shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use Coli (C2ER Cost of Living Index)?

C2ER Cost of Living Index — city-to-city cost comparison data for US urban areas - coli.org

Depends. Buy only if you're an economic development office, chamber, or HR team that needs the standard quarterly city-cost dataset behind public reports. Skip it if you just need a one-off moving comparison; the reviewed evidence is thin and low-confidence.

Confidence

Low. Based on 9 public sources; snippets truncated and confidence is low. Heavy noise (E. coli bacterium, corporate-owned life insurance COLI, a game character) was filtered out. No pricing or user reviews found.

Ratings

  • Value for moneyNo public pricing found
  • Ease of useNo usability evidence found
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo support evidence found
  • Security postureNo findings either way

Pricing

Not disclosed

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed

Best for

  • Economic development organizations
  • Chambers of commerce
  • Guess: HR teams pricing relocations
  • University researchers comparing metros

Not for

  • Individuals wondering where to move
  • Small businesses needing one-off comparisons
  • Teams expecting software with dashboards
  • Anyone unwilling to wait for quarterly updates

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Pricing not published in reviewed sources; expect a sales conversation and membership-rate quirks.

medium

Quarterly cadence means figures can lag fast-moving housing markets.

medium

Guess: redistribution rights likely restricted; confirm licensing before republishing the data.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Long-running standard cited by universities and regional planners
  • Published quarterly by a research council, keeping data fairly current
  • Consistent methodology across urban areas enables apples-to-apples comparison
  • Includes an online calculator, not just raw report files

Cons

  • Data subscription, not software; no dashboards or integrations evident
  • No public pricing found in reviewed sources

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/26/2026 - 9 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x3security x1news x5

Key stats

  • Feature depth: 3/5

    Rating

  • Not disclosed

    Starting price

  • 9

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money. No public pricing found
  • Ease of use. No usability evidence found
  • Feature depth: 3/5. Calculator, quarterly reports, PDFs; no software
  • Support quality. No support evidence found
  • Security posture. No findings either way
  • C2ER Publisher Council for Community and Economic Research
  • Quarterly Update cadence Published by C2ER
  • US urban areas Coverage Comparative data for urban areas

Pricing

Not disclosed

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

No independent user reviews of the Cost of Living Index surfaced in the sources reviewed.

Companies that use it

  • University of the Pacific, Center for Business and Policy Research⁶
  • Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC⁷
  • Capital District Regional Planning Commission (CDRPC)⁵
  • Lee County, FL business publication⁸
Full analysis

Based on 9 public sources; snippets truncated and confidence is low. Heavy noise (E. coli bacterium, corporate-owned life insurance COLI, a game character) was filtered out. No pricing or user reviews found.

Niche quarterly data index for pros; individuals comparing cities should use free calculators.

Methodology

Based on 9 public sources; snippets truncated and confidence is low. Heavy noise (E. coli bacterium, corporate-owned life insurance COLI, a game character) was filtered out. No pricing or user reviews found.

Sources

  1. C2ER Cost of Living Index — homepagecoli.org
    official
  2. What is COLI?coli.org
    official
  3. C2ER Products & Servicesc2er.org
    official
  4. coli.org security pagecoli.org
    security
  5. COLI online calculator — CDRPCcdrpc.org
    news
  6. University of the Pacific COLI overviewpacific.edu
    news
  7. How to Use COLI Reports — Colorado Springs Chamber EDCcoloradospringschamberedc.com
    news
  8. COLI 2025 Q1 comparative data for urban areasleecountybusiness.com
    news
  9. Times Leader: COLI published quarterly by C2ERfacebook.com
    news

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