Questions to ask before you sign a per-user licence

Per-user pricing looks like the simplest model in software: count your people, multiply, done. It stays simple exactly as long as your company doesn’t change shape. The questions below are the ones that decide what you actually pay in year two, and none of them is difficult to ask before signing.

What counts as a user?

The first question, and the one most often answered vaguely. Does a user mean anyone with a login, or anyone with an active session in a month? Does a part-time bookkeeper who opens the system twice a month cost the same as a full-time salesperson?

Then the variants: do read-only viewers count? Do administrators? If the system gives your own customers a portal login, are they users you pay for? A buyer usually assumes portal users are free and is annoyed to discover otherwise at renewal.

Can a seat be reassigned?

People leave. When one does, can their seat be given to their replacement, immediately and without a call? Some contracts allow it freely, some allow it once a month, some tie a licence to a named individual for its term. This is the question that decides whether a seasonal or high-turnover team is affordable.

What is the minimum, and for how long?

Minimum seats, minimum term, and what happens at renewal. A minimum of twenty seats is fine when you have thirty people and painful when you have twelve. Ask what happens if you need fewer seats next year: some contracts let you reduce at renewal, some only let you grow.

What does the price include, and what is extra?

Support: is it included, is it business hours, and what does a faster response cost? Updates: do you get new versions, or is there an upgrade fee? Storage and data: is there a limit, and what does going over it cost? Integrations: does connecting the system to another one require a higher tier? Sandbox or test environments: included or extra?

None of these is unreasonable to charge for. All of them are unreasonable to discover later.

What happens to your data if you leave?

Ask for the export format before you sign, not after you’re unhappy. A system that exports its data in a form another system can read is one you can leave; a system that exports PDFs is one you can’t. Ask how long your data is kept after termination, and how you get the final copy.

What does the price do at renewal?

Ask for the uplift cap in writing. “We review prices annually” without a cap means the renewal conversation happens from a position where moving is expensive and staying is whatever they say.

Is per-user even the right model for you?

Per-user suits companies where the number of people using the system matches the value they get from it. It fits badly in three cases: many occasional users, a few heavy users plus a long tail, and teams with seasonal peaks. If your shape is one of those, ask whether the vendor offers a different model — per module, per installation, or a flat fee — before you assume per-user is the only option.

Why we say this

Our own product is sold with the modules and the number of users chosen by the buyer, and we would rather a customer asked us all of the above before signing than discovered it at renewal. Ask us for a Zyntra OS price and you will get one for the modules and the number of users you need; what it includes, and the answer to “what counts as a user”, are exactly the questions we expect to be asked.

More about the product: Zyntra OS.

Ayman Aljakhbir is the founder and CEO of Double Support, which he started in Amman in 2007. The company builds software for other companies, runs call center teams for clients in the United States and Europe, and makes its own business management system, Zyntra OS.