Network Cost Estimator

Build up a network project cost: hardware, licences, cabling, installation labour, contingency and cost per port.

About Network Cost Estimator

Project cost is a sum of four independent buckets, and contingency is applied to the subtotal rather than to hardware alone because labour and cabling overruns are the more common surprise. Normalising by port count gives the figure that makes competing designs comparable. Cost per port is the number procurement and finance actually compare, and it is the only way to show that a cheaper switch with fewer ports is not cheaper at all.

Formula

Network Cost

total = (units × (hardware + licence)) + cabling + (labour hours × rate), plus a contingency percentage of that subtotal.

contingency: Reserve for scope discovered during installation
cost per port: Total cost divided by delivered access ports

Worked example

With the default values below, Network Cost Estimator returns Total Project Cost of $205,632. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Switches or nodesaccepts 1–100,000 units: 20 units
Hardware cost per unitaccepts 0–10,000,000 currency: 6,500 currency
Ports per unitaccepts 1–1,000 ports: 48 ports
Software licence per unitaccepts 0–1,000,000 currency: 900 currency
Cabling and opticsaccepts 0–100,000,000 currency: 22,000 currency
Installation labouraccepts 0–100,000 hours: 160 hours
Labour rateaccepts 0–5,000 currency/hour: 85 currency/hour
Contingencyaccepts 0–50 %: 12 %

Results

Total Project Cost: $205,632
Hardware and Licences: $148,000
Installation Labour: $13,600
Contingency Reserve: $22,032
Cost per Port: $214.20

Step by step

1Values used
2Network Cost
3Total Project Cost= 205,632
4Hardware and Licences= 148,000
5Installation Labour= 13,600
6Contingency Reserve= 22,032
7Cost per Port= 214.20

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 8 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Network Cost calculated?

total = (units × (hardware + licence)) + cabling + (labour hours × rate), plus a contingency percentage of that subtotal. Project cost is a sum of four independent buckets, and contingency is applied to the subtotal rather than to hardware alone because labour and cabling overruns are the more common surprise. Normalising by port count gives the figure that makes competing designs comparable.

Why does Network Cost matter?

Cost per port is the number procurement and finance actually compare, and it is the only way to show that a cheaper switch with fewer ports is not cheaper at all.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 8 inputs: Switches or nodes, Hardware cost per unit, Ports per unit, Software licence per unit, Cabling and optics, Installation labour, Labour rate, Contingency. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.