The real cost of a SaaS seat
A $40 seat is never $40. Add the seats you forgot, the tier you were pushed into and the tools that glue it together.
Every tool you rent is priced per person. That feels fair until you hire.
The sticker price
Forty dollars a seat, twenty-five people. That's $12,000 a year, and it's the number on the pricing page.
The tier creep
The feature you actually need is on the next plan up. So is single sign-on. The seat price quietly becomes sixty-five.
The glue
Three rented tools don't talk to each other, so you rent a fourth to connect them. Someone still maintains the spreadsheet that holds it all together.
The exit cost
Eventually you'll leave. The migration is a project with its own budget, and the export never has everything.
A $40 seat is never $40.
Add it up
For an illustrative 25-person team, sticker price, tier creep and glue reach about $31,000 a year by year three. That's an illustration, not a quote. Your numbers will differ, and they're worth writing down.
