How It's Calculated
The math is deliberately simple and transparent so you can sanity-check it against your own invoices. Here is exactly what happens behind the scenes:
- Monthly spend= number of SaaS tools × average cost per tool per month.
- Annual spend= monthly spend × 12.
- Annual cost per employee= annual spend ÷ number of employees.
- Potential annual savings= annual spend × consolidation savings % ÷ 100.
Worked example: with 12 tools at an average of $80/month, 10 employees, and a 15% consolidation estimate, the calculator returns a monthly spend of $960, an annual spend of $11,520, $1,152 per employee per year, and $1,728 in potential annual savings.
How To Use The Result
The cost-per-employee figure is the most useful benchmark. If your annual software cost per employee keeps climbing while headcount stays flat, that is usually a sign of tool sprawl — multiple subscriptions that overlap on features you only use a fraction of. The consolidation slider is a conservative way to estimate what you would recover by replacing two or three point solutions with a single suite that does the same job.
Treat the savings figure as a planning estimate rather than a guarantee. Real savings depend on annual-billing discounts, seat counts, and whether a consolidated tool genuinely replaces what you cut. The point is to put a number on the question worth asking every quarter: are we still getting value from everything we pay for?
Where The Money Usually Hides
- Duplicate CRMs and pipelines: sales, marketing, and support often each buy their own.
- Unused seats: licenses for employees who left or never onboarded.
- Single-feature apps: tools bought for one workflow that a broader platform already covers.
- Annual auto-renewals: subscriptions nobody reviewed before they renewed.
Want to cut the bill without losing capability? Start with the systems most businesses overpay for: read our best CRM for small business 2026 guide, or compare options in our business phone systems roundup.