What your software stack really costs (and what you pay for twice)
Nobody knows their monthly software spend until they write it down. The number almost always surprises, and half the excess comes from duplicated features.
Short answer
SaaS spending at a small business gets out of control for three reasons: annual subscriptions that renew without warning, paid seats for people who no longer use the tool, and duplicated features across two services. The way to find it is to list everything with its price and its billing cycle, and then group by function instead of by provider. That is where the duplicates appear.
- Last updated
- July 15, 2026
- Last verified
- July 15, 2026
Ask anyone running a small business how much they spend on software each month and they will give you a number. Ask them to write it down tool by tool and the number goes up between 40 and 100%.
It is not carelessness: subscriptions charge themselves, on different dates, in different currencies and sometimes on different cards.
Step 1: write it all down
Go through the last three months of statements for every card you use for the business. Three months, not one: annual charges do not show up in a single month.
Note the name, the price, the cycle (monthly or annual) and what you use it for. No judging yet.
The SaaS cost calculator does the arithmetic and the breakdown by category. Everything runs in your browser: the data never leaves your machine.
Step 2: group by function, not by vendor
This is where the duplicates show up. Do not ask "do I use this tool?" but "what else does exactly this?".
The classic duplications:
- Storage: paying for Dropbox while already on Google Workspace
- Video calls: paying for Zoom while Meet or Teams are included
- Forms: a dedicated service when your CRM already has them
- E-signature: contracted separately and also included in the suite
- Design: two tools where one is enough
Step 3: check the seats, not just the subscriptions
Per-user tools are the ones that inflate the most. Someone left the team months ago and their seat is still being billed. Go into every admin panel and count how many active licenses there are against how many people work there today.
Step 4: decide what stays, what moves down a plan and what gets self-hosted
Three columns:
Stays. You use it, there is no reasonable substitute, the price is proportional.
Moves down a plan. You are on a higher plan because of one feature you use twice a year.
Gets self-hosted. There is an open source alternative and the annual saving justifies the work. The most frequent candidates are newsletter, analytics and automation.
The mistake in the opposite direction
Cancelling everything and self-hosting everything is expensive too, only the cost is paid in hours. If you are on your own, maintaining six services yourself will take the time you should be spending on your business.
Frequently asked questions
Is the annual plan always worth it?
Only if you are sure you will keep using the tool for twelve months. The typical annual discount is around 15 or 20%, but if you stop using it in the fourth month, you paid eight months for nothing.
What is the most common duplicated expense?
Cloud storage and video calls. Almost every suite includes both, and even so a lot of people pay separately for Zoom and for Dropbox while having Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 with the same thing included.
When is it better to self host instead of paying?
When the monthly spend on self hostable tools passes about thirty dollars and you have someone to maintain the server. Below that, the time costs more than the savings.
What do I do with the tools I barely use?
Move them down to the free plan instead of cancelling entirely: you keep the data and the account. Cancelling usually means losing the history, and starting over is more expensive than the free plan.
