Cost comparison
Subscriptions or ownership?
Owning your systems is not always cheaper. Here is how the two approaches differ, when a subscription is the better choice, and a calculator for your own numbers.
Start an assessmentSide by side
How the two approaches differ.
| Topic | Cloud subscription | Owned private cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Up-front cost | Little or nothing to start. | Hardware and setup labor are paid up front. |
| Ownership | The provider owns the system; you hold an account. | You own the hardware and the admin accounts on it. |
| Licensing | Per-user or per-tier fees, which the provider can raise over time. | Open-source software with no license fees. You pay for hardware and labor instead. |
| Portability | Export tools vary by provider, and some data or settings may not come with you. | Your data stays in open formats on hardware you control, so you can move it or hand it to another provider. |
| Control | The provider decides features, price changes, and how data is handled. | You decide when to update and who has access, and you carry that responsibility. |
| Support | Included, usually remote and ticket-based. | Hourly from a local technician, or a monthly plan of agreed hours. |
| Expansion | More seats or storage straight away, at the next price tier. | Add drives or services as you need them; a big jump in size can mean new hardware. |
A subscription is often the better choice when
- Your needs are small and a free or low-cost plan covers them.
- You need a provider-backed uptime guarantee or worldwide availability.
- You have no safe space or reliable power for hardware.
- You would rather pay a predictable monthly fee than anything up front.
Five-year math with your numbers
Check the math for your situation.
Enter the figures from your quote and what you pay for subscriptions today. Labor uses our published rate of $65 per hour. Every assumption is shown under the result, and the result can go either way.
Enter the hardware cost and setup hours from your quote, and what you pay for subscriptions now. No quote yet? Start an assessment and we will send you an itemized one.
How we price
Hardware at cost. Labor at $65 an hour.
No markup on equipment and no padded packages. You pay what the hardware actually costs, plus our time to set it up and look after it.
- Hardware
- Billed at the actual price we pay for the parts, with no markup. Your quote lists each part and its price, and you see the receipts.
- Freight and tax
- Passed through at the actual amounts on the order, not a flat allowance.
- Labor
- $65 per hour for setup, migration, and support. Your quote estimates the hours before any work starts.
- Ongoing support
- Billed at the same hourly rate. A monthly plan is an agreed number of hours, plus any service costs, such as cloud backup storage, passed through at actual amounts.
- Leasing
- Available on request through a third-party lender. The lender sets the lease terms, and you see them before you commit.
- Everything else
- Custom software and larger projects are quoted per project. Where a figure is an estimate, we say so.
Next step
Get real numbers for your situation.
An assessment ends with an itemized quote: each part at its actual cost, and the labor hours we expect. Put those numbers into the calculator and decide for yourself.
Want to see what a private cloud includes first? Explore private cloud