Buy it once, or rent it forever
Subscription software is not a scam - it is a trade. You pay less today, you get updates and somebody else runs the server, and in exchange the bill never stops and the price is theirs to raise. Here is the arithmetic, and the three cases where renting is the better answer.
Buying software outright costs more on day one and less over time; a subscription is the reverse. For a fifteen-person team, a $20-per-seat monthly tool costs about $3,600 a year, so a $1,999 one-time purchase pays for itself inside the first year and saves roughly $7,900 over three. A subscription is the better choice when you want somebody else to run the server, when you may stop needing the tool within a year, or when you need a vendor contractually on the hook for uptime.
- One-time, 15 people, 3 years
- ≈ $2,899
- At $20 a seat, same team
- ≈ $10,800
- Breakeven
- About 8 months at 15 seats
- Who should rent instead
- See below - three real cases
- Price rises
- Impossible on a one-time purchase
What each option actually costs
| Team size | Bosun, 3 years | At $20 a seat, 3 years | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 people | ≈ $2,899 | ≈ $3,600 | ≈ $700 |
| 10 people | ≈ $2,899 | ≈ $7,200 | ≈ $4,300 |
| 15 people | ≈ $2,899 | ≈ $10,800 | ≈ $7,900 |
| 25 people | ≈ $2,899 | ≈ $18,000 | ≈ $15,100 |
| 50 people | ≈ $2,899 | ≈ $36,000 | ≈ $33,100 |
Bosun is $1,999 once plus about $25 a month for hosting and an AI key, which is why its column does not move with team size. The per-seat column is Periskope's published Starter rate; their Pro tier is $30 a seat, and phones beyond the first are licensed separately.
Adding five people
- Bosun
- Free
- At $20 a seat
- +$1,200 a year
- At $24 a seat
- +$1,440 a year
- At $30 a seat
- +$1,800 a year
- Forever, or until they leave
- Yes
Per-seat pricing punishes hiring
The headline rate is not the real problem with per-seat software. The real problem is that it makes growth a cost. Take on five apprentices and your software bill rises by a hundred dollars a month for work that has not started paying yet.
What businesses actually do about this is worse than paying: they share logins. One account between three people, because nobody wants to explain another line item. Now the audit trail is meaningless, which was the entire reason for buying the software.
- Five more people on a $20 seat is $1,200 a year, forever
- Seasonal teams pay year-round for months they do not work
- Shared logins destroy the audit trail you bought the tool for
- A one-time purchase makes adding somebody free, so nobody shares anything
Buy once if
- Team will grow
- Strongly
- You want your own data
- Strongly
- You want your own brand
- Strongly
- Somebody can run a server
- Required
- You need it this week
- Then rent
When renting is the right answer
Three cases, and they are not edge cases. If any of them describes you, buy a subscription and do not let a cost table talk you out of it.
The fourth reason people give - "we want continuous updates" - is weaker than it sounds. Bosun ships updates too; you just apply them yourself, and you are never forced to take one that changes a workflow your team depends on.
- You do not want a server. Somebody has to keep the machine patched and the backups working. If nobody in your business will own that, a hosted subscription is the honest choice - or ask us to host it, priced separately.
- You might stop needing it. A one-time purchase is a bet that you will still want this in a year. If you are not sure, rent for a few months and buy later.
- You need somebody contractually responsible. If your industry requires a vendor with an uptime commitment and an incident process, a self-hosted purchase does not give you that.
- You need it running tomorrow. Installation takes about a week. A subscription takes an afternoon.
What you get besides the money
No price rise, ever
A subscription price is the vendor's to change. A purchase cannot be repriced after the fact.
Your data, in a file
One SQLite file on your server, copyable anywhere. Nothing to export, nothing to request.
Your brand on it
Per-seat tools show you their name. This shows yours - see white-label.
The source code
Unobfuscated, with the test suites. You can change it, or pay somebody else to.
No shutdown risk
If we stop trading, your installation carries on. There is no licence server to go dark.
No surprise tiering
Nothing you use today moves into a higher plan next year, because there are no plans.
How it stacks up elsewhere
On this page
What happens when you release a new version?
You get it, and you apply it when it suits you. The first year of support is included; after that, updates and help are a paid renewal you can take or leave - and declining it does not switch anything off.
Is there a hidden monthly cost?
There are running costs, and they are not hidden: hosting at roughly $12 to $25 a month, your own AI key at roughly $5 to $15, and WhatsApp's own fee on messages sent outside the 24-hour window. All paid to those providers in your own name, never to us.
Is a one-time price really sustainable for you?
It is, because setup is where the work is and support is bounded by there being one installation per buyer rather than a shared platform to keep online. If it ever stops being sustainable, the price changes for new buyers - never retroactively for you.
Can I pay monthly instead?
Ask. We would rather split the fee over a few months than lose a buyer who wants the product - but it is a payment arrangement, not a subscription, and it ends.
Sources
Checked on 26 September 2026. Prices and rules change - confirm on the source before relying on them.