Compare open source total cost of ownership against commercial licensing.
Open source is not free once internal maintenance labour is counted, and that labour is the term most often omitted from comparisons. Migration cost determines the break-even point. The decision usually turns on whether maintenance capacity already exists, since the same hours cost nothing extra if the team is already staffed.
Open Source License Cost
Open source total = migration + (support + maintenance labour) × years
Open source total = migration + (support + maintenance labour) × years Open source is not free once internal maintenance labour is counted, and that labour is the term most often omitted from comparisons. Migration cost determines the break-even point.
The decision usually turns on whether maintenance capacity already exists, since the same hours cost nothing extra if the team is already staffed.
This calculator takes 6 inputs: Annual commercial licence cost, Annual open source support contract, Internal maintenance hours per year, Internal hourly rate, One-off migration cost, Comparison horizon. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.