Counter 09 · Cost of Living
Verified 06 Aug 2026
ECA International
ECEnterprise-grade cost of living data for relocations
ECA International runs its own cost-of-living shopping-basket survey across roughly 500 locations worldwide, the same data multinationals use to set relocation allowances for transferred staff. Access sits behind a subscription rather than a free public tool, so it suits agencies and consultants who need defensible, methodology-backed numbers more than an individual planning a personal budget.
What is ECA International?
ECA International is a global mobility data provider. It runs its own cost-of-living survey across roughly 480 locations worldwide, and it has done so for more than 50 years. The method is the same shopping-basket approach multinational employers use to set relocation allowances and hardship pay for transferred staff. Prices come from ECA's own researchers and expat cost-checkers, not from scraped or crowdsourced listings.
What it measures
ECA's cost of living index tracks everyday expat spending: food at home, meals out, drink and tobacco, household goods, clothing, and car running costs. Housing and school fees sit in separate accommodation and location-rating tools. The output is an index number per city, built for HR teams working out salary uplifts. It is not a simple "how much will I spend per month" figure for one person planning a move.
The digital nomad angle
Most digital nomads will never touch ECA directly. It is built for relocation consultants and corporate mobility teams who need a number they can defend to a client or an employee, not for a freelancer deciding between Chiang Mai and Lisbon. If you are comparing cities casually, free tools like Numbeo (now partly paywalled), Expatistan, or Nomad List cover similar ground with less rigor and no cost. ECA is worth the money when an agency runs relocation programs at scale and needs a methodology-backed source it can stand behind.
Pricing reality
ECA doesn't publish prices. Access runs through a MyECA subscription, and the cost depends on which home and host country combinations and data modules you need, so you contact ECA's sales team for a quote. There is no free tier and no one-off report to buy, so you can't test the data before you commit. That makes it a hard sell for an individual nomad and a normal line item for a relocation agency.
- Over 50 years of continuous cost-of-living survey data across roughly 480 locations
- Data collected by ECA's own researchers and expat cost-checkers, not crowdsourced or scraped
- Covers a defined expenditure basket (food, meals out, household goods, clothing, car costs) with housing tracked separately
- Subscription-only, quote-based pricing with no published rate card
What works
- Cost-of-living methodology built over more than 50 years and used by multinational employers to set real relocation pay
- Data comes from ECA's own researchers and expat cost-checkers rather than crowdsourced self-reporting, which cuts the noise you get on free comparison sites
- Covers close to 500 locations with consistent methodology, so index numbers compare city to city
- Bundled with related tools (accommodation data, location ratings, cost calculator) inside the same MyECA subscription
What to watch
- No published pricing and no free tier; you have to talk to sales just to see a number, which rules it out for casual browsing
- Built for HR and relocation-agency workflows, not for an individual nomad who just wants a quick city comparison
- Index-based output rather than a simple monthly budget, so it takes some interpretation if you don't know cost-of-living survey methodology
Questions at the counter
Is ECA International worth it for a digital nomad?
Not usually. ECA is priced and built for relocation agencies and corporate mobility teams that need defensible, methodology-backed data, not for someone comparing a handful of cities. A solo nomad is better served by a free tool like Numbeo or Expatistan, and should only look at ECA when relocation work is the actual job.
How much does ECA International cost of living data cost?
ECA doesn't publish pricing. Access is a MyECA subscription priced by the home/host country combinations and modules you need, so you contact ECA's sales team directly for a quote. There's no free trial or one-off purchase option.
What is the best free alternative to ECA International for cost of living data?
For casual city comparisons, Expatistan and Nomad List are free and cover many of the same cities, though with less rigorous methodology. Numbeo used to be the default free option but has moved much of its cost-of-living estimator behind a paywall.
Who actually uses ECA International's cost of living data?
Corporate global mobility and HR teams, plus the relocation consultants and agencies that serve them. They use it to work out salary adjustments and hardship allowances when moving staff between countries, which is why the data leans on methodology rather than consumer-friendly estimates.