What a small business really spends on software per person

What does software really cost a small business?

Software costs the sum of the seats and usage you buy, plus the work needed to keep the tools useful. A per-person headline hides specialist seats, overlapping apps, billing commitments and setup time, so start with a company budget before dividing by headcount.

We make Mojobase. The budgets here are transparent examples, not survey results or a claim about what an average business spends. Competitor prices come from their own pricing pages, checked on 7 November 2026. All amounts are US dollars before tax.

A five-person service business can start with one office suite and simple shared processes. Another business with the same headcount might need a support inbox, appointment links, a task tool and AI workspaces. Neither budget is inherently wasteful: the question is whether the tools earn their place.

What does a five-person software budget look like?

A five-person office-only example costs $35 a month at Microsoft 365 Business Basic's paid-yearly rate. The table adds task, scheduling and support line items using the seats that perform each job, rather than assigning every product to everyone.

Job	Example plan	Price per paid seat per month	Paid seats	Monthly equivalent	Official source
Business email and office work	Microsoft 365 Business Basic, with Teams	$7, paid yearly	5	$35	Microsoft pricing
Shared task management	Todoist Business	$8, billed yearly	5	$40	Todoist pricing
Appointment booking	Calendly Standard	$10, billed yearly	2	$20	Calendly pricing
Customer support	Help Scout Standard	$25, billed yearly	2	$50	Help Scout pricing
Optional separate AI workspace	ChatGPT Business	Check current seat and billing requirements	As needed	Add the current quote separately	OpenAI pricing

These prices were checked on 7 November 2026. The first four rows use the suppliers' annual-commitment rates, expressed per month; the AI row requires a separate current quote. Monthly equivalents do not describe when cash leaves the bank. Check each supplier's payment schedule before buying.

Add the calculated line items for the tools you actually need, then divide by headcount if a per-person figure is useful. Add a separate assistant quote only for the people who need it. Only the two appointment hosts and the two support users need those specialist seats in this example.

This is a possible stack, not a shopping list. Microsoft 365 already includes tools for collaboration and work planning. Buying another task or booking product should solve a specific gap, rather than duplicate a feature because a comparison article includes it.

For a wider office-suite shortlist, compare Microsoft 365 alternatives.

Which costs are missing from a seat-price comparison?

A seat-price comparison misses variable usage, specialist services and the time spent moving work between systems. Add those as separate budget lines so a low subscription total does not conceal an expensive operating process.

Usage charges and add-ons

An AI seat price is not a promise of unlimited work. Credit purchases, API use or support automation can add another bill. Help Scout's pricing page lists Envoy at $0.75 per resolution, checked on 7 November 2026. Usage is separate from the seat line items; estimate it from representative conversations and check which resolutions are billable.

Tools outside the daily office

Bookkeeping, payroll, payment processing, inventory and industry-specific software belong in their own rows. We leave them unpriced because the right services depend on your country and business. Excluding a cost from a comparison does not make it disappear from the real budget.

Setup, migration and ongoing care

Record the time used to move data, create permissions, update policies and fix broken connections. Put an internal value on that time if it helps you decide. For example, track the hours spent maintaining connectors and reviewing automation each month, then value that effort using your own internal rate. Keep the assumption separate from vendor charges.

How do you find subscriptions you can actually cancel?

Map each paid tool to a job, an owner and the capability that makes it necessary. Cancel a subscription only after the replacement completes that job with the right access, export and history.

Audit question	Evidence to collect	Decision it supports
Who needs a paid seat?	People who actually perform the licensed work	Reduce unused seats where the contract allows
Which feature forces the paid tier?	A named requirement and the people using it	Keep, downgrade or replace the plan
Is the job already covered?	A completed example in an existing app	Avoid buying the same basic capability twice
What must move?	Records, files, permissions and links people depend on	Price the migration before cancelling
When can the bill stop?	Renewal date, notice period and commitment	Count savings from the real cancellation date

Run the audit with the person who answers support and the person who delivers the work. A buyer may see two document tools as duplicates; staff may depend on a permission or a client-sharing process that only one provides.

How does Mojobase compare with a separate software stack?

Mojobase costs $139 a month for five people at list price, or $105 on the founding price for the first 10 companies, for life. The formula is $39 monthly for the first person and $25 for each after; founding rates are $29 and $19 respectively.

The subscription includes Email, Team chat, Calendar, Documents, Tasks, Customers, Numbers, Handbook, Agents and a monthly AI allowance. Hosted mailboxes on your own domain are included in the per-person price, with no separate mailbox fee. Mojobase also connects existing Gmail and Outlook mailboxes. Stripe invoice tracking and reminder drafts are included; keep Stripe to create and send invoices. If you keep a separate provider for its spreadsheets, slides or video calls, that provider's subscription remains a cost.

Requirement	Mojobase's scope	Reason to keep a specialist
Customer conversations	Support Inbox and website Messenger beside customer records	Phone support, SLA policies or advanced routing
Sales relationships	People and companies with email, meetings and tasks	Deal stages and sales forecasting
Scheduling	Calendar and one kind of one-on-one booking link	Round-robin or several bookable meeting types
Project work	Tasks, projects, subtasks and recurring work	Gantt charts, dependencies or complex planning
Files and knowledge	Documents and the Handbook, including a public help center	Spreadsheets, slides or specialist document workflows
Business numbers	Shopify, Amazon and ad-platform sales and spend	Bookkeeping, expenses, bank feeds or tax

The separate stack may be the better buy when its specialist capabilities are essential. An office-only setup can also cost less than Mojobase. Compare the actual work covered, not the number of product logos in a bundle.

When does paying for one connected workspace make sense?

A connected workspace makes sense when shared context removes recurring work: finding the customer thread, checking the policy, preparing the meeting and assigning the follow-up. Its value depends on people using those connections and retiring subscriptions they no longer need.

Mojobase's AI can prepare a support draft from the published Handbook and customer conversation, or turn meeting notes into suggested Tasks. Scheduled runs draft and suggest; supported direct changes follow Suggest or Auto settings, and Activity records what happened with Undo where available. You can also connect your own assistant through one MCP server.

Keep a separate AI subscription if people need it for work outside Mojobase; it is an optional additional cost, not a bill the suite automatically eliminates. Start from the pricing page, list the tools you can actually retire, and keep the specialist costs the business still needs.