What rented software really costs a business
Monthly software looks cheap one tool at a time. The total is often a surprise. Zylo, a company that tracks how businesses spend on software, published its yearly SaaS Management Index in January, based on more than 40 million software licences.
It found that the typical company spends $9,455 per employee each year on software subscriptions. On average, 36% of the licences they pay for go unused. And 78% of IT leaders said they had been hit by unexpected charges in the past year, often from new AI features and usage-based pricing. 61% said rising software costs had forced them to cut other projects.
Building your own tool is easier than ever, but that is only half the story. In a Reddit thread from February, a trader built his own journal app with AI in under 30 minutes to replace a $50 subscription. The most useful reply pointed out that building is cheap, but keeping a tool working is not. Someone still has to fix bugs, update connections and keep it secure. This table shows how we help clients decide.
| Keep renting when |
Build custom when |
| A standard tool already fits how you work |
You bend your process to fit the tool, or copy data between tools by hand |
| You use most of the features you pay for |
You pay for many seats or features that nobody uses |
| The tool is part of a big platform you rely on, such as accounting |
The tool is a small, simple job that costs more every year |
| You have nobody to look after custom code |
You want a tool you own, with a team that maintains it for you |
When we build something custom, we plan for life after launch. Every app comes with clear documentation, and our care plans cover hosting, updates and fixes. We also build custom work for agencies as their white-label development team.
