Per-user pricing calculator
Per-seat software looks cheap at one user. Put your own numbers in and see what it costs by the time there are five of you.
| Team | Per user | Pipeline | Difference |
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Pipeline prices are the published plans on our pricing page and include every feature on every plan. The other side is whatever you type in, so check it against your own bill.
Why the seat count is the number that matters
A price per user reads as a small number, and it is - once. The trouble is that it is the only part of the bill that moves, and it moves in the same direction as the business. Win a contract, take on two engineers and an administrator to run the paperwork, and the software bill goes up by three seats on the day they start - before any of them have raised an invoice.
That creates a second, quieter cost. When a login has a price on it, people stop handing them out. Engineers share an account, so the job history shows the wrong person on site. The new administrator works out of someone else's inbox. A subcontractor on a six-week job never gets access at all, so their paperwork arrives by text message. Every one of those workarounds is a decision to use the software less than you are paying for.
How to compare two quotes properly
- Count every login, not every employee. Office staff, engineers, the bookkeeper who needs to see invoices, and anyone part-time.
- Add the seats you would want but would not buy. If per-seat pricing means an apprentice goes without access, that is a cost of the pricing model, not a saving.
- Put both sides on the same VAT basis, and both on the same billing period - annual against annual.
- Add the extras. SMS bundles, certificate modules, extra storage, payment processing rates and paid onboarding all belong in the total.
- Check what is gated. A cheap seat on a plan that does not include the one feature you bought it for is not cheap.
Where Pipeline sits
Pipeline is priced by plan rather than by seat: £10 a month for a sole trader, £30 for up to 5 users and £50 for up to 15, on annual billing, with the whole platform included at every level. Hiring does not change the bill until the team outgrows the plan, and no feature sits behind a higher tier. Whether that works out cheaper for you is what the calculator above is for - the full pricing is here, and the comparisons are here.
Questions about per-user pricing
What is per-user pricing?
Per-user pricing - also called per-seat pricing - charges you a monthly fee for every person who needs a login. Ten people on a £25 seat is £250 a month, whether or not all ten are in the system every day. Some tools add a platform fee on top of the seats, and some include one or two users in that fee before the per-seat price starts.
Why does per-user pricing get expensive?
Because the bill grows with the team rather than with the value you get. Taking on an apprentice, giving the new office administrator access or adding a subcontractor for a three-month job all cost the same as adding a full-time engineer. The practical result is that people ration logins - engineers share an account, or the office keeps someone out of the system to avoid the seat - which quietly undoes the reason you bought the software.
How is Pipeline priced instead?
By plan, based on the size of the team. £10 a month covers a sole trader, £30 a month covers up to 5 users and £50 a month covers up to 15, all on annual billing, with every feature included at every level. Adding your fourth engineer does not change the bill, and nothing sits behind a higher tier.
Should I compare prices including or excluding VAT?
Compare excluding VAT, and make sure both sides are on the same basis. Software prices are often shown excluding VAT for business customers, and if you are VAT-registered you reclaim it anyway, so including it on one side and not the other makes a comparison meaningless.
Does the cheapest option always win?
No, and it should not. Price is one input. If a tool does something your business genuinely needs - statutory certificates, asset registers, stock control - then paying per seat for it may be the right call. The point of this calculator is to put a number on what that decision costs over a year, so it is a decision rather than a surprise.
Are the other tools’ prices built into this calculator?
No. You type in what you pay, because published prices change and a number baked into this page would be out of date before long. Take the figure off your last invoice or the supplier’s current pricing page and the sum will be right for you.
Every feature, on every plan.
Priced by team size, not by seat. Start a 7-day free trial and see the whole platform.