What are you actually going to pay
Put in your team size, the per-seat price you were quoted, and how many people you expect to add. It works out both totals over the period you choose, including the running costs we would actually pay, and tells you the month the lines cross.
This calculator compares the total cost of buying Bosun once against renting per-seat software over the same period. It accounts for team growth on both sides, adds the hosting and AI usage a self-hosted installation genuinely costs, and reports the month at which the one-time purchase becomes cheaper. Nothing is submitted anywhere - it runs entirely in your browser.
- Currency
- US dollars
- Accounts for
- Team growth on both sides
- Includes
- Hosting and AI usage
- Excludes
- WhatsApp per-message fees
- Data submitted
- None
Your numbers
Figures are in US dollars and start as a worked example. Replace each one with your own - especially the per-seat price, which should come off the vendor's own page.
What you keep
- Bosun, paid once
- -
- Hosting over the period
- -
- AI usage over the period
- -
- Bosun, all in
- -
- Per-seat software instead
- -
The bar shows how the per-seat spend would have been split had you bought Bosun instead. It excludes WhatsApp's own per-message fees, which apply to any tool using the official API and vary by country.
Where the defaults come from
- Licence
- Our published price
- Per seat $20
- Periskope's Starter rate
- Hosting $18
- A typical small VPS
- AI $0.002
- Measured on live traffic
- 3 messages a day
- Plan, update, question
Make it argue against us
A calculator on a vendor's own site is worth exactly as much as the defaults it ships with, so here is how to stop this one flattering us. Every number in it is yours to change, and three of them decide the answer.
If it still comes out in our favour after you have done all three, the figure means something. If it does not, that is a genuinely useful thing to have learned in four minutes.
- Put in the cheapest competitor you are considering, not the most expensive
- Set team growth to zero if you are not certain you will hire
- Push hosting up to $25 and messages per person up to five - both are generous to us being wrong
- Try one year as well as three. Over one year, renting usually wins
- Remember a subscription includes somebody else running the server, which is worth real money
Costs no calculator can put a figure on
Your setup time
Somebody in your business spends days on any tool you buy. That is real money, and it is roughly the same whoever you buy from.
WhatsApp message fees
Meta charges for template messages sent outside the 24-hour window, and the rate varies by country. Usually a few dollars a month; check their published rates.
Whether anybody uses it
The largest cost in team software is paying for something nobody opens, and no calculator can price that. It is why the buyer's guide leads with adoption.
The comparisons behind these numbers
On this page
Does this send my numbers anywhere?
No. It runs entirely in your browser, there is no form to submit, and nothing is stored or sent. Reload the page and it forgets everything.
Why are the defaults in your favour?
Because they are a worked example and we picked a realistic one - fifteen people against a $20 seat. The section above tells you exactly which three numbers to change to make it argue the other way, which is a fairer thing to publish than a neutral-looking default.
Why no rupees or pounds?
Because converting a competitor's published dollar price into another currency would mean inventing an exchange rate and presenting it as a fact. Type your own figures in your own currency and the comparison still holds - only the symbol is wrong.
Is the $0.002 a message figure real?
Yes, measured on live traffic through a running installation with prompt caching enabled. Without caching it is roughly five times that, which is worth knowing if you are comparing against a tool that does not cache.
Sources
Checked on 26 September 2026. Prices and rules change - confirm on the source before relying on them.