A five-person team cut its monthly SaaS bill by $344 after replacing or downgrading parts of an eleven-subscription stack. But once the team counted $86 in server and service costs and valued five monthly maintenance hours at $50 each, the estimated net saving was just $8 per month. That is Nikhil Agrawal’s reported case study—not an audited benchmark or a promise that open source will save every small business money.
What the $8 calculation includes
In a guide updated September 14, 2026, Nikhil Agrawal reports that eleven subscriptions for a five-person team cost $647 per month. The guide says its listed prices were current as of September 2026 and used annual billing where offered. After changing the stack, the team removed $344 in monthly SaaS costs, but added $86 per month for servers, backups, file storage, email delivery, and AI API use. Its remaining cash bill was $389 per month.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
| Item | Reported monthly amount | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Original SaaS stack | $647 | Eleven subscriptions for five people |
| SaaS costs removed | $344 | Monthly costs removed in the final configuration |
| Servers and services | $86 | Servers, backups, file storage, email delivery, and AI APIs |
| Remaining cash bill | $389 | After the reported changes |
| Ongoing maintenance | 5 hours × $50 = $250 | Author’s estimate of monthly time, valued at the author’s assumed hourly rate |
| Estimated net saving | $8 | After subtracting the $86 service costs and $250 time value from $344 in removed SaaS costs |
These figures and assumptions are Agrawal’s own estimates; they are not independently audited. The arithmetic makes the headline’s point: comparing subscriptions alone would overstate the saving if the replacement requires paid infrastructure and recurring operator time. Read Agrawal’s full account at Shortlisted.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Why the setup cost changes the first-year picture
The guide separately reports 40 hours of setup. It does not include those hours in the $8 monthly calculation. At the same assumed value of $50 per hour, 40 hours represent $2,000 of initial labor. That does not mean every team will spend that amount: it is the author’s valuation of the setup time in this specific case.
#1 Best Overall
For a decision, separate one-time migration effort from ongoing costs. A stack that nearly breaks even each month can still take a long time to recover substantial setup labor. Conversely, setup time may be worthwhile if it delivers control, learning, or other benefits you value—but those benefits are not the same thing as cash savings.
Why team size can change the arithmetic
Agrawal estimates that the same cost model would save about $460 per month at 20 people. The projection assumes per-seat subscription charges rise with headcount while server and maintenance costs remain relatively flat. It is a scenario under the guide’s assumptions, not a general result: workloads, support needs, licensing, and maintenance effort can also grow as a team expands.
Before extrapolating a small-team result, check which SaaS charges actually scale per user and which replacement costs would rise with usage. Storage, outgoing email, API calls, backups, and support demands may not stay flat when the team or its activity grows.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
Which changes stayed—and which did not
The guide describes a mixed stack rather than a wholesale move away from commercial software. These are Agrawal’s reported outcomes, not comparative product test results.
Rank #3
- Used Book in Good Condition
| Area | Reported change or decision | What the case illustrates |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace | AppFlowy replaced Notion and stayed | Linked Notion databases needed manual rebuilding during migration. |
| Automation | n8n replaced Zapier and stayed | The author reports an n8n webhook issue as a maintenance incident. |
| Customer messaging | Chatwoot replaced Crisp and stayed | Chatwoot ran out of memory, requiring attention. |
| Scheduling | Cal.com replaced Calendly and stayed | This was one of the swaps the author kept. |
| AI | Open WebUI and APIs partially replaced ChatGPT; some paid seats remained | Some heavier users missed AI features. |
| Video recording | Screenity and OBS partly replaced paid video tooling; some paid seats remained | Screenity lacked client-view analytics and convenient link sharing. |
| Design and search data | Canva and Ahrefs were retained | The author valued Canva’s template library and Ahrefs’ link data. |
| Password management | 1Password was retained | The guide reports keeping the paid product. |
| Authentication | Auth0 was downgraded to its free plan after checking eligibility | Free-plan eligibility was part of the decision. |
| Team chat | Mattermost was reversed in favor of Slack after five weeks | Clients and communities were already on Slack; the existing network mattered more than replacing the software. |
The pattern is more useful than a universal “replace” list: open-source alternatives can work well where the team controls the workflow, while established networks, proprietary data, and polished features can make an existing service costly to leave even when a substitute exists.
How to decide what belongs in your stack
Compare four practical options for each tool: keep the existing SaaS, run open-source software yourself, use a hosted open-source service, or combine them. The right choice depends on more than the license price.
- Calculate total cost: Include per-seat fees, hosting, backups, storage, email delivery, API usage, migration time, and recurring maintenance. Put one-time setup labor in its own line rather than hiding it in a monthly figure.
- Check the failure impact: Ask what happens if the service breaks overnight. An internal wiki or recording tool may tolerate a delay more easily than customer logins, payments, password access, or email delivery.
- Assess what is hard to replace: Software features may be reproducible; proprietary datasets, template libraries, client channels, and communities may not be. Agrawal’s return to Slack is an example of network dependence, while Canva’s templates and Ahrefs’ link data were reasons to retain those products.
- Test migration and feature gaps: Identify linked data, sharing workflows, analytics, and features that different team members rely on. A technically functional replacement can still impose manual work or remove capabilities that matter.
- Decide who will operate it: Self-hosting shifts responsibility for updates, backups, monitoring, recovery, and troubleshooting. Be honest about who owns that work and how much their time is worth.
Agrawal’s practical test is: “If this tool breaking at 3am would wake you up, pay someone else to be awake.” It is a useful way to think about the consequences of an outage, not a rule that every important service must remain a particular brand of SaaS.
Recommended Free Tools
Is self-hosting worth it for a small team?
It can be, but this case shows why “open source is free” is an incomplete cost argument. A small team may get a better outcome by replacing a few manageable tools, keeping services tied to customer access or proprietary value, and using hosted options where operating the software is not worth the team’s time. If you cannot name who will maintain a self-hosted service and what happens when it fails, a lower subscription bill may be a poor trade.
Best Value
The author also says the project was valuable for what the team learned. That is a legitimate benefit, but it is separate from the reported $8 monthly net saving. Whether that trade is attractive depends on your team’s labor costs, tolerance for operational work, and reasons for making the change.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
