Comparing a $299 licence with a $199 monthly platform is not a cost comparison. It is a comparison of two different cash-flow shapes. The licence is front-loaded; the subscription is spread out and usually tied to order volume. To choose, model three years and include the work each option pushes onto your team.
The model below is illustrative. Change the assumptions to match your market. The point is the structure, not the exact totals.
Assumptions
- 1,000 orders per month at a $25 average order value.
- $25,000 monthly gross merchandise value.
- Hosting $30 per month for self-hosted; included in SaaS.
- Payment fees 2.5% in all models (they do not disappear).
- One developer/agency for branding and integration in the self-hosted and custom models.
- No custom feature development beyond the initial launch.
| Cost | Self-hosted licence | Hosted SaaS | Custom build |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up-front software | $299 | $0–$500 setup | $30,000–$60,000 |
| Implementation | $1,000–$3,000 | Included / low | Included in build |
| Monthly platform | $0 | $199 | $0 |
| Per-order fee | $0 | 1–3% of GMV | $0 |
| Hosting (36 months) | $1,080 | Included | $1,080+ |
| Maintenance (36 months) | $3,600–$7,200 | Included | $9,000–$18,000 |
| Indicative 3-year total | $6,000–$11,500 | $8,000–$28,000+ | $40,000–$80,000+ |
Illustrative only. SaaS per-order fees at 1,000 orders × $25 × 1–3% add $250–$750 per month, or $9,000–$27,000 over three years. Custom build ranges depend heavily on scope and region.
Why the SaaS total is wider
A SaaS platform may include hosting, updates and support, which is real value. But its cost scales with success: more orders mean more per-order fees. A 2% fee on $25,000 GMV is $500 a month. At $100,000 GMV it is $2,000 a month. The platform is not necessarily overpriced; it is priced like a partner, not a product.
Self-hosted software inverts that. The licence is fixed, but you carry hosting, maintenance and the responsibility for upgrades. If you have a developer, that trade is usually favourable at volume. If you do not, the maintenance line can exceed the subscription.
Why custom is rarely the cheapest first move
A custom build gives you exactly the flow you specify. It also gives you the full maintenance burden from day one. A $40,000 build is not finished at launch; it needs security patches, app-store updates, gateway changes and feature work. For a standard delivery model, you are paying to recreate software that already exists.
Custom makes sense when the operation is genuinely different: proprietary routing, unusual compliance, deep hardware integration or a brand experience that cannot be configured. Those are not typical first launches.
The costs the table hides
- Your time. Vendor management, testing and support are real hours.
- Opportunity cost. A three-month custom build is three months without revenue.
- Migration. Leaving a SaaS platform may require rebuilding apps and storefronts.
- Payment fees. They apply to every model and scale with GMV.
- Refunds and fraud. Usually 1–3% of order value in the first months.
How to run your own model
- Estimate orders and AOV for months 1, 6, 12, 24 and 36.
- List every fixed fee and every percentage fee.
- Add implementation and the internal hours to manage it.
- Add maintenance at 10–20% of the initial build per year for custom.
- Compare cumulative cash, not monthly sticker price.
- Stress-test a 2× growth case; percentage fees dominate there.
See the one-time vs subscription comparison, the hidden-cost checklist, or the $299 licence.
White-label deployments have a different cost profile; see the white-label licence guide for the build and handover costs.