Insights · How we charge
Lease to own vs SaaS
SaaS rents you access, per user, for as long as you use it. Lease to own lets you pay for a system you own in fixed monthly instalments, then keep it. For most companies that run software for years, owning works out cheaper than renting per seat — and you are never locked in. Here is the honest comparison.
What SaaS really costs
The sticker price is per user, per month. The real price is that number times your whole team, every month, forever.
A subscription is easy to start and someone else runs it — that is the appeal, and it is real. But three things add up quietly: the price rises as you add people, it never stops, and the tool stays someone else's. You bend your process to fit the software, your data lives in their system, and the day they raise prices or retire a feature, you have no say.
What lease to own means
A first payment, a fixed monthly fee over 12, 24 or 36 months, and the system is yours at the end.
- The monthly fee does not change with your headcount — add fifty users and it costs the same.
- Maintenance is included for the whole term, on its own line, so there are no surprises.
- At the end of the term you own the system outright. No licence to renew, no seat to keep paying for.
- It is built around how you actually work, not the other way round.
A lease adds 5% per year of the term over paying on delivery — the cost of spreading it out — but it turns a one-off capital project into a predictable monthly number.
When SaaS is the right call
We are not against subscriptions. If an off-the-shelf tool already fits the job, your team is small and stable, or you need something live this week, SaaS is the pragmatic choice — don't build what you can rent cheaply. It starts to hurt when you grow into bigger per-seat bills, when you outgrow what the tool can do, or when the work really needs to run your way. That is the point to look at owning instead.
The rule of thumb
Add up what a SaaS tool costs your whole team over three years, including the seats you'll add as you grow. Compare it to a one-off custom build you own. If the software is central to how you work — and especially if headcount on it is rising — ownership usually wins, and you keep the asset. See what a build costs in what custom software costs, or try the numbers on the pricing page.