Tool comparison
Clear Margins vs. LivePlan
LivePlan builds the financial narrative you present to a bank or investor. Clear Margins answers the math question you face before Thursday's meeting — what to charge, whether the campaign makes sense, how many months of runway you actually have. The tools are not rivals; they belong at different stages of the same journey.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Clear Margins | LivePlan |
|---|---|---|
| Core job | Answer this week's decision in minutes | Build a 3-year financial model |
| Time to first useful answer | Under 60 seconds | 2–4 hours to build the model |
| Investor-ready documents | Not offered | Core feature |
| Pricing and margin decisions | Purpose-built with benchmarks | Derivable via manual modeling |
| Runway and burn check | Instant — enter burn and cash | Built into the financial model |
| Break-even ROAS before an ad campaign | Two inputs, result with benchmark | Not a native feature |
| Multi-year revenue forecasting | Not offered | Full 5-year model |
| Bank / SBA loan narrative | Not offered | Core output |
| Plain-English result benchmarks | On every result page | Numbers without industry context |
| Saved scenario history | Pro plan — weekly decision trail | Scenario comparison in model |
| Price | Free core tier; Pro $19/mo | From $20/mo |
When to use each
Use Clear Margins when
- You need the margin, ROAS, runway, or hiring answer for a decision happening this week
- You want results benchmarked against healthy ranges — not just a raw number
- You are running a business, not preparing to pitch one
- You want to track how the same decision changes over time without rebuilding a model
- You need a free tool with no account required for one-off checks
Use LivePlan when
- You are applying for an SBA loan, bank loan, or equity investment
- You need a formatted executive summary and multi-year forecast
- You are building a formal business plan for a specific external audience
- Your accountant or investor requires structured financial projections
The model-building trap
Most operators who open LivePlan do it because they need to answer one question — usually runway or pricing — and a spreadsheet felt too fragile. The problem is that building a LivePlan model takes hours and requires clean assumptions you may not have yet. By the time the model is ready, the decision has already been made by instinct.
Clear Margins is designed for the moment before the model: a two-minute answer that's good enough to make the call, saved so you can revisit the same assumptions next week. If the stakes ever require a full investor model, you'll already have the assumptions validated.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need LivePlan if I am bootstrapped?
Probably not — unless a lender or program requires a formal business plan document. Bootstrapped operators benefit more from fast, repeatable decision math than from investor-formatted projections.
Can I use both tools together?
Yes. A common workflow: use Clear Margins to validate pricing, runway, and unit economics week to week, then pull those validated assumptions into LivePlan when you need to formalize them for a loan application or investor pitch.
How long does it take to get a runway answer in Clear Margins?
Under 60 seconds. Enter your monthly burn and current cash balance — the runway calculator returns months of runway, a cash depletion date, and a plain-English recommendation with industry context.
Get the answer before you build the model.
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