Something may seem expensive, but that doesn't mean that it's not good value if you do a cost benefit analysis.
Let's say it would cost $300 to encode a script with some unspecified product; the main thing to determine is whether over time you are going to generate at least $300 more in revenue than you would have by not encoding. It's impossible to know for sure, but if it's likely that you would then it was worth encoding, and if not, it wasn't. It's really that simple.
With different encoding products available from different providers, you might also only need to spend $200 instead of $300, or you might spend more than $300. However if the costs are one off charges and not annually recurring, differences in encoding cost become increasingly and potentially exponentially insignificant over time, with the ongoing continuous benefit of one product over another (such as ease of use, support, recognition by hosts etc.) becoming increasingly the dominant and most important consideration. So in other words, cost should generally be the least important consideration if you take a long term view.
