The question we hear most from an owner thinking about leaving NetSuite is not “can ERPNext do what NetSuite does?” — it usually can. The question is “what does it really cost over five years, start to finish?” The prices on the sales sheet answer almost none of that, so here is the way we work it out honestly.
Where NetSuite cost actually comes from
NetSuite pricing has three moving parts, and only the first one is on the price sheet:
- The base license — a yearly fee just to use the platform.
- A fee for every employee who logs in. Every full user is a repeat charge on your bill. This is the part that adds up: each new hire is a permanent cost increase, so you get penalized for growing.
- Add-on features and renewals — advanced features (manufacturing, stock planning, running multiple companies) are priced on top, and renewal price bumps of 5–10% are common once you are locked in and switching away is hard.
The trap is that the headline number you agree to in year one is the smallest number you will ever pay. Users, add-ons, and price bumps all move in one direction.
Where ERPNext cost actually comes from
Running your own ERPNext inside your own Google Cloud account flips the model around. (ERPNext is all-in-one business software — accounting, inventory, sales, HR, and projects in one place.)
- No license fee. ERPNext is open-source (GPLv3). There is no software license and no fee for every employee who logs in — adding your hundredth user costs the same in software as your first.
- You pay Google only for what you use. You pay Google Cloud for the computer, database, and storage your system actually uses. For most small-to-mid setups that is a few hundred dollars a month, and it grows with how hard the system works, not with how many people you hire.
- Setup and ongoing care. This is the real spend: setting the system up, moving your old data across, and keeping it secure and running over time. It is a service you buy, not rent you keep paying.
The five-year shape
The reason the five-year view matters is that the two models rise at different rates. NetSuite’s cost climbs every time you hire or renew. The ERPNext cost is mostly a bigger up-front setup, then flattens out to a steady care fee plus modest Google Cloud costs.
For a 50-person company, the fee for every employee who logs in alone is often $90,000+ per year before any add-ons. Owning your own setup instead typically lands 40–70% lower total cost over five years once the setup is spread out — and you finish the five years owning something of lasting value instead of a stack of renewals.
You can run your own numbers with our cost calculator, or see the full Infinary vs NetSuite comparison for a feature-by-feature breakdown.
The part that does not show up in a spreadsheet
Two costs never appear on either price sheet:
- The cost of leaving. With NetSuite, your data lives in their cloud and leaving is expensive on purpose. When you own your ERPNext setup, you hold the only keys that unlock your data and you have the software itself — if you ever leave Infinary, you take the running system with you.
- The growth penalty. A fee for every employee who logs in quietly taxes the exact thing you are trying to do: grow. Removing that tax changes how you staff, not just what you pay.
If you want a grounded five-year estimate for your own headcount and systems, a free setup review includes a cost comparison and a 90-day plan to move your data across — no obligation. And if you are still learning the basics, the ERPNext FAQ answers the cost and ownership questions directly.