Intragentic
All guides

When custom software pays off instead of a subscription

Per-user fees or your own software? An open worked example of when the subscription stays the better choice and what the contract says about switching.

Published
Reading time
6 minutes

Many owners only ask whether custom software instead of subscriptions is the better choice once the fees catch their eye. A software subscription is charged per user and month, and every new hire adds to the total.

Take a made-up inspection service for fire protection equipment in Fürth. The technicians fill in inspection records in a field service app, and the office plans routes in a second program, both billed per user. Because every major customer wants its own site lists, inspection intervals and reports, the office keeps a spreadsheet alongside. It retypes results for the customer reports. Invoices come from the accounting software, and that stays.

When off-the-shelf software is the better choice

For tasks that run the same way in every business, off-the-shelf software usually remains the right choice: financial accounting, payroll, email, office, calendar. When tax or reporting rules change, the vendor supplies the update, and the connection to your tax adviser is already in place. We do not build custom accounting software or a replacement for office software.

With only a few users, the numbers also favour the subscription. If the fees you would save are below the smallest operations tier of €490 net a month, there is no break-even point. If your industry software already covers the process, stay with it. And without a contact person in the business who knows the process, custom software has nothing to stand on.

When custom software is worth considering

Custom software is worth a look if your process differs from standard software and, today, spreadsheets and retyping connect the programs. Or if many users pay for features they hardly need. Often the answer is both: the custom software takes over the special part and connects accounting, email or industry software.

In the made-up inspection service, that would be an app for inspection records and routes, with the customers’ site lists. If it includes AI, for example a draft report built from the records, our rule applies. The AI drafts, and a person in the office checks every report and approves it before it goes to the customer. The technician still decides the inspection result, and the AI sends nothing on its own. Your instance and the models run on servers in Germany, and the default is dedicated instances with open-source models.

Who owns the code and the data

Under our terms and conditions, full payment gives you the exclusive right of use in the work results, source code included (§ 11(2) and (8)). For pre-existing components that we bring along, you get a non-exclusive, irrevocable right (§ 11(3)). At the latest on acceptance, we hand over source code, documentation, access credentials and your data in a common, machine-readable format (§ 11(9)). You can cancel operations with one month’s notice to the end of a month, first at the end of the three-month minimum term (§ 18(2)). You then receive the current state within 30 days (§ 18(6)).

For off-the-shelf software from the cloud, the Data Act, Regulation (EU) 2023/2854, has helped since 2025. Providers must make switching possible (Art. 23), and from 12 January 2027 they may no longer charge switching fees for it (Art. 29). The ongoing fee is not a switching fee, however, and fixed terms remain allowed (Art. 2 point 36, Recital 89). Art. 29 does not apply to custom-built software (Art. 31); there, the contract governs the exit. As of 21 October 2026; an amendment is being negotiated in Brussels.

A worked example

Worked example for the made-up inspection service, all prices net. All subscription figures are assumptions, not market prices.

  • Assumption: 26 users, 20 technicians and 6 people in the office.
  • Assumption: field service app €45 and route planning €15 per user and month, together €1,560 a month.
  • One-off: production build from €29,000, sprint credited. You only know the actual fixed price after the sprint.
  • Assumption: we set model and hosting costs above the agreed limit at zero.

Fees minus the operations tier give the difference per month. The fixed price divided by that difference gives the months to break-even. With the smallest tier, S at €490, €1,070 a month remains, and break-even would come after around 27 months. With the middle tier, M at €1,490, only €70 a month remains, which would mean around 414 months. Then there is no meaningful break-even point, because the operations tier tips the calculation.

As a variant, with reservations: the Digitalbonus Standard is a Bavarian grant for small businesses. If it were approved at its maximum of €7,500, break-even with tier S would come after around 20 months.

The calculation leaves out price changes to the subscription and your own working time for introduction and data migration. It also leaves out further development beyond what is included and the time freed up in the process. We measure the latter in the sprint instead of estimating it.

What it costs

All prices are net. In the AI sprint for €4,900 we spend five working days mapping the process, counting users and fees and estimating monthly running costs. A prototype starts from €14,900, the production build from €29,000. If you order the build within six months of the final presentation, we credit the full price of the sprint.

Operations cost €490, €1,490 or €2,900 a month in tiers S, M and L. They include hosting, monitoring, updates and a monthly report on costs and quality, and from tier M also further development. We measure model costs per transaction and show them every month. We serve larger companies on request, with an individual quote instead of a package price.

The Digitalbonus Bayern can fund custom development, setup and adaptation, including the introduction of industry software, but not office software, operating systems or standard hardware. It is only open to commercial businesses with fewer than 50 employees (full-time equivalents) and at most 10 million euros turnover or balance sheet total. The rule is apply first, order second, and your business submits the application itself. This is not legal, tax or funding advice.

How you can tell it pays off

We measure every month: the per-user fees the process costs today, against the operations tier plus measured model and hosting costs. We also measure the minutes the office spends retyping each customer report. Once the system is running, the comparison is in the report every month. If nothing pays off, the sprint report says so plainly: stay with your subscription.

If your business pays per user for a program that covers only half your process, tell us the program and the number of users. In a first call we work out whether a sprint will give you the figures for your decision.

Sources

All links accessed on 21 October 2026.

Let’s talk about your process.

A first call takes 30 minutes and costs nothing. Afterwards you know which step fits.

Request a first call

Assistant

Fixed answers, no AI