[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":467},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-23830195":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"line":6,"line_source":7,"title":8,"url":9,"domain":10,"maker":11,"posted_at":12,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rank_in_year":16,"shown_in_year":17,"top":18,"tier":19,"category":20,"subcategory":21,"format":22,"keywords":23,"reception":28,"sentiment":29,"stance_mix":30,"scored_comments":35,"aspects":36,"strip":45,"post_text":46,"what":47,"said":72,"maker_in_thread":176,"shape":185,"grid":190,"attempts":428,"same_week":429,"maker_shows":41,"maker_hidden":458,"reader_version":459,"card":460},"23830195","Is It Worth the Cost?","A simple check on whether purchasing a service is worth the cost - built in an afternoon in response to a previous HN discussion [1].","maker","Show HN: Is It Worth the Cost?","https:\u002F\u002Fisitworththecost.com\u002F","isitworththecost.com","osel",1594721472,2020,319,89,122,3028,5,"legend","web_saas","cost calculator","web_app",[24,25,26,27],"saas cost calculator","build vs buy","service roi","employee time savings","mixed",0.049,{"positive":31,"neutral":32,"mixed":33,"critical":34},11,17,3,7,38,{"idea":37,"pricing":40,"execution":43,"docs":44},{"positive":38,"critical":39},8,6,{"positive":41,"critical":42},1,0,{"positive":42,"critical":41},{"positive":42,"critical":42},[33,18,18,18,41,42,18,42,42,42,42,42,33,42,18,33,33,33,41,41,33,42,42,42,33,33,33,18,33,18,18,33,33,33,33,41,33,41,33,18],null,{"problem":48,"audience":54,"pricing":46,"motivation":60,"time_to_build":64,"stack":68,"openness":69,"stage":70,"team_size":71},{"value":49,"source":7,"evidence":50},"Estimating whether buying a service saves enough employee time to justify its cost",[51],{"id":52,"by":11,"text":53},"23830218","A simple check on whether purchasing a service is worth the cost - built in an afternoon in response to a previous HN discussion [1]. A few people expressed interest in embedding…",{"value":55,"source":7,"evidence":56},"Very small businesses (1-10 people) and their owners",[57],{"id":58,"by":11,"text":59},"23837151","Exactly, and scale is important too. The initial target audience was small (as in very small, maybe 1-10 people) businesses, whose owners often don't intuitively understand how…",{"value":61,"source":7,"evidence":62},"Built in an afternoon in response to a previous HN discussion; open-sourced code for embedding on landing pages",[63],{"id":52,"by":11,"text":53},{"value":65,"source":7,"evidence":66},"About an afternoon",[67],{"id":52,"by":11,"text":53},[],"open_source","launched","unknown",{"praise":73,"objections":93,"requests":122,"questions":155,"alternatives":164},[74],{"value":75,"source":76,"evidence":77},"Good idea and useful for quick conceptual checks","commenter",[78,82,86,89],{"id":79,"by":80,"text":81},"23830732","projektfu","I like the idea, but a lot of other factors are missing from the analysis. 1. I’ve yet to find a service that saves 5 hours per week per employee. How do I estimate the actual…",{"id":83,"by":84,"text":85},"23833406","drapery","Okay I really like the idea. I think the bottom line whether the SaaS is worth the cost with the premise is that the SaaS saves time. However, time saving (item 4) is pretty…",{"id":87,"by":84,"text":88},"23833469","I think a lot of users are missing the point. I don't see this tool as a final decision maker and it can never be one. The final decision has a lot of nuisances to that it is…",{"id":90,"by":91,"text":92},"23830528","thatoneuser","This is great! Walking through the numbers mentally kinda works, but it seems people are always suspicious they're being had. Seeing it live will be very reassuring.",[94,103,115],{"value":95,"source":76,"evidence":96},"Time savings are hard to estimate and the tool assumes them",[97,98,99],{"id":79,"by":80,"text":81},{"id":83,"by":84,"text":85},{"id":100,"by":101,"text":102},"23830630","georgyo","This seems really flawed. Let's plug in numbers. This says that if a service costs 125$\u002Fmonth\u002Femployee and I have 1000 employees ($125000\u002Fmonth) I will save ~5 million a year.…",{"value":104,"source":76,"evidence":105},"Hidden costs like support staff, lock-in and dependency are missing",[106,107,111],{"id":100,"by":101,"text":102},{"id":108,"by":109,"text":110},"23833901","ponker","The two biggest line items are not easily measured and thus not included: The removal of an external dependency that you don't control and may not evolve with your needs, and the…",{"id":112,"by":113,"text":114},"23836731","dzonga","but there's a hidden cost, that's never spoken of. cost of forgotten knowledge or expertise. say you use AWS RDS | Aurora, on paper it's cheap. AWS runs everything for you. what…",{"value":116,"source":76,"evidence":117},"Saved money is still a cost, and employee time is not cash",[118],{"id":119,"by":120,"text":121},"23834762","pseingatl","Saving money doesn't put cash in your pocket. It will help keep the cash you have there, but is nothing but another cost item.",[123,127,134,145],{"value":124,"source":76,"evidence":125},"Show time saved as the output instead of only cost",[126],{"id":83,"by":84,"text":85},{"value":128,"source":76,"evidence":129},"Add a one-time payment option",[130],{"id":131,"by":132,"text":133},"23831347","AQXt","Feature request: Add \"One-time payment\" option to the cost of the service. This could be used to decide if you allocate resources to implement a new feature in an internal system.",{"value":135,"source":76,"evidence":136},"Include costs of operating an in-house equivalent and current tool costs",[137,141],{"id":138,"by":139,"text":140},"23833435","aisofteng","What about the cost of operating an equivalent service in house?",{"id":142,"by":143,"text":144},"23831881","Abishek_Muthian","Good work OP. Any plans to add more variables in the future? e.g. Cost of current equivalent service being used. P.S. I've added your calculator to my curated list of startup…",{"value":146,"source":76,"evidence":147},"Show the formulas and assumptions in tooltips or docs",[148,152],{"id":149,"by":150,"text":151},"23830781","Flimm","This looks really cool. I put in some numbers for a service that I am considering, and the answer was the opposite of what I was intuitively expecting, which proves the need for…",{"id":153,"by":11,"text":154},"23837124","Thanks for the feedback. For simplicity there are a whole host of underlying assumptions about what a work day is, what time spent means , etc. Explaining at least some of those…",[156],{"value":157,"source":76,"evidence":158},"How is employee time cost estimated and what assumptions are used",[159,160],{"id":149,"by":150,"text":151},{"id":161,"by":162,"text":163},"23830832","redwood","What's this type of calculator often misses is how nuanced and complex is to estimate the cost of employee time. It's not just the cost of an employee salary per hour... Is the…",[165,169],{"value":166,"source":76,"evidence":167},"Spreadsheets for the final decision",[168],{"id":87,"by":84,"text":88},{"value":170,"source":76,"evidence":171},"Building the tool in-house",[172],{"id":173,"by":174,"text":175},"23832029","_pdp_","I like the idea. In 99% of the cases, I rather buy the service than develop it from scratch and support it long-term. Most consumer-facing services I've seen are relatively…",{"comments":34,"answered":33,"key":177},[178,179,182],{"id":52,"text":53},{"id":180,"text":181},"23837019","Cheers, a few people of suggested this. As you note, it rather depends on the amortization period. At the moment it assumes 1 year for training costs to be amortized over, so I…",{"id":183,"text":184},"23837059","Hmm, cost of meetings (similar to training costs) is a good idea, definitely an issue I've seen before - thousands of dollars wasted arguing over $50\u002Fmonth for a 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