Free tool
Build vs License Software Cost Calculator
Your estimates
Amounts in US dollars. The starting figures are an example; replace them with yours.
Build it
Salary plus overhead
License it
- Cost to build
- $120,000
- Maintenance per year
- $24,000
- Build total over 3 years
- $192,000
- Licence total over 3 years
- $20,000
- Licensing saves
- $172,000
- Building becomes cheaper after
- Never: the licence fee is below your maintenance cost
How the calculation works
Build cost is the number of developers × months to build × the monthly cost of each developer, including salary and overhead.
Maintenance is a yearly percentage of the build cost for bug fixes, security updates, upgrades and small features. Enter the figure you expect for your team.
Licence cost is the setup fee plus the monthly licence fee for every month in the period.
If the licence fee is higher than your monthly maintenance, building eventually costs less; the calculator shows how many months that takes.
What the totals leave out
Time to market: while you build, the product earns nothing. A licensed product can start earning as soon as it is set up under your brand.
Risk: an in-house build can run late or over budget. Licensing a product that already serves customers removes most of that risk, but you depend on the founder for updates.
Control: building gives you full control of the roadmap and the code. With a licence, agree on support, updates, data export and, for critical software, source-code escrow.
Common questions
Is it cheaper to build or license software?
Licensing usually costs less over the first years when the software is not what sets your business apart, because you skip the build and the founder carries most of the maintenance. Building pays off when the software is central to what you sell, or when the licence fee is high and you will use the product for many years.
How much maintenance should I budget for software I build?
Plan for yearly costs on top of the build: fixes, security updates, dependency upgrades and small features. Ask your developers for an estimate based on your stack, and enter it as a percentage of the build cost.
Can I license software and still own it?
A standard licence gives you the right to use or resell the software, not ownership. Some founders sell a copy of the source code for a one-time fee, which lets you run and change it yourself; the original stays the founder's unless you agree otherwise.
Where can I find software to license instead of building it?
LicenseSaaS lists SaaS products, AI tools, APIs and source code whose founders offer licence, white-label and reseller deals. You contact the founder directly to agree terms.
Find software to license or white-label
Browse SaaS products, AI tools and APIs whose founders offer licence, white-label and reseller deals, and contact them directly.