Most 25 person businesses never decide to spend half a lakh a month on software. They decide to pay ₹1,500 a seat for one tool, a plan for another, and a few hundred rupees per employee for a third. This post adds it up, shows how it grows, and says when per seat is the better deal.
How per seat pricing grows
Per seat means every person who logs in costs a fee every month. At five people that is small. At twenty five it is a line on the profit and loss statement, and it grows again with every hire. The chart below is our estimate for the six kinds of tool a business of this size usually pays for, against the flat SamaStack plan by team size.
The tools most businesses pay for
A typical services or trading business in India ends up with something like this. The prices are category list prices at mid tiers as published in August 2026, not any one vendor's quote, and they exclude GST.
| Tool | Typical plan | A month |
|---|---|---|
| CRM | 15 seats × ₹1,000 to 2,000 per user per month | ₹15,000 to ₹30,000 |
| HRMS and payroll | 25 employees × ₹80 to 150 per employee per month, plus base fee | ₹3,300 to ₹7,500 |
| GST billing and inventory | multi user plan | ₹800 to ₹2,500 |
| Customer app on a no code builder | business plan, published to both stores | ₹5,000 to ₹20,000 |
| Website builder and hosting | business plan plus domain | ₹700 to ₹2,500 |
| Automation glue between the tools | tasks per month plan | ₹2,000 to ₹10,000 |
| Total | six tools, not connected | ₹26,800 to ₹72,500 |
Two things hide inside that table. First, the CRM and the HR tool are priced per person, so year three costs more than year one for a business that is doing well. Second, the last line exists because the first five do not talk to each other. A lead in the CRM, a salary in the HR tool and an invoice in the billing tool are three records about the same business, and the automation plan is what you pay to keep them roughly in step. Add a one time setup by an implementation partner, which we estimate at ₹50,000 to ₹2,00,000.
Our estimate, and how we worked it out
We took the published mid tier list price for each category, a CRM for 15 of the 25 people, HR and payroll for all 25, and plan prices for the rest, then converted the yearly ranges to a month. The table above is the whole calculation. The method, the assumptions and a calculator you can fill with your own numbers are on the pricing page. This is an estimate. Your own tools may cost more or less.
Against that, a SamaStack plan for a team of up to 25 runs from ₹9,999 to ₹49,999 a month plus GST. It covers the website, the customer app, the back office and the owner's screen on one record, run for you, with no per seat fee.
What per seat pricing does to hiring and sharing logins
When every login costs money, teams start to share them. The office manager uses the owner's login, two salespeople share one, and the CRM stops knowing who did what. The fee meant to measure use ends up hiding it. A flat price by team size removes the reason to share, so every person gets their own login and the records stay honest.
It also changes how hiring feels. On per seat tools, the twenty sixth person costs a little in every tool at once. On a plan set by team size, a new login costs nothing, and the price is written down before you sign.
When per seat pricing is actually cheaper
For a very small team using one tool, per seat is usually the better deal. Three people on a single CRM at list price pay far less than any system built and run for them, and they should keep it. Per seat also wins when you only need the tool for a season. The point of a flat plan is not that it is always cheaper. It is that one connected system, built and run for you, stops the bill from growing with every login and stops your team from retyping the same order into three screens.
Try your own numbers
Put in your own seat counts and plan prices with the calculator on the pricing page. If your total comes out lower than our plan, keep your tools. If it does not, we can connect what you use before replacing anything.
Key numbers
| Figure | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Separate tools, 25 people, a month | ₹26,800 to ₹72,500 | Our estimate, August 2026, before GST |
| One time setup by an implementation partner | ₹50,000 to ₹2,00,000 | Our estimate, August 2026 |
| SamaStack plan, a month | ₹9,999 to ₹49,999 | Plus GST |
Method
The estimate uses typical published mid tier list prices in India for each category of tool, August 2026, with no product named; the sources are kept on file. Seats and plans are as in the table above. This is an estimate. Your numbers may differ. The full method and a calculator.
Questions people ask
Is a flat monthly plan always cheaper than per seat tools?
No. For a very small team on one tool, per seat is usually cheaper. The flat plan helps most when the team is growing and several tools have to agree with each other.
Where do the estimate’s prices come from?
Typical published mid tier list prices in India for each category of tool, with no product named. The method and a calculator for your own numbers are on the pricing page.
Your numbers
Get your exact price in 48 hours.
From ₹9,999 to ₹49,999 a month plus GST for teams of up to 25, set by what you need and your team size. Tell us what you run, and the exact number comes in writing.