Method
Where the prices come from
Every price is read from the seller's own pages: 8 services on October 28, 2026, with the page text saved as evidence for each figure. A page that builds its prices with JavaScript is read once more in a browser after it has answered a plain request; Legacybox shows its storage prices for the kit chosen on the page, so each kit was chosen in turn. A service whose pages don't publish a price isn't priced, and we list only services whose prices we can read on their own pages.
How a total is worked out
- Per tape: the price times the tapes, with a longer tape's extra charge where the service states one, and a stated volume discount.
- Boxes with set totals (Southtree): the smallest box that holds the tapes, or the box below plus the extra-tape price when that's cheaper, as Southtree allows.
- Kits counted in items (Legacybox, Kodak Digitizing): the smallest kit that holds every tape and reel, one item each, plus the cheapest storage option where one must be chosen.
- Film: by the reel at kit services, by the foot or per 50 ft elsewhere. A reel's length is its diameter's usual footage: 50 ft for 3 inches, 200 ft for 5 and 400 ft for 7, as the reel charts Legacybox and Southtree publish both give.
- Getting the files back: the cheapest digital option the service sells, free where it says so.
- Shipping: included where the service prices it (a kit, a round-trip fee); otherwise left out and named on the service's page.
"At least" marks a total that leaves out something priced only as "starting at" or "as low as", or not priced at all, such as the drive the files come back on. Such a total is never called the cheapest.
Sales and codes
Most services advertise a code or a sale. Totals use regular prices unless you choose the advertised ones in the calculator. A sale counts only through its end date where the service gives one, and a code is named. Where a service gives no total with its code, its regular total stands, with a note.
How this site earns
No programme has accepted the site yet, so today no link here earns anything. It never changes the order, which is always cheapest first, or any number.
Every figure is computed by code from the saved prices. All totals for a range of orders are in a spreadsheet you can download from the comparison page.
Prices checked against each service's own pages on .