Check how long a one-time migration cost, or an upfront reserved-capacity payment, takes to pay for itself from the yearly saving or the on-demand spend it replaces.
This calculator answers two related questions: does a migration pay for itself, and how long must I keep a workload running before an upfront commitment beats paying on demand?
Use 1: migration. Enter the one-time cost of moving: labour, consultant fees, data transfer out of the old host, the months of running both environments, testing and training. Enter the yearly saving you expect after the move (old yearly cost minus new yearly cost), the yearly growth in that saving, and a planning period. Illustrative example: $9,000 one-time, $4,800 a year saved, growing 3% a year. Payback: the first year recovers $4,800; the remaining $4,200 takes $4,200 ÷ $4,944 ≈ 0.85 of year two, so about 1.85 years (without the 3% growth it would be $9,000 ÷ $4,800 ≈ 1.88 years). Over three years the savings are $4,800 + $4,944 + $5,092.32 = $14,836.32, so the net saving is $5,836.32.
Use 2: reserved capacity or an all-upfront commitment. Enter the upfront payment as the cost, the on-demand cost you would otherwise pay each year as the yearly amount, 0% growth and the term in years. Illustrative example: a three-year all-upfront commitment of $5,400 for a server that would cost $250 a month ($3,000 a year) on demand. Break-even = $5,400 ÷ $3,000 = 1.8 years; if you keep the server for the full three years, you save $9,000 − $5,400 = $3,600. If the workload might be retired or resized before 1.8 years, the commitment loses money.
Limits. The tool assumes savings arrive evenly through the year and ignores the time value of money and exchange-rate moves. Commitment terms differ by provider (some apply to an instance family, some to a spend amount per hour); read the terms. See on-demand vs reserved, savings plans and spot and migration and exit costs.
Pitfalls, exit costs and official sources
What moving to, between or out of cloud and hosting providers really costs: labour, double running, data transfer, rework, commitments and lock-in, with a CAD worked example.
Cost estimates and choosing a host
How on-demand, reserved capacity, savings plans, committed-use discounts and spot pricing work, with break-even maths in CAD and when each fits a small business.
Cost estimates and choosing a host
Compare buying a server for your office with renting cloud capacity over five years: hardware, CCA, power, backups, licences, admin time and risk, in illustrative CAD.
