Lifecycle cost estimator · free, runs in your browser

The price is the small number. Count what it costs to get in, stay, and get out.

Enter seats, price, and the hours you expect to spend. The estimator returns implementation cost, annual run cost, the one-time cost of leaving, total cost of ownership over one to five years, and a switching ratio that says how much the exit should weigh in the decision.

Every formula, default, and threshold is published, with the date each was last reviewed. Every number you did not type is listed as an assumption you can change. Nothing you enter here is sent to a server or stored; the page counts an anonymous visit like every page on this site. No vendor is named or quoted.

Showing an example: a 25-person team on a per-seat plan. Not a vendor quote.

Buy itThe subscription and the one-time work before the tool earns anything.

Pricing model

Most team plans bill per seat; some bill one price per workspace.

Seats

Everyone who needs a login, including part-time and admin accounts.

people

Monthly price per seat

The list or quoted price at the plan you would actually buy.

$ / seat / month

Contract term

How long you are committed at signing. Annual plans are 12.

months

Setup and configuration hours

Accounts, permissions, fields, templates, and settings before anyone can work.

hours

Integrations to connect

Each system this tool must exchange data with.

count

Hours per integration

Connect, map fields, test one failure, and document it.

hours each

Data migration hours

Export from the old tool, clean, import, and reconcile totals.

hours

Training hours per seat

Time each person spends learning instead of working.

hours / seat

Internal hourly cost

Fully loaded cost of your own people's time. Salaried time is not free.

$ / hour

External hourly rate(optional)

Integrator or consultant rate, if you will use one.

$ / hour

External hours(optional)

Leave at 0 if the implementation is entirely internal.

hours

Run itWhat it costs to keep the tool working each year.

Administrator hours per month

User changes, permissions, vendor escalation, renewals, and small fixes.

hours / month

Expected annual price increase

Applied once at the first renewal, then held flat for planning.

Leave itWhat it costs to get off the tool and onto something else.

Export fidelity

What the vendor's export actually gives you back. Run the exit test before trusting this.

Re-implementation hours on the replacement

Setup, integrations, and configuration on whatever replaces this tool.

hours

Parallel-run months

Months you pay for both tools while the replacement is proven.

months

Retraining hours per seat

Time each person spends learning the replacement.

hours / seat

Data reconstruction hours

Hours to rebuild the working state from what the export actually gives you, before the fidelity multiplier.

hours

Contract months remaining at exit

Months you must still pay after deciding to leave.

months

Replacement monthly price(optional)

Optional. If 0, the parallel run assumes the replacement costs the same as this tool.

$ / month

Assumptions you can change

The only numbers you did not type. Each multiplies your data reconstruction hours according to the export fidelity you picked.

Full export with a working migration path

1× — you rebuild only what the import misses.

× reconstruction hours

Archive only (data leaves, working state does not)

2× — records exist but relationships, history, and settings are re-keyed by hand.

× reconstruction hours

No usable export

4× — the working state is reconstructed from screenshots, reports, and memory.

× reconstruction hours

Price increase is applied once at the first renewal, then held flat.
Replacement price in the parallel run: not entered, so it assumes $450 / month, the same as this tool.
Contract months remaining and parallel-run months are added separately. Reduce one if they overlap.
All amounts are shown in whole dollars; the math keeps the cents.

Leaving costs about 16 months of running this tool.

Model v1.0.0, published 2026-09-03. How this is calculated.

Stay another year

$9,270

Steady-state run cost, one year.

Leave now

$11,775

One-time exit and replacement cost.

Switching ratio exit ÷ year-one run

1.31

Plan the exit a year ahead. Exit costs between half and one and a half years of run cost. Budget it, name an owner, and start the export test before renewal.

Implementation costOne time, before the tool earns anything: $8,813
Annual run costYear one $9,000 · steady state $9,270: $9,000
Exit and replacement costOne time, itemized: $11,775

Setup and configuration	24 h × $75	$1,800
Integrations	3 × 8 h × $75	$1,800
Data migration	16 h × $75	$1,200
Training	1.5 h × 25 seats × $75	$2,813
External help	8 h × $150	$1,200

Subscription, year one	$450 × 12	$5,400
Subscription, following years	$5400 × (1 + 5%)	$5,670
Administration, each year	4 h × 12 × $75	$3,600

Contract still owed	6 months × $450	$2,700
Parallel run, paying both	2 months × ($450 + $450 assumed)	$1,800
Re-implementation on the replacement	40 h × $75	$3,000
Retraining	1 h × 25 seats × $75	$1,875
Data reconstruction	16 h × 2 (archive export) × $75	$2,400

Total cost of ownership over

Implementation plus run cost for each year.

Implementation$8,813
Year 1 run$9,000
Year 2 run$9,270
Year 3 run$9,270
Ownership, 3 years$36,353
Plus a planned exit at the end$48,128

Inputs, assumptions, and results as a worksheet you can paste anywhere.

The same worksheet for a spreadsheet. Amounts are unrounded so totals re-derive exactly.

The link carries your numbers after the #, which browsers never send to a server. Anyone you send it to opens this same estimate.

Copies a citation naming the model version, so a figure in a deck can be traced back.

This is a planning calculation built from your own inputs, not a measured migration. Replace every assumption with an invoice, a quote, or a timed export test before you rely on it. Software Sausage does not take vendor payment for placement.

What it counts

Implementation

Setup, integrations, data migration, training, and any external help, priced at the hourly costs you enter. One-time.

Annual run

Subscription plus administrator hours. Year one at today's price; steady state with your expected increase applied once, then held flat.

Exit and replacement

Contract still owed, months paying for both tools, re-implementation, retraining, and data reconstruction scaled by how good the export really is. One-time.

The vocabulary matches the first-year cost worksheet and risk register in the $39 decision report, so a worksheet copied from here drops into that document without translation.

How to read the switching ratio

The ratio divides the one-time cost of leaving by one year of running the tool. It is a planning heuristic, not a benchmark; the thresholds are round numbers chosen so a team can say the reading out loud in a budget meeting.

Under 0.5	You can leave in a quarter's budget. Lock-in is not the constraint; fit is.
0.5 to 1.5	Plan the exit a year ahead. Budget it, name an owner, and start the export test before renewal.
Above 1.5	The exit is the decision. Treat the purchase as a multi-year commitment and negotiate export terms before signing.

What this does not know

Whether the export is really usable. The fidelity choice is yours until you run the exit test on a representative workspace.
Real hours. Setup, migration, and reconstruction estimates should be replaced by a timed pilot before the number reaches a budget.
Discounts, promotions, add-ons, overage, support tiers, tax, and the renewal increase the vendor will actually apply. Use a dated quote.
Value. This page counts cost only. A tool that costs more to leave can still be the right decision if it does the job.

Software Sausage does not take vendor payment for placement, and this estimator has no vendor data in it. It is arithmetic on your inputs.