The True Cost of Ownership
Software subscriptions cost more than you think today, and get more expensive every single year. Here is what the real numbers look like across all three options.
Lower monthly costs from month one. Compounding value every year after.
Most cost comparisons in this industry show a managed service that costs slightly more today and saves money eventually. That is not the story here. Our commitment is that your monthly operational cost after setup will be less than what you are paying in software subscriptions right now. Then, while your old subscription bills would have kept climbing at nearly 9 percent per year, your cost with us stays flat. The gap widens in your favour every single year. What changes from one client to the next is the upfront figure, and that comes down to whether you need hardware of your own or just a server we run for you.
Lower monthly cost, from month one
After setup, your ongoing monthly engagement will be less than your current subscription spend. Not in year three, but in the first month you are running on it. The exact figure comes out of your audit, because it depends on your environment, your headcount and the support your team needs.
Upfront investment, not ongoing rent
How large the upfront cost is depends on whether hardware is part of the build. On a private server we run for you there is nothing to buy, and folding several paid services onto one or two machines can put you ahead in the first month. Hardware in your own building is a real purchase, roughly five to eight months of your current subscription spend. Paid once either way, for infrastructure you own.
The value compounds over time
Subscription prices rise every year on somebody else's schedule. Yours do not. Your cost moves only when what we manage for you does, in steps you can see coming. With no hardware to buy, that gap is yours from the first month. Where there is hardware, it has to earn itself back before you are ahead overall, and the calculator will tell you which month that lands in on your own numbers. After that, every year you stay is pure compounding value.
Nobody gets to zero subscriptions, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Some tools are genuinely worth renting. Some are written into a contract you cannot walk away from tomorrow. A few have no open alternative worth putting a business on. What we do is cut the list down to the ones that earn their place: replace what has a solid open alternative, build a custom replacement where the numbers justify it, and leave the rest alone. The aim is a subscription bill you chose, not one that grew on you.
Our cost to deliver is structurally lower.
Traditional managed service providers price at $100 to $150 per user per month because they rely on human labour, break-fix billing, and vendor reseller margins. We are built differently.
We have invested heavily in automation, self-service tools, and AI-assisted support infrastructure. That means we operate lean, pass the savings on, and still deliver a higher standard of service. We also do not price per user. Charging more every time you hire someone is exactly the kind of trap we help businesses escape. What we do charge for is the work of running a larger environment, so the fee moves in bands rather than per head: one band covers roughly one to five people, then it steps at ten and by tens after that. Those bands are a starting point, not a rule. Thirty people sharing a handful of machines is not thirty people's worth of work, and we price what we actually manage.
Your engagement cost is based on the complexity of your environment and how much of our time it genuinely requires, not on a headcount that penalises your growth.
Subscriptions alone. Traditional MSP. Viridian Guard.
Most businesses think their only options are keep paying software subscriptions, or hire a managed service provider on top of them. Here is what all three options actually look like side by side.
Our monthly engagement cost is based on your environment's complexity and the support your team needs, not a per-user headcount, though it does step up as you grow, in bands rather than per head, and the bands bend where extra people do not mean extra work for us. The under $1,000/month figure shown here reflects a standard 10-user deployment with typical use cases. The upfront setup investment is typically five to eight months of your current monthly subscription spend where hardware is part of the build, and materially less where it is not. Your exact figure, and the month you are ahead overall, come out of your free audit.
Our monthly engagement cost is based on your environment's complexity and the support your team needs, not a per-user headcount, though it does step up as you grow, in bands rather than per head, and the bands bend where extra people do not mean extra work for us. The under $1,800/month figure shown here reflects a standard 25-user deployment with typical use cases. The upfront setup investment is typically five to eight months of your current monthly subscription spend where hardware is part of the build, and materially less where it is not. Your exact figure, and the month you are ahead overall, come out of your free audit.
Our monthly engagement cost is based on your environment's complexity and the support your team needs, not a per-user headcount, though it does step up as you grow, in bands rather than per head, and the bands bend where extra people do not mean extra work for us. The under $4,500/month figure shown here reflects a standard 100-user deployment with typical use cases. The upfront setup investment is typically five to eight months of your current monthly subscription spend where hardware is part of the build, and materially less where it is not. Your exact figure, and the month you are ahead overall, come out of your free audit.
The cost of staying on subscriptions grows every year.
Subscription pricing does not stay flat. At 8.7 percent annual inflation, what looks manageable today becomes a serious cost problem within a few renewal cycles. The bars below show the cumulative five-year cost for each option.
Subscription 5-year totals assume 8.7% annual price increase from published 2025 vendor pricing. Traditional MSP 5-year totals use the industry midpoint of $125/user/month plus the subscription stack, with 8.7% annual increase on the subscription portion. Viridian Guard 5-year totals are based on the ceiling monthly figures shown above, held flat for five years at a steady headcount. Actual costs are confirmed through your free audit.
The subscription stack most businesses have never fully added up
Most businesses have never totalled all of their per-seat subscriptions in one place. The table below reflects a conservative real-world stack. Actual totals are frequently higher once shadow IT and departmental tools are counted.
| Tool / Category | Per User / Mo | 10 Users / Mo | 25 Users / Mo | 100 Users / Mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Productivity Suite M365 Business Standard | $14.50 | $145 | $363 | $1,450 |
| Team Messaging Slack Pro/Business+ | $8.75-$18 | $88 | $219 | $1,800 |
| Video Conferencing Zoom Business | $18.33 | $183 | $458 | $1,833 |
| CRM HubSpot / Salesforce | varies | $90 | $250 | $2,500 |
| Endpoint Security Defender / CrowdStrike | $6-$8 | $60 | $150 | $800 |
| Cloud File Storage Dropbox / SharePoint | $15-$20 | $200 | $500 | $1,500 |
| Password Manager 1Password | $4-$7.99 | $40 | $100 | $799 |
| Cloud Backup Acronis / Backblaze | est. | $75 | $150 | $500 |
| Helpdesk / ITSM Freshdesk / Jira | $15-$22/agent | $60 | $45 | $110 |
| IT Support / Break-fix hourly avg. | est. | $300 | $750 | $2,500 |
| Monthly Total | $1,241 | $2,985 | $13,792 |
Stop estimating. Find out exactly what you are spending and what you could save.
We will audit your current IT stack, map every subscription, and build a tailored cost comparison showing your actual monthly cost with Viridian Guard versus what you pay today.
The True Cost of Ownership
Software subscriptions cost more than you think today, and get more expensive every single year. Here is what the real numbers look like across all three options.
Lower monthly costs from month one. Compounding value every year after.
Most cost comparisons in this industry show a managed service that costs slightly more today and saves money eventually. That is not the story here. Our commitment is that your monthly operational cost after setup will be less than what you are paying in software subscriptions right now. Then, while your old subscription bills would have kept climbing at nearly 9 percent per year, your cost with us stays flat. The gap widens in your favour every single year. What changes from one client to the next is the upfront figure, and that comes down to whether you need hardware of your own or just a server we run for you.
Lower monthly cost, from month one
After setup, your ongoing monthly engagement will be less than your current subscription spend. Not in year three, but in the first month you are running on it. The exact figure comes out of your audit, because it depends on your environment, your headcount and the support your team needs.
Upfront investment, not ongoing rent
How large the upfront cost is depends on whether hardware is part of the build. On a private server we run for you there is nothing to buy, and folding several paid services onto one or two machines can put you ahead in the first month. Hardware in your own building is a real purchase, roughly five to eight months of your current subscription spend. Paid once either way, for infrastructure you own.
The value compounds over time
Subscription prices rise every year on somebody else's schedule. Yours do not. Your cost moves only when what we manage for you does, in steps you can see coming. With no hardware to buy, that gap is yours from the first month. Where there is hardware, it has to earn itself back before you are ahead overall, and the calculator will tell you which month that lands in on your own numbers. After that, every year you stay is pure compounding value.
Nobody gets to zero subscriptions, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Some tools are genuinely worth renting. Some are written into a contract you cannot walk away from tomorrow. A few have no open alternative worth putting a business on. What we do is cut the list down to the ones that earn their place: replace what has a solid open alternative, build a custom replacement where the numbers justify it, and leave the rest alone. The aim is a subscription bill you chose, not one that grew on you.
Our cost to deliver is structurally lower.
Traditional managed service providers price at $100 to $150 per user per month because they rely on human labour, break-fix billing, and vendor reseller margins. We are built differently.
We have invested heavily in automation, self-service tools, and AI-assisted support infrastructure. That means we operate lean, pass the savings on, and still deliver a higher standard of service. We also do not price per user. Charging more every time you hire someone is exactly the kind of trap we help businesses escape. What we do charge for is the work of running a larger environment, so the fee moves in bands rather than per head: one band covers roughly one to five people, then it steps at ten and by tens after that. Those bands are a starting point, not a rule. Thirty people sharing a handful of machines is not thirty people's worth of work, and we price what we actually manage.
Your engagement cost is based on the complexity of your environment and how much of our time it genuinely requires, not on a headcount that penalises your growth.
Subscriptions alone. Traditional MSP. Viridian Guard.
Most businesses think their only options are keep paying software subscriptions, or hire a managed service provider on top of them. Here is what all three options actually look like side by side.
Our monthly engagement cost is based on your environment's complexity and the support your team needs, not a per-user headcount, though it does step up as you grow, in bands rather than per head, and the bands bend where extra people do not mean extra work for us. The under $1,000/month figure shown here reflects a standard 10-user deployment with typical use cases. The upfront setup investment is typically five to eight months of your current monthly subscription spend where hardware is part of the build, and materially less where it is not. Your exact figure, and the month you are ahead overall, come out of your free audit.
Our monthly engagement cost is based on your environment's complexity and the support your team needs, not a per-user headcount, though it does step up as you grow, in bands rather than per head, and the bands bend where extra people do not mean extra work for us. The under $1,800/month figure shown here reflects a standard 25-user deployment with typical use cases. The upfront setup investment is typically five to eight months of your current monthly subscription spend where hardware is part of the build, and materially less where it is not. Your exact figure, and the month you are ahead overall, come out of your free audit.
Our monthly engagement cost is based on your environment's complexity and the support your team needs, not a per-user headcount, though it does step up as you grow, in bands rather than per head, and the bands bend where extra people do not mean extra work for us. The under $4,500/month figure shown here reflects a standard 100-user deployment with typical use cases. The upfront setup investment is typically five to eight months of your current monthly subscription spend where hardware is part of the build, and materially less where it is not. Your exact figure, and the month you are ahead overall, come out of your free audit.
The cost of staying on subscriptions grows every year.
Subscription pricing does not stay flat. At 8.7 percent annual inflation, what looks manageable today becomes a serious cost problem within a few renewal cycles. The bars below show the cumulative five-year cost for each option.
Subscription 5-year totals assume 8.7% annual price increase from published 2025 vendor pricing. Traditional MSP 5-year totals use the industry midpoint of $125/user/month plus the subscription stack, with 8.7% annual increase on the subscription portion. Viridian Guard 5-year totals are based on the ceiling monthly figures shown above, held flat for five years at a steady headcount. Actual costs are confirmed through your free audit.
The subscription stack most businesses have never fully added up
Most businesses have never totalled all of their per-seat subscriptions in one place. The table below reflects a conservative real-world stack. Actual totals are frequently higher once shadow IT and departmental tools are counted.
| Tool / Category | Per User / Mo | 10 Users / Mo | 25 Users / Mo | 100 Users / Mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Productivity Suite M365 Business Standard | $14.50 | $145 | $363 | $1,450 |
| Team Messaging Slack Pro/Business+ | $8.75-$18 | $88 | $219 | $1,800 |
| Video Conferencing Zoom Business | $18.33 | $183 | $458 | $1,833 |
| CRM HubSpot / Salesforce | varies | $90 | $250 | $2,500 |
| Endpoint Security Defender / CrowdStrike | $6-$8 | $60 | $150 | $800 |
| Cloud File Storage Dropbox / SharePoint | $15-$20 | $200 | $500 | $1,500 |
| Password Manager 1Password | $4-$7.99 | $40 | $100 | $799 |
| Cloud Backup Acronis / Backblaze | est. | $75 | $150 | $500 |
| Helpdesk / ITSM Freshdesk / Jira | $15-$22/agent | $60 | $45 | $110 |
| IT Support / Break-fix hourly avg. | est. | $300 | $750 | $2,500 |
| Monthly Total | $1,241 | $2,985 | $13,792 |
Stop estimating. Find out exactly what you are spending and what you could save.
We will audit your current IT stack, map every subscription, and build a tailored cost comparison showing your actual monthly cost with Viridian Guard versus what you pay today.