Build vs buy
Three-year cost of a per-seat SaaS tool next to a custom build, with seat growth. You enter both sides. Every number below is yours to change; the defaults are assumptions, and the result is an estimate.
Your assumptions
Default 25, an assumption. People who need a licence now.
- $
Default $49, an assumption. From the vendor's pricing page; business tiers often land at $30–$100 a seat.
- %
Default 20%, an assumption. Per-seat pricing scales with headcount; a growing team pays more each year.
- $
Default $5,000, an assumption. Onboarding, integrations and data migration; often forgotten.
- $
Default $60,000, an assumption. Your estimate or a quote you have in hand. Not an Elegnoia price.
- $
Default $12,000, an assumption. A common rule of thumb is 15–25% of the build cost each year.
- $
Default $400, an assumption. Cloud, model usage and third-party APIs for the custom tool.
Over three years the SaaS tool costs an estimated $51,892 less: $110,400 to build and run against $58,508 in subscriptions.
- SaaS subscription
- Custom build
- SaaS, 3-year totalseats 25 → 30 → 36
- $58,508
- Custom build, 3-year totalbuild + $12,000/yr + $400/mo
- $110,400
- SaaS, year 1
- $19,700
- Custom build, year 1
- $76,800
- Crossoverwhen the build becomes the cheaper cumulative option
- Not within 3 years
›How this is calculated
- seats in year n = seats today × (1 + growth %)^n
- SaaS cumulative = setup + Σ monthly (seats × price per seat)
- build cumulative = build cost + Σ monthly (hosting + maintenance ÷ 12)
- crossover = first month where build cumulative ≤ SaaS cumulative
An estimate from the numbers you entered. It is not a quote, a forecast or a guarantee, and it contains no Elegnoia pricing.
Email me this estimate
A copy of your assumptions and results, with a link that reopens this page with your numbers.
Check it against your workflow
Fifteen minutes is enough to see whether these assumptions hold for you and what a first build would cover.
Other estimates
- Support automation ROIWhat a support agent that deflects tickets would save you each month, and how long it takes to recover a project budget.
- Agentic workflow savingsHours and cost an agent gives back when it takes over a share of a repetitive task.
- E-commerce AI upliftRevenue and margin from product recommendations and fewer stock-outs, from your store's own numbers.
- AI readiness assessmentTen questions, a score band and three things to do first.
Let’s build
Want these numbers checked against your real workflow?
A 15-minute call is enough to tell whether a build is worth scoping. We look at your numbers, not a template.
Or email us at contact@elegnoia.com