It is an expensive tool. 

There's a free trial for one month for Adobe Experience Manager, which you can use for learning purposes, then, after the trial period, you'll need to purchase the license. Adobe offers a few plans for Adobe Experience Manager, but I'm unaware of how much my company is paying.

It's a costly solution. I would rate the price at two out of five on a scale from one to five, where one is the most expensive and five is the most competitive.

Users have to pay a yearly licensing fee to use the solution, which is highly-priced.

First, you're going to spend a lot more than you think.

Depends on usage and number of sites to run, but pricey.

The cost can be high. But for large websites with a lot of dyanmic data like e-commerce, or for clients looking for user-data based campaigning, the solution can be very efficient in the long-term. 

CQ is very expensive. The licensing model is not clear.

Keep solution architecture easy to avoid unnecessary license costs. Start with the basic licenses to solve your immediate needs, and only increase them if the project really requires it.

There are different levels of licenses: Evaluate your needs and take the license based on that. In the future, upgrade it per need.