SaaS Cost Analysis
What SaaS really costs
The subscription fee is 25-40% of the real cost. Add labor, AI add-ons, and error costs — here's the full Total Cost of Ownership for popular tools.
Browse by category
Categories
Customer Support
4 vendors analyzed
Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Intercom cost 2-4x their sticker price when you add AI add-ons, labor, and error costs. See the full TCO breakdown.
CRM & Sales
3 vendors analyzed
Salesforce and HubSpot license fees are just the start. Add implementation, admin salaries, and AI add-ons — TCO runs 2-3x the sticker price.
Email Marketing
4 vendors analyzed
Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, and Klaviyo cost far more than the starting price. Contact-based billing, feature gating, and overages inflate the real TCO.
Accounting & Finance
3 vendors analyzed
Bill.com, Expensify, and NetSuite charge per-user and per-transaction. See the full TCO when you add fees, penalties, and hidden FX markups.
Project Management
4 vendors analyzed
Asana, Monday.com, and Jira cost more than the per-seat price. Forced seat bundles, AI credit metering, and tier jumps inflate the real spend.
Scheduling
1 vendor analyzed
Calendly costs $10-16/seat/mo with CRM gating, SMS credit limits, and linear per-seat scaling. See the full TCO for scheduling tools.
Document & E-Signature
2 vendors analyzed
DocuSign's $10/mo hides envelope caps, per-use overages, 20% renewal hikes, and add-on fees. Real TCO runs 2-3x the sticker price.
Social Media Management
2 vendors analyzed
Hootsuite now costs $199/user/mo with features locked behind $15K+ Enterprise. See the full TCO for social media tools and cheaper alternatives.
Analytics & BI
1 vendor analyzed
Tableau Creator costs $75/user/month before add-ons, training, and infrastructure. Real TCO runs 2-3x the license fee. See the full breakdown.
Data Entry & Workflow Automation
1 vendor analyzed
Zapier's $19.99/mo hides task overages, testing costs, and scaling traps. A 5-step Zap burns 5 tasks per run. See the real TCO breakdown.
HR & Payroll
2 vendors analyzed
BambooHR and Rippling advertise low per-employee prices, but add-ons, implementation fees, and peak billing push real costs 2-4x higher.
Website Builders
2 vendors analyzed
Webflow and Squarespace charge more than the headline price. Per-seat fees, CMS limits, transaction taxes, and add-ons push real costs 3-5x higher.
See what your SaaS stack really costs
Paste your QuickBooks export. Get your AI savings report in under 10 minutes. Your data never leaves your browser.