Last verified September 4, 2026

Compare CertScope

Seven ways a small importer gets a CPSC determination sorted, one buyer question at a time: what it costs, what it actually hands back, and what stays your work regardless of who you buy from.

The seven, in price order

Route	Published price	What it hands back
Reading the Commission’s rules yourself	Free	The complete corpus and the Regulatory Robot tool; no per-SKU adjudication
CertScope	$29 one SKU, $99 up to 10, $249 up to 40, one-time	A per-SKU rule list with basis shown, plus the built certificate
Compliance Gate	$199 to $499 per year	A five-jurisdiction requirement corpus and templates you fill in yourself
Third-party inspection firm	From $240/man-day, $440/audit (Tetra Inspection)	A production run checked against criteria you supply
CPSC-accepted testing laboratory	Quoted per rule and per sample	Test results within its accepted scope; presumes you already hold the rule list
Customs broker or eFiling agent	Per entry, not published	Certificate data transmitted to CBP; does not decide which rules attach
Product-safety consultant or attorney	Per engagement, not published	Judgment on contested or novel questions, not a routine per-SKU mapping

Prices above were read live on 4 September 2026 except Compliance Gate’s (also 4 September 2026, superseding the 24 August read carried on the older guide). CertScope vs Compliance Gate goes head to head against the one genuine platform alternative; the full roundup covers every row above in depth, including why the rule list has to exist before a laboratory can be chosen; and CertScope alternatives is the shorter version of this page aimed at a buyer who has decided against CertScope specifically.

What stays the buyer’s work regardless

Every option above except CertScope and Compliance Gate is downstream of a rule list the buyer supplies, and even those two leave the certificate signature and the entry filing with the importer. 16 CFR 1110.7 puts certification on the importer for imported finished products; buying a determination changes the quality of the mapping, not who signs it.