SaaS for 25 people costs ₹30,500 a month; the idle seat is the real cost

01What the stack costs at list, in rupees

Three of the four vendors print a rupee price. Microsoft 365 Business Basic lists at ₹145 a user a month, Business Standard with desktop Office at ₹660 and Business Premium at ₹1,560, on annual commitment, before GST.¹ Google Workspace Business Starter is ₹270 and Business Standard ₹1,080.² Zoho CRM runs from ₹800 (Standard) through ₹1,400 (Professional) to ₹2,600 (Ultimate), free for three users;³ Zoho Books is free below ₹25 lakh of turnover and about ₹749 a month per organisation on Standard above it.⁵ Freshdesk prints dollars only: Growth is about US$19 an agent a month, billed annually.⁶

The bar that surprises people is Zoho One. At ₹1,500 per employee a month it is the cheapest full suite on the chart, but it must cover everyone on payroll, so for 25 people it is ₹37,500 a month against ₹30,500 for the four tools bought separately.⁴ It wins only once a fifth and sixth Zoho app are actually switched on. That is the rule for every suite: cheaper per app, dearer per company, until the apps are in use.

02The two numbers the 2021 brochure left out

The original listed three drawbacks of SaaS: loss of control, limited customisation and latency. None of them is where the money goes now. Two measured problems are. Idle seats: Zylo’s analysis of the licences it manages, updated 19 March 2026, finds 46% of seats unused over a 30-day window.⁸ And price: Vertice’s tracker recorded SaaS prices rising 16.4% year on year at the June 2026 peak and 12.7% in August 2026.⁹ Microsoft’s 1 July 2026 list change is a worked case: Business Basic went from US$6 to US$7 and Business Standard from US$12.50 to US$14, rises of 16% and 12%.⁷

03If you are buying this in India

Every rupee price above carries 18% GST, which a registered business claims back as input tax credit, so its real cost is the list price, not the invoice.¹² A dollar-billed tool from a foreign vendor with no Indian entity is an OIDAR service: a registered business pays the GST itself under reverse charge, an unregistered one pays it inside the price.¹⁰ That is the practical case for an Indian price list and an Indian GST invoice. Each of these tools holds customer and employee personal data, which makes the buyer a Data Fiduciary under the DPDP Act; the Rules were notified on 13 November 2025 and the security-safeguard, breach-notice and retention duties apply from 13 May 2027.¹¹ Before renewal, ask each vendor in writing where your tenant is hosted and what happens to the data when you leave. TechBag quotes all four tools in INR with GST.