The verdict in three sentences
For a 150-employee plant in the Toronto area, an off-the-shelf CMMS costs 50 to 150 EUR per user per month, plus 15,000 to 40,000 EUR of vendor integration, while a custom CMMS from Kolonell wired to your PLCs runs 6,100 to 22,870 EUR excl. tax. Off-the-shelf remains the right choice if you run several sites, face heavy regulatory validation or have no process specifics. Once your line downtime costs 2,000 to 20,000 EUR an hour and your equipment speaks OPC UA or Modbus, custom pays back within months and ships in 3 to 5 months.
The 5-year cost, line by line
A SaaS subscription looks cheap on the price page, but it multiplies by users and years. The table compares both options for 15 users (technicians, planners, stores, manager), as 2026 orders of magnitude.
| Item | Off-the-shelf SaaS CMMS | Kolonell custom CMMS |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription or build | 50 to 150 EUR per user per month, 9,000 to 27,000 EUR a year | 6,100 to 22,870 EUR excl. tax, one-off |
| Integration and configuration | 15,000 to 40,000 EUR (vendor or integrator) | Included in scope |
| PLC and sensor connection | Optional module, often extra | OPC UA, Modbus or MQTT depending on equipment |
| Hosting | Included | 50 to 150 EUR per month |
| Application maintenance | Included in subscription | 110 or 180 EUR per month (Standard or Premium) |
| 5-year total cost | 60,000 to 175,000 EUR | 15,700 to 42,670 EUR excl. tax |
| Time to go live | 2 to 6 months with data migration | 3 to 5 months |
| Ownership | Data with the vendor | Code and data owned by the plant |
The gap widens with headcount: at 30 users the SaaS cost doubles, while the custom cost barely moves.
Preventive work, spare parts, shop floor: what changes day to day
| Function | Off-the-shelf | Custom | What matters for a 150-employee plant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calendar-based preventive maintenance | Very complete | Complete | Tie |
| Condition-based preventive (run hours, vibration, temperature) | Possible via IoT module, extra cost | Direct reading of PLC counters | Custom advantage if your PLCs are accessible |
| Spare parts inventory | Standard management, imposed coding | Your coding, thresholds by criticality | Custom advantage if your stores already have their logic |
| Work orders on tablets | Vendor app | Offline web app fitted to your workshops | Tie if the vendor app works in dead zones |
| Regulatory traceability (pressure equipment, safety inspections) | Ready-made templates | Specified during scoping | Off-the-shelf advantage |
| Multi-site and group | Native | Must be designed in from the start | Off-the-shelf advantage beyond 3 sites |
| MTBF, MTTR, OEE indicators | Standard dashboards | Dashboards built on your lines | Custom advantage for fine-grained steering |
So the right question is not "off-the-shelf or custom?" but "are my specifics worth more than a vendor's functional depth?".
Mini case study
Thomas, maintenance manager at a 150-employee plant near Toronto, records 40 hours of unplanned downtime a year on his main line, at roughly 5,000 EUR per hour of lost production.
- Yearly downtime cost: 40 x 5,000 = 200,000 EUR.
- With condition-based preventive maintenance wired to PLC counters, a 20 % reduction target: 8 hours, or 40,000 EUR a year.
- Spare parts stock of 250,000 EUR, cut by 10 % with criticality thresholds: 25,000 EUR of cash freed once.
- Investment: custom CMMS at 18,000 EUR excl. tax plus 1,320 EUR of Standard maintenance a year.
- Payback: under 6 months on downtime savings alone.
These figures are estimates: an audit of your breakdown history during scoping confirms them.
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FAQ
How much does a CMMS cost for a 150-employee plant?
An off-the-shelf SaaS runs 50 to 150 EUR per user per month, plus 15,000 to 40,000 EUR of integration. A Kolonell custom CMMS costs 6,100 to 22,870 EUR excl. tax, with maintenance from 110 EUR per month.
Can the CMMS connect to our PLCs?
Yes, if your PLCs expose data over OPC UA, Modbus or MQTT, often through a gateway costing a few hundred euros. Run-hour counters and alarms then trigger preventive work orders.
When is off-the-shelf the better choice?
Beyond 3 sites, with heavy regulatory obligations already modelled by the vendor, or if your process is standard. In those cases the 15,000 to 40,000 EUR of integration is money well spent.
How long does a custom CMMS take to deploy?
Between 3 and 5 months: 3 weeks of scoping with technicians, 2 to 3 months of development, then equipment and parts migration and one month of break-in on a pilot line.
What happens if Kolonell stops maintaining the CMMS?
The plant owns the code and the data, built on standard web technology. Another provider can take it over, and technical documentation is delivered with the project.
Let's scope your project. Send us your equipment count, user count and PLC types: we will price your CMMS between 6,100 and 22,870 EUR excl. tax, delivered in 3 to 5 months. Detailed quote within 48 h via our quote form. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
