ERP software cost is one of the hardest numbers to pin down before you start talking to partners, because the honest answer is that it is three bills, not one. Ask what ERP software costs and you will usually be told a per-user, per-month figure. That number is real, but on its own it is close to useless for budgeting, because it is the smallest of the three and the only one that is genuinely comparable between vendors.
What makes up your ERP software cost
To know what ERP will actually cost your business, you need three numbers.
Implementation covers discovery, configuration, data migration, testing, training and go-live. It is a one-off project cost.
Support covers ongoing technical and user help once you are live. It is charged monthly.
Licences cover access to the software itself, charged per user per month.
Separating them is the only way to compare proposals honestly. A low implementation quote is not cheaper if support, development and change requests start stacking up in month three. A low licence price is not cheaper if getting live costs three times what it should. A low headline figure on any one of the three tells you very little about your total ERP software cost.
ERP software cost part one: implementation
Implementation is the work required to take ERP software from an empty system to something your team can use on a Monday morning. It is also where the traditional model puts most of your money, and where the biggest differences between quotes hide.
The conventional approach front-loads the cost. A large scoping and design phase runs before a single part of the system is configured. Months of discovery, requirements that have gone out of date by the time you go live, and most of the budget spent before the business has seen anything working.
We price implementation as fixed-price packs instead, built around the size and complexity of a growing business. Every pack includes setup and configuration, training, go-live support and the curation expertise to decide what to turn on and in what order. There is no separate scoping fee, and a typical go-live lands in around eight weeks.
Starter pack, from £8,600 / $11,650, for businesses moving off spreadsheets or basic accounting software.
Inventory pack, £4,200 / $5,700, for stock-selling businesses.
Project Accounting pack, £4,200 / $5,700, for contracts and project-based businesses.
You take the packs you need and add more later, once the system is running and embedded. A contracts business does not need inventory configured on day one. A stock business does not need project accounting. Paying to set up functionality you will not touch for a year is one of the easiest ways to inflate your ERP software cost.
So a stock-selling business needing Starter plus Inventory is £12,800 / $17,350. A contracts business needing Starter plus Project Accounting is the same, £12,800 / $17,350.
One more thing that moves this number a long way is customisation. Heavily customised systems cost more to build, more to support, and make every future update a bigger job. We configure to standard functionality wherever possible, and it is worth asking any partner what they intend to customise and why. Our sets out how that works in practice.
ERP software cost part two: monthly support
The second cost is what happens after go-live. ERP is not a system you implement once and never touch again. Your team will need help, new people will join, processes will change, and as you grow you will want more of the platform than you started with.
Our support plans are Bronze at £399 / $600 a month, Silver at £699 / $1,000 a month and Gold at £999 / $1,500 a month. What drives the tier is how many areas of the system you are using and how heavily it has been customised. Full detail is on our
Whoever you speak to, ask three things: what is included, what response times apply, and what triggers an additional charge. A low monthly figure is not a saving if routine questions are billed on top.
ERP software cost part three: per-user licences
The third cost is the software subscription itself. Modern ERP is cloud-based, so rather than buying a perpetual licence you pay per user per month and updates come as standard.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the ERP we implement, has three licence types. Essentials at £61.50 / $80 per user per month suits most SMB users running daily operations. Premium at £84.60 / $110 adds manufacturing and field service. Team Member at £6.20 / $8 covers light users who read, approve and update.
Prices are paid annually and were correct as at August 2026. Microsoft reviews its pricing periodically, so confirm the current figures on before you commit to a budget.
The single biggest lever on this part of your ERP software cost is not negotiating the rate. It is licensing people correctly in the first place. Not everyone needs full access. Managers who only approve requests, warehouse staff, shop floor teams and directors who just want visibility of the numbers can sit on a Team Member licence at a tenth of the cost.
The second lever is not over-buying on functionality. If you do not manufacture or run field service, Essentials is the cheaper and correct answer, and the gap compounds every month.
What it costs a real SMB
Enough abstraction. Here is a growing stock-based business with ten operational users, five people who only need to approve and view, the Starter and Inventory packs, and the middle support tier.
Implementation is a one-off £12,800, being Starter at £8,600 plus Inventory at £4,200. Microsoft licences come to £646 a month, being ten Essentials at £61.50 plus five Team Members at £6.20. Silver support is £699 a month.
So the initial investment is £12,800 to get live, followed by roughly £1,345 a month covering both licences and support. That is a full ERP system, not a cut-down edition, for a fifteen-person business.
The ERP software cost nobody quotes for
Most proposals get compared on the three numbers above. The real gaps between them usually sit somewhere else entirely. These are the five questions worth asking every partner you speak to.
Scoping and discovery fees are the big one. Many partners charge a separate fee to scope and design your system before any of it is built, typically £20,000 to £50,000. We do not charge one, because scoping is included in the pack price. If you are comparing proposals, check whether the implementation figure includes discovery or sits on top of it. This single question can account for most of the difference between two quotes.
Change requests and customisation. Ask what counts as a change request under the contract and what it is charged at.
Training and go-live support. Both are included in our packs, delivered just before go-live when it actually sticks. Not every partner includes them, so confirm rather than assume.
Add-on products. Some requirements are met by third-party apps rather than the core platform, and those carry their own licence fees. If a proposal relies on one, ask what it costs annually, not just to install.
Support you use but have not bought. Check what the plan covers, what response times apply and what falls outside it. Routine questions billed separately undo a low monthly figure very quickly.
Is the ERP software cost worth it versus accounting software?
This is the real question behind most ERP pricing searches. ERP costs more per user than an accounting package, because it is not one.
Sage 50, Xero and QuickBooks record what has already happened to your money. ERP runs the operational processes that generate those numbers, so purchasing, stock movements, project costs and sales orders post to the ledger automatically rather than being keyed in afterwards.
Stay on your accounting package if you run one company in one currency, hold little or no stock, have a finance team of one or two people, and nobody is exporting to Excel to get answers.
ERP is worth the spend if you have added or plan to add a second entity, buy or sell in more than one currency, have stock, jobs or projects driving your margins, need approval workflows and proper permissions, or month-end depends on spreadsheet gymnastics.
The clearest test is the spreadsheet one. If your finance team exports data every month and rebuilds the same workbook to produce management accounts, that workbook is already doing the ERP's job.
The second test is headcount. When businesses grow they usually add a person before they add a system. If finance has doubled while the software has not changed, the software is the constraint and you are already paying for ERP, just in salary rather than licences.
Worth noting that some of the price comparison is not like for like either. Multi-currency is an additional fee in Sage 50 and a premium tier in Xero. Each extra company is a further charge in QuickBooks. Updates in both Sage 50 and QuickBooks have to be purchased and installed. We have compared these properly in and
Frequently asked questions
How much does ERP software cost? ERP software cost is three separate things: a one-off implementation project, a monthly support plan and per-user licences. At Truly SMB, implementation starts from £8,600 / $11,650, support from £399 / $600 a month, and Business Central Essentials licences are £61.50 / $80 per user per month paid annually.
How much does an ERP implementation cost? It depends how the partner prices the work. Many charge a separate scoping fee of £20,000 to £50,000 before any of your system is built, with the build cost on top. We price implementation as fixed-price packs instead, from £8,600 / $11,650 for the starter pack and £4,200 / $5,700 for additional functional packs, with no separate scoping fee.
Why is ERP more expensive than accounting software? Because it is not the same kind of product. Accounting packages record what has already happened to your money. ERP runs the operational processes that generate those numbers.
What are the hidden costs of ERP software? The five that catch businesses out are separate scoping fees, change requests and customisation, training and go-live support charged as extras, third-party add-on products with their own annual licences, and support work that falls outside your plan.
Do all users need a full ERP licence? No, and this is the biggest saving available on the licence line. A Business Central Team Member licence is £6.20 / $8 per user per month and covers reading information, approving workflows, entering timesheets and expenses and updating certain records.
Is ERP software worth it for a small business? The clearest test is the spreadsheet one. If your finance team exports data every month and rebuilds the same workbook to produce management accounts, that workbook is already doing the ERP's job.
Want a real ERP software cost for your business?
Tell us how many people need access, whether you hold stock or run projects, and how many companies you file for. That is enough for us to give you a fixed price rather than a range. Fixed scope. No scoping fee. Ongoing support after go-live.
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