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Calculation

Updated

Standard software or a custom tool: what it costs over five years.

Licences per user, the rollout and the Excel spreadsheet you still need alongside it. Enter your figures, and the calculator puts a custom tool next to them. Deliberately conservative, so that the figure holds up in a conversation.

Sketch of a mechanical adding machine with a paper roll and crank, a long printed strip on the desk and two stacks of coins of different heights.

Inputs

Your figures

Suggested values are already filled in. Change whatever you know better.

List prices €8 to €15 per employee per month
users
€
€
hours per week Everyone together who keeps lists, reconciles data or chases queries alongside the software.
several roles, two to three systems
More assumptions: hourly rate and side work after the rebuild
€ per hour
percent The part of today's side work that is still done by hand with the custom tool, such as queries and special cases; 20 percent is a conservative value from our projects.

Result

The calculation over 5 years

With JavaScript, the calculation appears here instantly. Without JavaScript, we calculate on the server and send it to you by email; the form is below.

  • Standard software
  • Custom tool

The analysis checks whether this holds true for you, using your own invoices.

The calculation over 5 years
ItemStandard softwareCustom tool
Licences or running costs
Rollout or build
Side work in Excel and email
Total

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Form

Calculation by email

Optional. You receive the calculation with your figures by email, to forward to management or purchasing. We send nothing else.

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One email, nothing else

Assumptions

How the calculator works

  • Standard software: licence times users times 12 months over five years, with a 5 percent price increase per year, plus the rollout and the side work (hours per week times 52 times hourly rate).
  • Custom tool: the build at €25,000 to €60,000 depending on the number of roles and systems, a typical range from our projects so far, not a quotation. Added to this are running costs of 20 percent of the build per year for hosting, model costs and maintenance, and the remaining side work (preset to 20 percent, adjustable under More assumptions).
  • Ongoing operation for comparison: if you book our ongoing operation at €2,900 a month (net, plus VAT) instead of covering the running costs yourself, the calculator shows that total below the result. It includes monitoring, model updates and a quota for extensions, and can be cancelled monthly.
  • Conservative calculation: the side work does not fall to zero, and internal admin hours for the standard software are not included. The build is not a quotation; we give you the fixed price after the analysis.
  • Suggested values: manufacturers' list prices as of 2026: HR systems €8 to €15 per employee, ticketing systems $19 to $115 per agent, knowledge platforms around $8 per user per month. The presets are 150 users at €10, 12 hours of side work per week and a fully loaded hourly rate of €45.

Custom software at mid-sized companies: what it costs, and when building your own beats standard software in 2026

Handover

The first step is a 30-minute call.

You tell us about the workflow that costs you the most time. We tell you honestly whether AI pays off there and what the next step would be. Whether a workflow analysis follows is up to you.

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