How the calculation works
Each row is one tool: a category from the list, its annual cost and the seats it covers (users, endpoints or assets, the unit its license counts).
- Spend per category = Σ the annual cost of its tools, with each category’s share of the total.
- Overlap: a category with two or more tools. Rows in Other are never compared, because they may do different jobs.
- Kept tool: the tool with the most seats in an overlapping category (on a tie, the lower annual cost). The rest are consolidation candidates.
- Kept price per seat = kept tool’s annual cost ÷ its seats.
- New seats cost = candidates’ seats × the share of them not yet covered by the kept tool (your assumption, default 100%) × kept price per seat. Seats are summed across candidates, so at 100% two removed tools covering the same 150 people count as 300 new seats; lower the share when the tools overlap.
- Savings range per category: low = candidates’ cost − new seats cost (never below $0); high = candidates’ cost. The totals add the categories.
- First-year net = savings range − one-time migration cost.
Assumptions: seats in one category use the same unit, the kept tool can be extended at its current price per seat, and savings start once the removed tools’ contracts end. No industry benchmarks are used; every number is yours.
Worked example
A company lists seven tools and expects $10,000 of one-time migration cost:
| Tool | Category | Annual cost | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool 1 | Endpoint protection | $60,000 | 500 |
| Tool 2 | Endpoint protection | $25,000 | 150 |
| Tool 3 | Email security | $24,000 | 500 |
| Tool 4 | Email security | $9,000 | 500 |
| Tool 5 | SIEM and log management | $85,000 | 500 |
| Tool 6 | Vulnerability management | $30,000 | 600 |
| Tool 7 | Security awareness training | $6,000 | 500 |
- Total: $239,000 a year. Two categories overlap, with $49,000 a year (20.5% of spend) in the tools to consolidate.
- Endpoint protection: keep tool 1 ($60,000 ÷ 500 = $120 a seat). Adding tool 2’s 150 seats costs 150 × $120 = $18,000, so removing tool 2 saves $7,000 to $25,000 a year.
- Email security: tools 3 and 4 both cover 500 seats, so the cheaper tool 4 is kept ($18 a seat). Adding 500 seats costs $9,000, so removing tool 3 saves $15,000 to $24,000 a year.
- Savings range: $22,000 to $49,000 a year, or $12,000 to $39,000 in the first year after migration.
If tool 4 already covers the same 500 mailboxes as tool 3, set the share to 0% and the email saving is the full $24,000.
Before you consolidate
Line up each tool’s renewal and notice dates first: a candidate on a multi-year term only saves money once it ends, and the contract renewal calculator works out the notice deadline. For per-seat licenses that are paid for but unused, the SaaS license waste calculator covers right-sizing; this calculator is about paying two tools for the same security job.
