How much does resource management software cost?

I hate shopping. When it’s time to add to my wardrobe, I know I have a list of decisions to make, like which stores have clothes that work for my size, my style, or my taste?

Hunting through several stores for just the right options may be some shopaholics’ idea of a great afternoon, but I am happiest when I find a place that offers me a one-stop shop.

Many project managers share my feelings when it comes to shopping for resource management software. Few tools make the process easy, and the customer often finds herself dizzy trying to navigate the multiple pricing structure options.

For example, project managers trying to figure out just how much resource management tools cost need to consider factors including:

  • How many resources will they have in the account?
  • How many additional people do they anticipate adding to the team and in what time period?
  • What capabilities are most important?
  • How much training and ongoing support will they need?
  • What is the budget and is it amenable to any requirement changes you might need?

Be sure to consider scalability when calculating the cost of resource management software

When we set Resource Guru’s pricing plans, we wanted to make sure it was easy for businesses to grow while using our product. One simple way to do this is by making pricing predictable, so people know they can keep adding more resources to their account with minimal impact.

As you’ll see in our overview of how much resource management costs, not all resource management tools structure their pricing this way. We’ll talk about the costs and benefits of each model so that you can make the most informed decision for your purchase.

Here we’ve provided some of the most popular pricing models to help you decide which model works best for your budget and team.

Tiered bands of users

Looking to buy resource management software by bands of users? Tools like Monday.com offer tiered pricing that charges in “bands” of users ($17 per month for up to 2 users, $49 for up to 10 users and so on). However, smaller and growing teams can potentially run into issues with this model as the per-user price isn’t as consistent as it may seem.

When we analyzed fair pricing models for SaaS companies a few years ago, we found that banded pricing plans often end with large variations in per-user pricing. As an example, let’s say a product charges $49 per month for up to 10 users. Quick math tells us that customers will pay $4.90 per user ($49/10). But in reality, the cost is based on the actual number of users – so if you only have 6 users, you will pay $8.17 per user per month ($49/6) – quite a significant increase!

M&C Saatchi
Steffani Sabatinni

“Resource Guru is simple to use. It allows us to optimize our resources and keeps an eye on every project.”

Stefania Sabbatini
Digital Production Director


This per-user price inflation is what makes many banded pricing models unfair. Customers in smaller teams find themselves paying much more per-user, while other customers face a huge price jump when their teams grow by as little as one person. Before we moved away from banded pricing plans we actually saw there was significant “bunching” near our band limits of 10, 30, and 80 people. Customers were understandably reluctant to add more people and jump to a higher per-person charge.

Our pricing model builds in consistent per-resource pricing, eliminates big pricing leaps, and offers our customers greater savings for the services they actually need (more on our model in a sec).

Pay-per-resource

We believe people should only pay for what they actually use so at Resource Guru we have a per-resource pricing model that charges a consistent price for each resource added to an account. Plans start from only $4.16 per person per month, alongside discounted options for non-human resources like equipment and vehicles. Resources can be archived if they are no longer in use, and customers are not charged for them as long as they remain in the archive.

This setup allows project managers to manage more complex systems than they would get through managing people alone and doesn’t punish them by changing the per-resource cost as their team size changes.

We also offer pricing plans at slightly higher price points with additional features like Single Sign On (SSO) and utilization reports, making it easy for customers to choose a package containing features that are a good match for their team.

One-time pricing

Some enterprise companies prefer one-off pricing, but applications that offer this for resource management are exceptionally rare, expensive, and niche, and they rarely post their pricing for that reason. Enterprise clients can expect to pay well over six figures for a single software suite, and when you’re thinking in terms of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), one-off pricing options often end up costing significantly more than subscription-based pricing models.

Free comes with a cost

For limited budgets it can be tempting to consider a solution that costs nothing… but you’re likely going to get what you pay for.

While a free tool may be valuable for those that have never laid eyes on resource management software before, that’s usually where the value ends. The costs of managing a free tool are often greater than the sticker price of many premium plans.

Some of the limitations of free software that may ultimately drain your pockets include:

  • Lack of setup, maintenance, and customization
  • Limited or no customer support
  • Missing the nice-to-have features often found with paid tools
  • Loss of productivity due to allocating resources to figuring out the free tool

CIO advises, “Factor in the cost of training, governance, and maintenance of the application” when considering the cost of tools like project management or resource management software. You also need to be wary of open-source tools, as they “do not always yield considerable [monetary] advantages over proprietary alternatives.”

Resource management software pricing

The cost of resource management software isn’t always straightforward, but thankfully Resource Guru is here to make your life easy. Check out our pricing plans and start your free 30-day trial today—no credit card necessary.