Townleap vs Numbeo
Numbeo is a crowdsourced database of consumer prices, rents and perception-based quality-of-life indices, covering roughly 12,800 cities. We're a permanent-relocation planner. Below is the honest version, including the parts where they beat us.
Numbeo has more raw price data than anyone alive. Townleap takes those prices — literally the same ones — and answers the question Numbeo doesn't: can you legally live there, and what's left of your salary once you do.
Numbeo is best for looking up what a specific thing costs in a specific city, anywhere on Earth.
Townleap is best for deciding which country to move to permanently, when prices are only one of six things that matter.
Before we sell you anything
Our cost-of-living numbers come from Numbeo. Not a rival dataset, not a proprietary one — theirs, with attribution. Anyone telling you their cost data is 'more accurate than Numbeo' is either using Numbeo or making it up. We do the first one and admit it.
What each one actually has
✓ has it · ~ sort of · ✕ doesn't. Checked August 2026.
| Feature | Numbeo | Townleap |
|---|---|---|
| What things cost, allegedly | ✓ | ✓ |
| How to legally stay past 90 days | ✕ | ✓ |
| What's left after the tax office | ~ | ✓ |
| Whether you're safe, and allowed to complain about it | ~ | ✓ |
| Can your spouse get a job | ✕ | ✓ |
| Somewhere for the kids to go all day | ✕ | ~ |
| A quiz that decides for you | ✕ | ✓ |
| Retirement, but abroad | ✕ | ✓ |
| What it costs you | ✓ | ✓ |
| Do they want your email | ✓ | ✓ |
Cost of living data — rent, groceries, transport, utilities
Residency and visa program comparison
Take-home pay modelled against local income tax
Safety statistics plus democracy and political-freedom scoring
Dependent and partner work rights on each visa
Family and schooling data
Guided recommendation flow
Pension visa thresholds and retiree-specific guidance
Price
Account required to see the content
Coverage, plainly
~12,800 cities, ~9.9M price points, crowdsourced (Numbeo homepage counters, Aug 2026)
140 cities across 60+ countries, hand-curated, every field sourced
Pros and cons, both of us
Numbeo
- +The largest cost-of-living dataset in existence — ~12,800 cities against our 140.
- +Item-level granularity: the price of a cappuccino, a gym membership, a square metre of apartment.
- +Historical price archives and multi-currency conversion, both exposed through an API.
- +Manually collected reference prices are weighted 3× user submissions, with 30+ anti-spam filters and data older than 12 months dropped by default.
- +Free for personal use, no account needed, no dark patterns.
- −Crowdsourced and not peer-reviewed — anyone can submit, and Numbeo acknowledges its indices reflect contributor perception rather than measured outcomes.
- −The safety and crime indices are survey-based. In 2017 one determined Swedish man made Lund register as the world's most dangerous city in under a day.
- −Nothing about immigration. It will happily price a city you have no legal route into.
- −Salary and relocation calculators are locked behind $260+/month business plans.
- −It's a lookup table, not a decision tool — it never tells you which city, only what one costs.
Townleap
- +Residency routes, take-home pay, democracy and safety scores sit next to the prices instead of in five other tabs.
- +Built for people signing a 12-month lease, not booking three months in a co-living.
- +Free, no signup, no gated tiers, no upsell to a business plan.
- +Every number links back to its source — Numbeo, World Bank, UNODC, EIU, Freedom House.
- +A guided quiz, so you can start from 'I don't know' rather than needing a shortlist first.
- −140 cities. If your city isn't one of them, Numbeo is simply the better tool and we'd rather you went there.
- −Our prices are Numbeo's prices — we inherit their crowdsourcing caveats along with their coverage.
- −No item-level pricing. We won't tell you what a cinema ticket costs in Porto.
- −No historical price series and no API.
So which one
Use Numbeo if you need a price for a specific city — especially one of the ~12,700 we don't cover — or you want item-level detail, historical series, or an API.
Go to Numbeo →Use Townleap if you're choosing between countries and the decision hinges on more than rent: whether you can get residency, what your salary looks like after local tax, whether the government is one you want to live under, and whether your partner can legally work.
The parts of Townleap this page is talking about
All free. None of them ask who you are.
Swipe through 140 cities. It asks what you actually want, then argues with you about it.
Your passport, your job, your savings — which residency routes you'd survive.
Numbeo prices, arranged for someone signing a lease rather than booking a hotel.
What's left of your salary after the local tax office has had a look.
Pension visas, income thresholds, and healthcare you can actually get onto.
Questions people actually ask
Is Townleap's cost data more accurate than Numbeo's?
No, and we'd be lying if we said otherwise — our cost-of-living figures come from Numbeo. Same source, different application. What differs is context: we sit those prices next to residency routes, post-tax income, democracy scores and safety data, and frame them as a monthly settling budget rather than a price lookup.
Is Numbeo free?
The consumer site is free and registration is optional. Commercial plans (Advantage $260/month, Premier $560/month as of August 2026) unlock relocation and salary calculators plus a licence for business use. Townleap is free with no account and no paid tier.
Does Numbeo have visa or residency information?
No. Numbeo is a price and quality-of-life database and does not cover visa categories, eligibility or residency applications. For that you need government immigration portals, an immigration lawyer, or a tool that models routes — Townleap's Pathfinder covers 55 residency routes across 20+ countries.
How many cities does each cover?
Numbeo's homepage counters showed roughly 12,800 cities and 9.9 million price points in August 2026. Townleap covers 140 cities across 60+ countries — far fewer, but each one carries residency, tax, safety, democracy, family and retiree data rather than prices alone.
Can I trust Numbeo's crime and safety indices?
Treat them as perception, not measurement. They're survey-based, non-representative, and Numbeo says as much. Townleap pairs perceived-safety figures with UNODC intentional homicide rates so you can see where the two disagree.