With AI agents, a custom system often costs less to build and run than the licences for an off-the-shelf one. Here is how to compare, and when SaaS is still the right choice.
A custom system of your own now often costs less than the licences for an off-the-shelf SaaS system. AI agents have made development so much cheaper that the calculation has turned. In the proposals we have made this autumn, the customer's total cost lands at roughly a quarter of what the equivalent SaaS service costs. Here is how to run the numbers for your own case, and how we build custom systems when the numbers point that way.
Why the calculation has turned
SaaS became the standard for a good reason: building your own was expensive. Programming was the bulk of a development project, so it only paid off for the largest companies or the most unique needs. Everything else was bought as a service, paid per user, and the way of working was adapted to the system.
Now AI agents do the programming. Experienced developers set the direction, review and make the decisions, but the building itself goes much faster. A system that does exactly what you need can be built in a few sprints, and running and hosting such a system usually costs little.
How to compare
Compare the total cost over three to five years. That is roughly how long a system usually lives before it is reviewed.
For the SaaS service:
- Licence per user and month, times the number of users, times twelve
- Add-on modules and integrations you pay extra for
- Price increases. Many vendors raise prices every year
- Growth. The cost grows with every new employee
- The time spent working around the system where it does not fit
For a system of your own:
- Development, as a bounded project at a fixed price
- Operations and hosting in the cloud
- Maintenance: monitoring, security updates and support
- Further development as needs change
An example of the order of magnitude: 40 users at SEK 400 a month comes to SEK 192,000 a year, almost a million over five years, before price increases and add-ons. That is the figure a system of your own should be compared with.
The responsibility comes with it
The most common objection to a system of your own is responsibility. With SaaS, the vendor takes care of operations, security, updates and support. Who does that for a system of your own?
The same company that builds it should. With us it is part of maintenance: systems are monitored continuously, the AI agents find and fix issues first, and a responsible person stands behind them. You get a system built for you, with the same responsibility a SaaS vendor takes. Read more about how we build and maintain custom software.
We have done it ourselves
We have replaced several of our own SaaS services with systems we built ourselves, for example for time reporting and e-signing. It saves us between SEK 50,000 and 100,000 a year, and the systems work exactly the way we do.
When SaaS is still right
An off-the-shelf system is still the right choice when:
- The process is standard and regulated, such as accounting and payroll. There you want what the vendor has already built and keeps up to date with legal requirements
- You use most of the system and the way of working fits
- It is a pure commodity, such as email and document management
A system of your own pays off when you pay for a large system but use a small part of it, when the system forces workarounds and manual work, when your way of working is what sets you apart, or when several systems need to fit together.
Next step
Pull together the licence costs for the systems you have today and consider how much of them you actually use. We are happy to run the numbers for your case. See how we approach custom software development or contact us.
