Add each subscription your business pays for. The calculator totals monthly and annual spend, cost per employee, and flags categories where you pay for more than one tool.
How it works
Monthly cost per tool = price per seat × seats (annual prices ÷ 12)Cost per employee = total monthly spend ÷ employeesOverlap = two or more tools in the same category
Defaults are illustrative examples, not benchmarks. Replace them with your own numbers. Prices from our reviews are indicative and dated.
Why audit your software spend
Small businesses tend to add subscriptions one at a time: a CRM for sales, a chat tool for the team, a design tool for marketing, an AI assistant someone signed up for on a card. Each is cheap on its own, which is why the total is rarely looked at. Listing everything in one place is the fastest way to find savings without cutting anything the team actually uses.
How to use it
- Export the last three months of card and bank statements and search for recurring software charges.
- Add each tool with its price, billing cycle and number of seats you pay for (not the number of people who use it).
- Enter your headcount to see cost per employee.
- Look at the overlap warnings — two tools in one category is the most common source of waste.
- For each tool, ask: who owns it, who used it in the last 30 days, and what would break if we cancelled?
What a healthy number looks like
There is no universal benchmark: a design agency will rightly spend more per head than a cleaning company. Track your own number quarterly instead, and make sure it moves in line with headcount and revenue rather than creeping up on its own.
How to use the results
Start by listing every subscription the business pays for, including tools on personal cards that are expensed. Group them by job — communication, files, projects, sales, finance, security, AI — so overlaps become obvious. The calculator shows total monthly and annual spend and cost per employee, which is the easiest number to track quarter by quarter.
- Two tools in the same category usually means one can go
- Seats assigned to people who left are pure waste
- Monthly plans you have kept for a year are usually cheaper on annual billing
- Free tiers can replace paid tools used by only one or two people
A quarterly software review
- Export card and bank statements for the quarter and list every software charge.
- Check active users in each tool's admin console.
- Remove unused seats and cancel tools nobody opened in 60 days.
- Put upcoming renewals in a shared calendar 60 days ahead.
- Re-run this calculator and compare cost per employee with last quarter.
Frequently asked questions
Is my data saved?
Your rows are saved only in your own browser (local storage) so they are there when you come back. Nothing is sent to our servers.
Should I include free tools?
Yes — add them at $0. They still carry security and data-ownership risk, and free plans often convert to paid as you grow.
How do I handle tools billed annually?
Choose the annual cycle and enter the yearly price; the calculator converts it to a monthly figure.
What is a typical software cost per employee?
It varies widely by industry and role. Track your own figure over time rather than comparing with averages; the trend matters more than the number.
Should I include free tools?
List them, because they often hold important data and may need paid plans later, but they do not add to cost.