SaaS Budget Calculator

Most startups spend between $50-$500/month on SaaS tools depending on team size. Solo founders can often get by with $0-$50/month using free tiers. A team of 10 typically spends $200-$800/month. The rule of thumb is to keep SaaS spend under 5% of revenue in early stages. As you grow past 50 employees, expect SaaS costs to rise to $100-$300 per employee per month.

The minimum viable SaaS stack includes: project management (Trello or ClickUp Free), communication (Slack Free or Discord), email (Gmail), and document editing (Google Docs). This costs $0/month. Add a CRM like HubSpot Free once you start selling, and accounting software like Wave when you need invoicing. You can run a legitimate business on completely free tools until you reach about 10 team members.

Yes, absolutely. Many successful businesses run on free tools: ClickUp Free for project management, HubSpot Free CRM for sales, Canva Free for design, MailerLite Free for email marketing (up to 1,000 subscribers), Wave for accounting, and Slack or Discord for communication. The total cost is $0/month. You will likely outgrow some free tiers once your team exceeds 10 people or your subscriber list grows past a few thousand, but free tools are a smart way to validate your business before investing in paid software.