Self-hosted or per-seat SaaS?
Per-seat software is excellent value at three staff and quietly punishing at twenty. Self-hosting flips a bill that scales with headcount into one that mostly does not. It is not free, though: the saving is real only if somebody maintains it.
The comparison, without the marketing
Every row is something we have actually been asked in a scoping call.
| Per-seat SaaS | Betr | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost at 5 staff | Roughly $150 to $300 a month across a couple of tools | Similar or slightly worse once our fee is counted |
| Cost at 20 staff | $600 to $1,200 a month, and rising with every hire | Broadly flat. Hosting barely notices the extra users. |
| Where the data lives | The vendor's infrastructure, under their terms | Your infrastructure, under yours |
| Customisation | What the vendor exposes | Configuration, integrations and branding, all under your control |
| Upgrades | Automatic, sometimes including changes you did not want | On a schedule we run, with a rollback path |
| If it breaks | A support queue | Us, with an agreed response time |
| Compliance posture | Depends on the vendor's region and terms | You choose the region and the retention |
| Switching cost later | Export what the vendor lets you export | It is your database. Take it. |
When the other option is the right one
A comparison page that never recommends the alternative is an advertisement, not a comparison.
Per-seat SaaS wins when
- You are under about eight staff and expect to stay there
- Nobody in the business wants to think about infrastructure, and paying to never think about it is worth the premium
- You need a feature only the commercial product has
If two of those are true of you, do that instead. We would rather tell you now than take a deposit for something that will not pay for itself.
We win when
- Your per-seat bills are growing faster than your revenue
- You have data you would rather not hand to a third party
- You want the tools branded as yours
If two of those are true, the build usually pays for itself inside a year. You can check that yourself on the instant scope page.
What this looks like as a build
Priced on the page, and you can add them to a scope without talking to anyone.
Self-Hosted Booking (Cal.com)
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Self-Hosted Shared Inbox (Chatwoot)
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Self-Hosted CRM (Twenty)
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Know which way you are leaning?
Price the build yourself first. If the number does not work, you have saved us both a call.