Below the $250–$1,000/user world of WellDatabase and Enverus sits a tier of public-records well-data sites: DrillingEdge, ShaleXP and Texas-Drilling.com. They're all built on the same state filings we use. The differences are what you pay, what's free before you pay, and what analysis anyone does on top of the raw records.
ReckonWells is a flat $50/month founding price for everything, and the core tools — well lookup, the interactive map, decline curves and well health scores — are free with no signup. Here's how the four stack up.
| DrillingEdge* | ShaleXP* | Texas-Drilling.com* | ReckonWells | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $29.99/mo — one county | $99.99/mo | $39.99/mo (no production data) | $50/mo flat — everything |
| One full state | $89.99/mo per state | $99.99/mo | $59.99/mo (no exports) | included |
| Everything they sell | $249.99/mo (nationwide) | $149.99/mo (Texas Plus) | $89.99/mo (TX only) | $50/mo flat |
| Free without an account | Counts & dates; production numbers gated | Generous browse, but no tools | County summaries | Lookup, map, health scores, activity feeds |
| Data exports | All tiers | Post-trial only | Top tier only | Included |
| States covered | 26 claimed (well-level production in 12) | 25 claimed (TX deepest) | Texas only | 3.2M wells carried; 12 states health-scored |
*From each site's public pricing and pages, July 2026, monthly billing. DrillingEdge sells geography ($29.99 buys a single county — two counties already cost more than all of ReckonWells). Texas-Drilling.com splits features across tiers, so permits people and production people each need an upgrade. If any of this changes, tell us and we'll update the page.
| DrillingEdge | ShaleXP | Texas-Drilling.com | ReckonWells | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free interactive map | Paid | Paid | Paid | Free |
| Decline curves & well health | — | Forecasts, paid | — | Free — decline, loading risk, remaining value |
| Operator changes / M&A signal | — | — | — | 55K+ transfers, free board |
| Email alerts (well / operator watch) | Newsletter only | — | — | Watch a well free |
| Horizontal laterals, free | — | — | — | 295K laterals on the map |
| Where they beat us | Per-well pages in more states; well logs | TX royalty-ownership rolls; valuations | TX well logs & completion docs | No well files/logs; we link the state's records |
The honest shape: DrillingEdge is fine if you truly need one county forever. ShaleXP has the deepest Texas ownership data — if you need appraisal-roll royalty owners, that's their moat. Texas-Drilling.com has been at it since 2012 and holds TX well documents. But if what you actually want is answers — is this well still producing, how fast is it declining, what's left, who operates it now — we compute that, we show it free, and the everything price is $50, not $90–$250.
Ready for everything? Claim the $50 founding price →
Comparing the enterprise tier instead? See the WellDatabase comparison.