The real cost of Timely
A 44-user team on Timely pays €18,000 in year one. At 10% annual price growth, that is €109,892 over 5 years, before headcount changes. A co-funded custom replacement costs €8,600 upfront per founding firm, then €2,500/year flat, for your whole team, with no per-seat charge, ever.
5-year cost comparison
| Year | Stay on Timely (cumulative) | Own your system (cumulative) | Annual saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1Break-even | €18,000 | €11,100 | €6,900 |
| Year 2 | €37,800 | €13,600 | €24,200 |
| Year 3 | €59,580 | €16,100 | €43,480 |
| Year 4 | €83,538 | €18,600 | €64,938 |
| Year 5 | €109,892 | €21,100 | €88,792 |
| 5-year total | ~€110,000 | ~€21,000 | ~€89,000 saved |
Modelled estimates: figures rounded to the nearest €1,000. Stay costs assume 10% annual price growth (industry average). Own costs: co-founder upfront share in year 1 plus first year's run fee, then €2,500/yr flat (hosting, ops, support) for your whole team. Your actual number will differ; use the calculator for your seat count and price.
What drives the cost
- Per-seat model: every new hire adds to the bill. At 44 users, that is €18,000/yr before your next hire.
- Annual price increases: SaaS vendors raise prices roughly 10% per year. There is no ceiling and no negotiating power as a small team.
- Features you do not use: you pay for the full product, but most teams use only 20–30% of its capabilities. The rest is dead weight you fund every month.
- Data held hostage: stop paying and you lose access to your own history, records, and exports until the invoice is settled.
What you get instead
Flat annual fee, not per seat
One fixed price covers hosting, maintenance, security, and support for your entire team. Add staff, change processes: the fee stays the same. Founder pricing is locked for 10 years.
Your data, perpetual licence
Your data is fully exportable, any time. Your contract includes a source-code escrow clause: your access is contractually protected even if Rollout IT ever stops trading. Your own isolated instance, your data never on a shared platform.
Senior engineers, on call
Forty engineers, 50+ products shipped since 2018, not a freelancer or a vibecoded prototype, builds and runs it for you. Senior-led agentic engineering. Need something beyond the core? We build it for you.
Frequently asked questions
Hosting, maintenance, security updates, bug fixes, and a senior engineer on call. The fee does not rise with headcount or inflation.
Stop renting Timely. Get your own system
Tell us the SaaS you would replace. We line up a founding-five cohort, build your system, and run it for you: one flat fee, your data, a perpetual licence.