Try it — pick a city, enter a salary
No account, no crowdsourced guesses. You'll see net pay after tax, rent by neighborhood, and what's left at the end of the month.
The short version
Numbeo is the largest crowdsourced cost-of-living database in the world. Its breadth is unmatched — thousands of cities, built from millions of user submissions since 2009. If you need a ballpark for a city no statistical office tracks, that breadth is genuinely useful.
The trade-off is verifiability. Crowdsourced prices are unverified: they can be stale, thin in less-active cities, or skewed by a handful of contributors. And like most cost-of-living sites, Numbeo shows prices but not your take-home pay or what you can actually rent in a specific neighborhood.
AffordWhere makes the opposite bet: narrower coverage (250 cities across 45 countries), but every number traces to an official government source, plus a real tax engine and neighborhood-level rent. It's built for one job — deciding whether a move adds up.
AffordWhere vs Numbeo
Comparison as of 2026.
| Feature | AffordWhere | Numbeo |
|---|---|---|
| Primary data source | Official government statistics (Eurostat, OECD, SCB, Destatis, ONS, INSEE) | Crowdsourced — prices submitted by users |
| Net salary after tax | Yes — per-country tax engine | No |
| Neighborhood-level rent | Yes — 1,400+ neighborhoods | City-level only |
| Verifiable sources | Every figure attributed and linkable | User-submitted, unverified |
| City coverage | 250 cities, 45 countries | Thousands of cities worldwide |
| Account required | No | No (to browse) |
| Privacy | Salary math runs in your browser; nothing stored | Standard web analytics |
| Price | Free | Free to browse |
Which should you use?
Use Numbeo when you need a rough cost-of-living number for almost any city on earth, especially small ones outside official statistics.
Use AffordWherewhen you're actually planning a move to one of our 45 countries and want numbers you can defend: official-source prices, your real net salary after tax, and the neighborhoods you can afford on it.
Want the full methodology? We tested Numbeo, Expatistan and five other tools side by side, and every source we use is listed on our data sources page.
Keep exploring
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free alternative to Numbeo?
Yes. AffordWhere is free and needs no account. You enter a salary and city and get net pay after tax, neighborhood-level rent, and a full monthly budget. The difference from Numbeo is the source of the numbers: AffordWhere uses official government statistics (Eurostat, the OECD, and national statistical offices like SCB, Destatis, ONS and INSEE) rather than crowdsourced user submissions.
Is Numbeo accurate?
Numbeo is the largest crowdsourced cost-of-living database, which is its strength and its weakness. Because prices are submitted by users, coverage is enormous but individual figures are unverified and can be out of date or skewed in cities with few contributors. AffordWhere takes the opposite approach: fewer cities (250 across 45 countries) but every figure traces back to an official statistical source you can check on our data sources page.
What is the best Numbeo alternative for expats planning a move?
For move planning specifically, the gap in most tools — Numbeo included — is that they show prices but not what you actually keep. AffordWhere runs a per-country tax engine, so it shows your net salary after income tax and social contributions, then maps it against real neighborhood rent so you can see what you can afford, not just what things cost.
Does AffordWhere use Numbeo data?
No. We never use Numbeo or any crowdsourced cost-of-living averages. Every figure comes from official government statistical agencies or international bodies, with full attribution on our data sources page. We also tested Numbeo and six other tools head to head if you want the detailed breakdown.
What does Numbeo do better?
Breadth. Numbeo covers thousands of cities worldwide, far more than any official-data tool can, and it has a long history of community contributions. If you need a rough number for a small city that no statistical office breaks out, Numbeo may be your only option. For the markets AffordWhere covers, we trade breadth for verifiable accuracy and real take-home math.