--- title: "SaaS for 25 people costs ₹30,500 a month; the idle seat is the real cost" summary: "Published INR list prices for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Zoho and Freshdesk, priced for a 25-person Indian company, with idle-seat and price-inflation data, September 2026." url: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/important-saas-software-as-service-applications-grow format: Note desk: "SaaS & business software" published: 2024-11-05 facts_checked: 2026-09-30 author: TechBag (The TechBag Journal) tags: ["SaaS","Microsoft 365","Google Workspace","Zoho CRM","Zoho One","Zoho Books","Freshdesk","SaaS waste","pricing India","GST","OIDAR","DPDP"] cover: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/covers/important-saas-software-as-service-applications-grow.png --- # SaaS for 25 people costs ₹30,500 a month; the idle seat is the real cost *Published INR list prices for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Zoho and Freshdesk, priced for a 25-person Indian company, with idle-seat and price-inflation data, September 2026.* Note · SaaS & business software · By TechBag · Published 2024-11-05 · Facts checked 2026-09-30 · Canonical: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/important-saas-software-as-service-applications-grow ₹30,500 a month before GST is what a 25-person Indian company pays at published list for the four tools it cannot run without: an office suite, a CRM, a help desk and accounting. That is about ₹3.7 lakh a year, or ₹4.3 lakh with GST, on the vendors’ own price lists as of September 2026. It answers the question this piece asked in 2021, how important SaaS is to a growing business: important enough that the software is no longer the expensive part. The expensive part is the seat nobody uses and the renewal nobody reads. ## What 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] TechBag countTechBag arithmetic: 25 people, four tools 25 Microsoft 365 Business Standard seats at ₹660 are ₹16,500; six Zoho CRM Professional seats at ₹1,400 are ₹8,400; three Freshdesk Growth agents at US$19 and ₹85 to the dollar are ₹4,845; one Zoho Books Standard organisation is ₹749. Total ₹30,494, rounded to ₹30,500, or ₹35,983 with GST at 18%. Google Workspace Standard instead of Microsoft adds ₹10,500 a month; Business Basic instead saves ₹12,875. Add-ons, storage overage and implementation are excluded. **Figure: The office suite is the cheapest seat in the stack; a CRM or help-desk seat costs more than twice Business Standard** *Published list price per user per month in INR, annual commitment, before GST, September 2026; Freshdesk converted at ₹85 to the dollar* Microsoft 365 Business Basic web Office, Teams, Exchange ₹145 Google Workspace Business Starter ₹270 Microsoft 365 Business Standard desktop Office ₹660 Zoho CRM Standard ₹800 Google Workspace Business Standard ₹1,080 Zoho CRM Professional ₹1,400 Zoho One, all-employee every employee licensed ₹1,500 Microsoft 365 Business Premium adds Defender, Intune ₹1,560 Freshdesk Growth (US$19) converted ₹1,615 | | Value (₹) | | --- | --- | | Microsoft 365 Business Basic | 145 | | Google Workspace Business Starter | 270 | | Microsoft 365 Business Standard | 660 | | Zoho CRM Standard | 800 | | Google Workspace Business Standard | 1,080 | | Zoho CRM Professional | 1,400 | | Zoho One, all-employee | 1,500 | | Microsoft 365 Business Premium | 1,560 | | Freshdesk Growth (US$19) | 1,615 | Source: TechBag intel pages for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Zoho CRM, Zoho One and Freshdesk (vendor lists, mid-2026) · as of 30 September 2026 · Highlighted bars are the SKUs in the worked example; Zoho One is per employee on payroll, not per user 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. ## The 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] Our view Our view: a 25-person company does not need a SaaS management platform. It needs a sheet with four rows, each renewal date and notice period, and a rule that a seat idle for 30 days is removed at the next bill. Applied to a ₹3.7 lakh stack, Zylo’s 46% says that sheet is worth up to ₹1.7 lakh a year. ## If 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. How we did this Figures as of 30 September 2026 List prices are the figures on TechBag’s intel pages, recorded from the vendors’ price lists in mid-2026; the INR lists may lag Microsoft’s 1 July USD rise, so ask for the current figure. The worked example is TechBag’s arithmetic at ₹85 to the dollar. Zylo and Vertice sell SaaS management and procurement services; their figures describe their own customers. Spotted an error? Write to us; corrections are published at the foot of the piece. Sources 1. [TechBag, Microsoft 365 intel page (INR list, annual commitment)](https://www.thetechbag.com/microsoft/microsoft-365) — vendor list, mid-2026 2. [TechBag, Google Workspace intel page (INR list)](https://www.thetechbag.com/google/google-workspace) — vendor list, mid-2026 3. [TechBag, Zoho CRM intel page (INR list, billed annually)](https://www.thetechbag.com/zoho/zoho-crm) — vendor list, mid-2026 4. [TechBag, Zoho One intel page (All-Employee plan)](https://www.thetechbag.com/zoho/zoho-one) — vendor list, mid-2026 5. [TechBag, Zoho Books intel page](https://www.thetechbag.com/zoho/zoho-books) — vendor list, mid-2026 6. [TechBag, Freshdesk intel page (published guide prices, per agent)](https://www.thetechbag.com/freshworks/freshdesk) — vendor list, mid-2026 7. [Microsoft, 2026 Microsoft 365 packaging and pricing updates](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/news/2026-M365-Packaging-Pricing-Updates) — 16 February 2026 8. [Zylo, How much is wasted on SaaS spend](https://zylo.com/blog/how-much-wasted-on-saas-spend) — updated 19 March 2026 Zylo sells a SaaS management platform. 9. [Vertice, SaaS inflation rate tracker](https://www.vertice.one/insights/saas-inflation-rate) — data to August 2026 Vertice sells SaaS procurement services. 10. [India Briefing, OIDAR services: GST and reverse charge](https://india-briefing.com/news/tax-digital-services-oidar-in-india-gst-applicability-and-compliance-22465.html) — 29 September 2023 11. [Legismith Partners, DPDP Rules 2025 commencement timeline](https://legismith.com/dpdp-rules-2025-timeline/) — notified 13 November 2025 12. [CBIC, CGST Act 2017, section 16 (input tax credit)](https://cbic-gst.gov.in/CGST-bill-e.html) — 12 April 2017 **Disclosure.** TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view. Go deeper on TechBag - [Microsoft 365: Business and Enterprise plans compared](https://www.thetechbag.com/microsoft/microsoft-365) — the ₹145 to ₹1,560 INR list the worked example uses - [Zoho One: all-employee against flexible-user pricing](https://www.thetechbag.com/zoho/zoho-one) — when the suite beats the four-tool stack - [SaaS backup guide](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/backup-cyber-resilience/saas-backup) — keeping your own copy of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace data, 14 products by SKU