Booking software cost calculator

Compare up to three software setups using the actual plan and payment fees you expect to use. Add-ons and setup time can matter as much as the advertised subscription.

How the estimate is calculated

Subscription cash: monthly_fee × months, or one full annual payment
Processing: payment_volume × percentage_fee + transaction_count × fixed_fee
First-year cash: subscription_cash + add_ons + hardware + processing
Setup time value: hours × hourly_value
First-year economic cost: first_year_cash + setup_time_value
Recurring annual run rate: 12 × monthly_fee (or annual_payment) + annual_add_ons + annual_processing

Worked example: A user-entered $35/month plan for 12 months, $12,000 annual processed volume, 120 transactions, 2.9% + $0.30 fees, two setup hours at $40, no add-ons or hardware: subscription $420; processing $384; first-year cash $804; setup time $80; economic cost $884. These processing fees are illustrative, not a recommendation or quote.

Interactive calculation needs JavaScript. The formula and worked example above show how to calculate the same estimate by hand.

Your software scenarios

Enter the plan and payment fees you expect to use. Blank fields are not treated as zero: enter 0 where a cost does not apply.

Scenario label (optional)

Up to 40 characters, such as a provider and plan. No client data.

Fill the subscription from a checked public price (optional)

Fills the subscription price and its billing type (monthly or annual) and shows the date it was checked. Prices change: confirm the current price with the provider.

Subscription billing

Monthly feePay each month for the months you use.Annual paymentOne full payment for the year.

Monthly fee

The plan you expect to use. $0 to $10,000,000.

Number of paid months

Months you expect to pay in the first year. 1 to 12, whole number.

Add-on annual cost

Paid extras needed for your workflow. Enter 0 if none. $0 to $10,000,000.

A feature I need requires an add-on whose cost I do not know yet

Setup hours

Time to configure and migrate. Enter 0 if none. 0 to 10,000.

Hourly value of setup time

The value you place on your own time. $0 to $10,000.

Hardware or one-time cost

Card readers, migration fees and similar. Enter 0 if none. $0 to $10,000,000.

Card processing

Leave both fee fields blank if you do not know them yet: the result will say “Processing not included” and mark the totals incomplete.

Annual card payment volume

Total card payments processed in a year. $0 to $10,000,000.

Transaction count

Number of card payments in a year. 0 to 1,000,000, whole number.

Percentage processing fee

Leave blank if unknown: the result says "Processing not included". 0% to 20%.

Fixed processing fee per transaction

Enter 0 if your processor charges none. $0 to $10,000,000.

Select Calculate to see first-year cash, economic cost and the recurring run rate for each scenario.

Your inputs stay in this browser tab.

How the estimate is calculated

Subscription cash: monthly_fee × months, or one full annual payment
Processing: payment_volume × percentage_fee + transaction_count × fixed_fee
First-year cash: subscription_cash + add_ons + hardware + processing
Setup time value: hours × hourly_value
First-year economic cost: first_year_cash + setup_time_value
Recurring annual run rate: 12 × monthly_fee (or annual_payment) + annual_add_ons + annual_processing

Worked example

A user-entered $35/month plan for 12 months, $12,000 annual processed volume, 120 transactions, 2.9% + $0.30 fees, two setup hours at $40, no add-ons or hardware: subscription $420; processing $384; first-year cash $804; setup time $80; economic cost $884. These processing fees are illustrative, not a recommendation or quote.

Interactive calculation needs JavaScript. The formula and worked example above show how to calculate the same estimate by hand.

How to read the result

When you choose annual billing, the calculator shows the actual annual payment and its monthly equivalent; it never multiplies an annual payment by twelve. An annual monthly equivalent is not a month-to-month contract.

Taxes are excluded and not estimated. If a processing fee is missing, the result says "Processing not included" and the totals are marked incomplete; processing is never assumed to be free. If a required feature needs an add-on whose cost you do not know, the scenario is marked incomplete.

First-year cash is what you would pay. Economic cost adds the value of your setup time, so you can compare a cheaper tool that takes longer to configure with one that is quicker to set up.