---|---|
| SimHub | Free download (base) | Paid perpetual license for full features; motion addon needs a separate license | Price not displayed on the loaded page |
| Garage 61 | Everything free during alpha | Optional Pro supporter plan via Patreon | Unlocks Pro lap-search filters and custom display units; price not shown on site |
| Popometer | Free lap recording | Ultimate Subscription | 15 monthly data pack activations; price not shown on page |
| SIM Dashboard | Free, max 3 widgets per page | Pro one-time in-app purchase | Unlimited widgets, extra pages, wheel-button page switching |
| DashPanel | Time-unlimited demo: RPM, speed and gear only | Per-game in-app purchases for full data | Channels depend on what each game's developer exposes |
| RS Dash ASR | Free base app | In-app subscriptions | Advanced Analysis and the custom dashboard designer |
| Lovely Dashboard | Free downloads | Membership | Unlocks additional features; runs inside SimHub, Lovely Plugin marked Required |
| MoTeC i2 Pro | i2 Standard ships with MoTeC logger/ECU data | Pro Analysis upgrade or Feature Licence | No prices shown on site; i2 Standard capped at 5 graphs and 10 channels |
In-app purchases: the number is in the store, not on the site
SIM Dashboard, DashPanel and RS Dash ASR are dashboard apps sold on Android and iOS, plus Steam for DashPanel, and all three describe their paid part only as an in-app purchase or subscription. The free versions are real but narrow: SIM Dashboard caps you at 3 widgets per page, and DashPanel's demo shows RPM, speed and gear and nothing else. Two apps of exactly the same shape do print numbers. Sim Racing Telemetry states per-game DLC at $1.99 to $9.99 each, and Race Dash for Sim Games states per-game unlocks at $3.99 to $5.99 or All Access at $1.99 a month or $13.49 a year. So an app-store product can show its price on the website. Sim Racing Telemetry also flags a caveat worth carrying to the whole per-game model: DLC bought on Steam is not transferable to its iOS and Android versions, so the platform you buy on is part of the price.
Supporter plans and memberships
Garage 61 is a price that does not exist yet. Its docs answer 'Is it free? Yes, all of it', the Pro supporter plan runs through Patreon with no price on the site, and the same FAQ says 'Will it stay free? Not all of it'. Read that as a date rather than a tier: iRacing-only, free in alpha, paid version announced but unpriced. Lovely Dashboard's membership is a different unknown because the product is not standalone. It is a family of 16+ SimHub dashboard variants, the store page marks the Lovely Plugin as Required, and it does not document which sims are supported, so the membership sits on top of whatever SimHub's own license costs. The donation tools show a supporter model can still name a figure: iSpeed states that a $15 or larger donation removes its prompts and grants a license key, and Crew Chief is free with a donate link.
Perpetual licenses and pro upgrades
SimHub is the blank that matters most, because Lovely Dashboard runs inside it and it connects 100+ games to 200+ devices. Its site states a free base download, a paid perpetual license for full features and a separate motion addon license, and none of those prices appeared on the page we loaded. RaceLab proves a perpetual license can be priced in the open: Lifetime is €399 once, next to Pro at €4.90 a month or €49.90 a year. MoTeC i2 Pro is unpriced for a different reason. The site targets owners of real MoTeC loggers and ECUs, makes zero mention of sim racing, and sells Pro through a paid Pro Analysis upgrade or Feature Licence. Popometer's gap costs a buyer the most, because its core promise, automatic comparison against professional esports drivers' laps, requires buying or activating data packs on top of the base account, and the Ultimate Subscription bundling 15 monthly activations has no price on the page. VRS sells the same kind of product with numbers: add-on datapacks at $1.99 to $19.99 a month, or every premium datapack on the Competitive tier at $9.99 a month.
How to shop when the price is blank
- Start from the free part and decide whether it is the part you want: SimHub's base download, SIM Dashboard's 3 widgets, DashPanel's RPM, speed and gear, Popometer's lap recording, or all of Garage 61 while it is in alpha.
- Put a priced rival next to the blank: Race Dash or Sim Racing Telemetry against the three unpriced dashboard apps, RaceLab's €399 lifetime against SimHub's perpetual license, VRS's datapacks against Popometer's.
- Count the second license. SimHub's motion addon is separate from its full-features license, Lovely Dashboard's membership sits on top of SimHub, and Popometer's data packs sit on top of its account.
- Read 'free during alpha' as a date. Garage 61 states that not all of it will stay free.