Calculator: in how many years software you own costs less than the subscription
Enter today’s fee and what the project would cost. The count compares three, five or ten years of subscription with software paid once, plus support and running costs. Your browser does the math: no number reaches us.
In how many years software you own costs less than the subscription
Enter what you pay today and what the project would cost. The calculation compares the fee with the project plus support and running costs, year by year.
- project + support
- subscription
- Subscription over 5 years
- 100,000 €
- Project, support and running costs over 5 years
- 52,500 €
- Difference
- 47,500 €
Over 5 years of subscription you spend €100,000. The project pays for itself in about 1.7 years; from then on you pay only support and running costs, and the software is yours. Worth a conversation.
Assumptions
- Cumulative fee = yearly fee, increased each year by the growth you set.
- Cumulative project cost = project price + (support + running costs) × years.
- No data migration cost and no internal time: they weigh on both options, and we estimate them in the proposal.
- A surface-level count, to see whether it is worth talking about. The real number comes from the written quote.
Your browser does the math: no number reaches us.
The calculator is the miniature version of the count we run in every proposal. The starting values come from our current offers: a €25,000 fixed-price project, support at €360 a month, hosting and AI model costs between €60 and €100 a month. The full ranges are on How much custom AI software costs.
The count usually works out when the tool you replace costs more than €15,000 a year. Under €10,000, keep the subscription. The full reasoning, with the criterion-by-criterion comparison and the cases where the subscription stays the right choice, is in Custom software or SaaS subscription: the three-year count. If your tool is the tender one, start from Custom tender software.