whats-best.ai

Project Management & Collaboration

Shortcut

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: 2 of 4 dimensions proven

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Shortcut · www.shortcut.com

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Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The panel's verdict

Shortcut is project management and collaboration software for product development teams, uniting issue tracking, sprints, roadmaps and goals. The bench's scoring favors it most on integrations (8 to 9) — roughly 70 named integrations, GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket automation that moves stories on commits, a REST API, Zapier, Make, Pipedream, IFTTT and an MCP server — and on onboarding effort (7 to 8), with a free self-serve start, Jira and Trello importers and transition guides from competing tools. Sovereignty is the weak column, scored 3 with no variation: the captured pages state the service is operated in the United States under US law on AWS, we found no public information on an EU hosting option or on where Shortcut Software Company is incorporated, and named subprocessors include Google Analytics and Salesforce CRM. Reporting scored 5 to 6 — the vendor's documentation steers custom reporting to its Google Sheets integration or API. Scores fall within a single point on every criterion, so the judges show no real split; persona-weighted totals ranged 5.2 to 7.5. The only published price is 'Get started - it's free'.

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Speaks for it

  • Integrations scored 8 to 9, spanning roughly 70 named integrations plus a REST API, outgoing webhooks, Zapier, Make, Pipedream, IFTTT and an MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf and Zed.
  • GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket integrations attach commits, branches and pull requests to stories and move them across the workflow automatically.
  • Onboarding scored 7 to 8, self-serve: a free start, a quick-start guide, a demo workspace, Jira and Trello importers and concept-mapping transition guides.
  • SOC 2 Type 2 audits completed for security, availability and confidentiality, with Google SSO included for all plans and SSO and SCIM available.
  • Seven standard report charts — velocity, cycle time, burndown and cumulative flow among them — filterable by team, epic, objective, label and iteration, with CSV board export and roadmap export.

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Held against it

  • Sovereignty scored 3 with no variation: US operation under US law on AWS, with no EU region or hosting option named on the captured pages.
  • Named subprocessors include Google Analytics and Salesforce CRM.
  • The vendor's own documentation steers custom reporting to its Google Sheets integration or API, and we found no public information on budget or utilization reporting.
  • We found no public information on dependencies, per-person capacity or guest and client access.
  • We found no public information on chat support, response times or service level agreements.

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Best for

  • You are an engineering team moving from Jira, Trello, Asana, ClickUp or Linear and want importers and concept-mapping transition guides into a free self-serve start.
  • Your workflow runs through GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket and you want commits, branches and pull requests to move stories across the board automatically.
  • You build your own reporting and automations and value a documented REST API, outgoing webhooks, Zapier, Make, Pipedream, IFTTT and MCP-server connections.

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Avoid if

  • Your procurement requires EU data residency or a European legal entity: the captured pages state US operation under US law on AWS and name no EU hosting option.
  • You need in-product custom, budget or utilization reporting: the vendor's own documentation points custom reporting to its Google Sheets integration or API.
  • You must know the payable cost before talking to anyone: the only published number is 'Get started - it's free', and Business and Enterprise plans are named without prices.

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The scores

Collaboration depth

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How this is scored

How much real multi-person project work the tool carries: shared planning, assignments, dependencies, workload, comments, guest access.

0 — A personal task list; a second user has no defined place in it.

3 — Tasks can be shared and assigned, but planning stays per-person — no shared timeline, workload or dependency view.

5 — Solid shared projects with assignments, comments and at least one team-level planning view; gaps appear in cross-project or capacity planning.

8 — Team-level planning is first-class: cross-project views, workload/capacity, dependencies, guest or client access with sane permissions.

10 — Handles the full span from two freelancers to a structured department in one model — planning, capacity, permissions and client involvement all without workarounds.

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The Data Protection Officer

Shared planning is real — epics, two-week iterations, objectives with key results, a team-organized roadmap with health status, an org-wide activity feed, and comments with mentions across Stories and Docs. But we found no public information on guest or client access, per-person workload or capacity views, or dependency links between stories, which caps this short of first-class department-level planning. 4 5 10 13

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The Bootstrapper

Shared planning is real: epics and two-week iterations, roadmaps organized by team with health statuses, objectives tying work to key results, plus threaded comments with mentions and workspace/specific/private permissions on docs. We found no public information on capacity or workload views, dependencies, or guest and client access, so planning depth stops short of first-class team-level planning. 10 5 13 4

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The Enterprise Architect

The Story-to-Epic-to-Objective hierarchy, team-organized roadmaps with health status, an org-wide activity feed with comments and mentions, and document permission levels give me a real shared model with sane access control. We found no public information on guest or client access or on story-level dependencies, which is exactly what I need for mixed internal-external departments, so this sits below the top band. 4 5 10 13

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The UX Purist

Teams, Epics, Iterations and Objectives with Key Results give real shared planning, and Docs carry threaded comments, mentions, suggestion mode and three permission levels; the org-wide activity feed and filtering by team, project or person make the team-level view one click away. We found no public information on dependencies, workload or capacity planning, or guest and client access — exactly the territory between solid shared projects and first-class team planning. 10 13 5 4

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The Integrator

Real shared planning shows everywhere: a roadmap organized by teams, objectives with key results spanning epics, an org-wide activity feed with comments and mentions, plus docs with threaded comments and suggestion mode. I found no public information on dependency links, per-person capacity views, or guest and client access, which keeps team-level planning a notch short of fully first-class. 10 13 4

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The Skeptic

Shared work is demonstrably real: teams, epics for cross-functional squads, iterations, a team-organized roadmap with health status, an org-wide activity feed, and docs with threaded comments and suggestion mode. I found no public information on story dependencies, workload or capacity beyond a marketing line about big-picture workloads, or on guest and client access with permissions, which is what the top tier requires. 4 5 10 13

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Reporting

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How this is scored

Whether the tool can answer questions about the work: progress, time, budgets, utilization — and export the answer.

0 — No reporting beyond looking at the board.

3 — Fixed per-project status views only; nothing aggregates across projects and nothing exports cleanly.

5 — Useful standard reports (progress, tracked time) with basic filters and CSV export, but limited customization and no budget/utilization depth.

8 — Configurable cross-project reporting incl. time, budgets and utilization, with dashboards and reliable exports.

10 — Reporting is a product in itself: custom report builder, scheduled delivery, API access to every metric the UI shows.

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The Data Protection Officer

The standard chart set is solid — velocity, cycle time, burndown, cumulative flow and five more, with filters for team, epic, objective, labels and iteration — and boards and the roadmap export. The vendor itself steers anything custom to the Google Sheets integration or API, and we found no public information on budget or utilization reporting, dashboards or scheduled delivery; time tracking arrives only through third-party integrations. 5 6 7 10

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The Bootstrapper

The Reports page offers seven chart types — velocity, cycle time, burndown, cumulative flow and more — filterable by team, epic, objective, label and iteration, with board CSV export and roadmap export. The vendor's own tip says custom reporting means the Google Sheets integration or the API, and we found no public information on budgets, utilization, or scheduled delivery. 6 7 5 8

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The Enterprise Architect

Seven chart types (velocity, cycle time, burndown, cumulative flow and others) filterable by team, epic, objective and iteration, plus CSV board export and roadmap export, is genuine cross-project historical reporting. We found no public information on budget or utilization reporting, and the vendor itself steers custom reporting out to Google Sheets or the API — no dashboards or scheduled delivery are evidenced. 5 6 7 8

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The UX Purist

Seven standard charts (Velocity, Cycle Time, Burndown, Cumulative Flow among them) with filters by date range, team, epic, objective, label and iteration, plus board CSV export and roadmap export — and the iteration docs even teach you how to read a CFD, which I respect. No budget, utilization or scheduled-delivery surface appears anywhere, and custom reporting is outsourced to a Google Sheets connection or the API. 6 7 5 10

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The Integrator

Seven standard charts — velocity, cycle time, burndown, cumulative flow and more — filterable by date range, team, epic, objective, label and iteration, with CSV export from boards and roadmap export. Time tracking arrives only through Clockify or Everhour integrations, and the vendor's own help points to the API or Google Sheets for anything custom; I found no public information on budget or utilization reporting. 6 5 8 10

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The Skeptic

Seven standard charts with team, epic and objective filters plus CSV board export are useful, and the burndown and cycle-time documentation is unusually deep. But the vendor itself points custom reporting outside the product — "utilize our google sheets integration or API to build your own reports" — and I found no public information on budgets, utilization, dashboards or scheduled delivery. 5 6 7

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Integrations

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How this is scored

How well the tool connects to the rest of the stack: native integrations, calendar/comms hooks, API and webhooks, import/export paths.

0 — A closed box — no API, no integrations, CSV out if anything.

3 — A handful of marquee integrations, no public API or an API that covers a fraction of the product.

5 — The common set (calendar, Slack/Teams, file storage) plus a documented public API; automation platforms partially covered.

8 — Broad native catalogue, well-documented API and webhooks, first-class automation-platform support and real import paths from competitors.

10 — Ecosystem-grade: everything in 8 plus the tool is itself extensible (apps/plugins, AI/MCP surfaces) and exit via API export is complete.

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The Data Protection Officer

Roughly seventy named integrations across version control, Slack, file storage, error tracking, helpdesk and design, plus Zapier, Make, Pipedream and IFTTT, outgoing webhooks, a REST API, an MCP server for coding agents, and genuine migration paths from Jira, Trello, Asana, ClickUp and Linear. On data-protection grounds I note the third-party app directory and AI agents widen the subprocessor surface, but on connectivity alone this is ecosystem-grade. 8 9 11 12

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The Bootstrapper

Roughly seventy named integrations in a categorized directory, deep GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket linking that moves stories with commits, Slack, Zapier, Make, Pipedream, IFTTT, a REST API, outgoing webhooks, and an MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf and Zed. Real import paths exist too — Jira, Trello, CSV and transition guides from Asana, ClickUp and Linear — though we found no public information confirming complete exit via API export. 8 9 12 11

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The Enterprise Architect

Roughly seventy named native integrations in a categorized directory, a documented REST API, outgoing webhooks, first-class Zapier plus Make, Pipedream and IFTTT, MCP servers and AI-agent surfaces, and real inbound paths from Jira, Trello, Asana, ClickUp, Linear and CSV. This is ecosystem-grade; only a fully evidenced export-everything exit path is missing from what I can see. 8 9 11 12

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The UX Purist

Roughly seventy named integrations spanning code, analytics, incidents, files and time tracking, an automation stack (Zapier with 1000+ apps, Make, Pipedream, IFTTT), outgoing webhooks, a REST API, and real import paths from Jira, Trello, Asana, ClickUp and Linear. On top of that an MCP Server for Claude Code and Cursor plus agent integrations like Devin — the tool is itself extensible, which is ecosystem grade. 8 9 11 12 5

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The Integrator

This is where the tool earns its keep: a directory of roughly seventy integrations built in-house and by third parties, deep GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket automation that moves stories on commits, outgoing webhooks, a REST API, and Zapier, Make, Pipedream and IFTTT all present. An MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf and Zed plus AI agents like Devin make the surface extensible; I found no public information on a complete export of all data through the API, though Jira, Trello and CSV importers and board and roadmap exports give real migration paths. 8 12 10 11

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The Skeptic

Roughly seventy named integrations, commit-branch-PR linkage across GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket, Zapier, Make, Pipedream and IFTTT, outgoing webhooks, a REST API, MCP servers, and importers from Jira and Trello alongside transition guides from four competitor tools. The one soft spot is exit: I found no public commitment that a complete export via API recovers everything. 8 9 11 12

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Onboarding effort

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How this is scored

Time and friction from signup to first real value for a small team, without paid services.

0 — No self-serve path — onboarding starts with a sales call and an implementation project.

3 — Self-serve exists but the first project requires configuration a newcomer cannot judge yet (workflows, custom fields, permissions) before anything works.

5 — A team gets a first project running within a day; trial requires payment details or key steps live behind docs.

8 — Signup to working project inside an hour: guided setup, sensible defaults, templates, trial without payment details.

10 — Minutes to value even for non-tool-people, importers pull existing work in, and the tool teaches its own advanced features as the team grows into them.

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The Data Protection Officer

A free start, Google single sign-on on all plans, importers from Jira and Trello, transition guides mapping concepts from four competing tools, and a demo workspace all point to fast self-serve value. We found no public information on guided in-product setup or whether payment details are requested before a team can work, so I stop short of the top self-serve mark. 1 4 10 11

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The Bootstrapper

Self-serve free start with a quick-start guide, a demo workspace, story and doc templates, and importers plus concept-mapping transition guides from five competitors and CSV — a small team can be running without talking to anyone. We found no public information on whether the free start requires payment details, but nothing captured suggests a gate. 4 10 11 12

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The Enterprise Architect

Free to start, a quick-start guide that walks a newcomer from first Story through Epics, Iterations, Objectives and roadmap, story and document templates, plus importers and transition guides that map concepts from four competing tools — signup-to-value friction looks low and self-serve. The captured pages do not state whether any trial or free tier requires payment details. 4 5 10 11

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The UX Purist

A free starting tier, a quick-start guide that walks a Story from creation onto the Kanban board, transition guides mapping familiar concepts from five competing tools, and a demo workspace behind the Help menu — signup to working project inside an hour looks achievable. Importers pull existing work in, so the empty-first-screen problem never arrives. 4 10 11 5

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The Integrator

Free self-serve start, Google single sign-on on all plans, a quick-start tour from story to board to roadmap, a demo workspace, and importers plus transition guides from Jira, Trello, Asana, ClickUp and Linear that map familiar concepts and pull existing work in. The captured pages do not state whether the free start asks for payment details up front. 10 11 5 1

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The Skeptic

Free entry ("Get started - it's free"), a quick-start guide with a demo workspace, importers and transition guides that map concepts from other tools, and templates for docs and stories make self-serve onboarding the clear design. I found no public information on whether signup demands payment details or how long setup actually takes, so I stop short of the top band. 4 10 11 13

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European sovereignty panel opinion

Show reasoning
How this is scored

Where the company and the data actually sit: legal entity, ownership control, data residency, and subprocessor exposure to non-EU jurisdictions.

0 — Non-European vendor, data on US infrastructure under US law, no DPA worth the name.

3 — DPA and GDPR language present, but hosting defaults to the US or ownership sits outside Europe — compliance paperwork over substance.

5 — EU data residency is available and contractually fixed, but the vendor or its controlling owner is non-European, or core subprocessors put data within CLOUD Act reach.

8 — European company under European control with EU-resident data and a public DPA; remaining exposure is limited to identifiable subprocessors (e.g. a US hyperscaler's EU region) and is documented.

10 — European company, European control, EU-only data residency on European infrastructure, subprocessor list free of extraterritorial reach — verifiable, not asserted.

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The Data Protection Officer

The privacy policy states the platform is operated in the United States under US law, live data sits on Amazon Web Services in DynamoDB, and we found no public information on an EU hosting option or on the company's ownership. GDPR paperwork exists — an EEA/UK/Switzerland notice, a Data Privacy Framework notice, a subprocessor document, even a DPF self-certification posture — but residency cannot be fixed in the EU and named subprocessors include Google Analytics and Salesforce CRM; from my chair this is compliance documentation over substance. 1 2 3

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The Bootstrapper

The service is stated to be operated in the United States under US law on AWS with DynamoDB and S3 backups, and we found no public information on EU hosting options; GDPR and Data Privacy Framework notices and a subprocessor document do exist, with named subprocessors like Google Analytics and Salesforce CRM. Compliance paperwork is present, but the substance sits on US infrastructure. 2 3

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The Enterprise Architect

The service is operated in the United States under US law on AWS, with no EU region, EU hosting option or European entity evidenced in anything captured, and named subprocessors include Google Analytics and Salesforce. GDPR notices, a Data Privacy Framework notice and a subprocessor document do exist, so this is compliance paperwork over substance — a non-starter for my European data bar. 1 2 3

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The UX Purist

The captured pages state the service is operated in the United States under US law and hosted on AWS, with GDPR paperwork (an EEA notice, a Data Privacy Framework notice, a subprocessor list) sitting next to US subprocessors such as Google Analytics and Salesforce. Compliance paperwork over substance: we found no public information naming an EU hosting option or a European legal entity. 2 3

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The Integrator

The service is stated to operate in the United States under US law, running on AWS with DynamoDB storage and S3 backups, while GDPR language, a Data Privacy Framework notice and a subprocessor document are present. I found no public information on an EU hosting option or on ownership control, and named subprocessors include Google Analytics and Salesforce CRM — compliance paperwork over a European home for the data. 2 3

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The Skeptic

The captured pages state the service is operated in the United States and complies with US law, runs on AWS with no EU region or EU hosting option named, and no public document says where Shortcut Software Company is incorporated or who controls it. GDPR paperwork exists — a GDPR and Data Privacy Framework notice, a subprocessors document, SOC 2 — but with a US operator, US law and US-default hosting this reads as compliance paperwork over substance. 2 3

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Support & documentation

Show reasoning
How this is scored

Whether a stuck user gets unstuck: docs quality, support channels and their availability per plan, and the health of the learning surface.

0 — No docs beyond marketing pages; support is a contact form that may answer.

3 — Docs exist but are thin or stale; support on entry plans is effectively email-only with slow turnaround.

5 — Searchable help center covering the core product; chat or email support on all plans with reasonable response times.

8 — Deep, current docs incl. onboarding guides and templates; fast chat support not gated to top tiers; visible changelog.

10 — Docs, academy, community and support so good they are a reason to buy; SLAs published, support quality independent of plan.

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The Data Protection Officer

The help center is searchable and the captured articles on reports, iteration analytics and Docs are detailed, current and plain-language, with email support, dedicated privacy and security addresses, and a community Slack. We found no public information on chat support, response-time commitments, per-plan support tiers or a visible changelog. 6 10 12 13

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The Bootstrapper

The help center is searchable and genuinely deep — iteration report mechanics, burndown configuration, the docs experience — with getting-started guides, a transition series, a Slack community and an email support address. We found no public information on chat support, response times, SLAs, or a visible changelog. 12 13 7 10

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The Enterprise Architect

A searchable help center with genuinely deep, current articles — burndown and cycle-time mechanics, the Docs rollout, migration guides — plus an email channel, a help menu with a demo workspace and an active Slack community. We found no public information on response times, SLAs, chat support or a changelog, so I cannot call this a reason to buy. 6 10 12 13

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The UX Purist

The Help Center is searchable and genuinely deep — the iteration-report docs explain hatched non-working-day bars and how to draw a cycle-time line off a CFD, and quick-start, transition guides and a demo workspace teach the tool without a human in the loop. We found no public information on chat support availability per plan, published response-time SLAs, or a visible changelog, which is what separates this from the top of the scale. 12 7 6 10 11

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The Integrator

The help surface is deep and current: a quick-start tour, transition guides for switchers, and genuinely detailed reference articles on burndown charts, cycle time and docs, plus a Slack community and a demo workspace in the help menu. I found no public information on live chat availability, response times, service level agreements or a changelog, so the fast ungated support channel a buyer would want is unevidenced. 10 11 7 13

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The Skeptic

The Help Center is searchable and demonstrably deep — burndown mechanics, CFD reading, docs, quick start, transition guides — and there is a Slack community and a support email. I found no public information on response times, chat support or its availability per plan, and no changelog, which is exactly where decay and lock-in tend to hide. 6 7 10 12 13

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

Show reasoning
How this is scored

Can a buyer determine the real, payable cost of the tool for their team before talking to anyone?

0 — No public pricing at all — every number sits behind "contact sales".

3 — Some tiers are public, but a deciding factor (seat minimums, mandatory add-ons, billing-period surcharge, tax treatment) only surfaces at checkout or in fine print.

5 — Self-serve tiers are publicly priced and the billing-period difference is stated, but the headline number still needs qualifying — e.g. annual-only headline, taxes excluded without saying so, or an opaque enterprise tier doing real work.

8 — Every self-serve tier is fully priced with billing periods and tax treatment plain on the page; only genuinely custom enterprise work lacks a number.

10 — Every tier including enterprise has a public price or published price formula, and the headline number is the number on the invoice.

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The Data Protection Officer

The only public number is that it is free to start; we found no public information on paid tier prices, seat minimums, billing-period differences or tax treatment. A buyer cannot determine the real, payable cost for their team from the captured pages, and a buyer who cares about contract terms — like where data ends up — has even less to go on. 4 5

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The Bootstrapper

The captured pages give no price at all: the only pricing statements are "Get started - it's free" and the plan names Business and Enterprise on the security page, and we found no public information on seat prices, billing periods, or tax treatment. For three seats or thirty, nothing captured answers what I would actually pay. 3 4 5

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The Enterprise Architect

The only price visible anywhere captured is "Get started - it's free"; Business and Enterprise plans are named in passing (Business Associate Agreement availability, Google SSO on all plans) but no figures, seat minimums or billing-period terms appear publicly. For two hundred seats I cannot determine the payable cost before talking to sales, which is precisely what I refuse to guess at. 1 3 4

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The UX Purist

The only public number is "Get started - it's free"; the pages name Business and Enterprise plans (in connection with the HIPAA agreement) and we found no public price for them or for any paid tier. A buyer cannot determine the payable cost of this tool for their team before talking to anyone. 4 3 5 1

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The Integrator

The only pricing signal in the captured pages is "Get started - it's free" — the free entry point is clear, but Business and Enterprise plans are named without any prices. I found no public information on seat costs, billing periods or tax treatment, so a buyer cannot determine what a growing team will pay before talking to anyone. 4 5 3

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The Skeptic

The only number on any captured page is "free" — no tier prices, seat minimums, billing-period differences or tax treatment appear, even though the security page casually confirms Business and Enterprise plans exist and the homepage references features included "for all plans". A buyer cannot determine the payable cost of this tool from what is published here. 1 3 4 5

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European sovereignty — proven facts

2 of 4 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Ownership Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data residency US by default ⚠ unverified 0/3 pts 2 Report an error
Subprocessors Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Sources (13)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor page www.shortcut.com Checked 22 Sep 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Privacy policy — found from the homepage www.shortcut.com Checked 30 Sep 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Security / trust page — found from the homepage www.shortcut.com Checked 30 Sep 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Collaboration depth — found from sitemap www.shortcut.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Collaboration depth — found from sitemap www.shortcut.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Reporting — found from sitemap www.shortcut.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Reporting — found from sitemap www.shortcut.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Integrations — found from sitemap www.shortcut.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Integrations — found from sitemap www.shortcut.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Onboarding effort — found from sitemap www.shortcut.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  11. 11 Onboarding effort — found from sitemap www.shortcut.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  12. 12 Support & documentation — found from sitemap www.shortcut.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  13. 13 Support & documentation — found from sitemap www.shortcut.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →