AI Answer Library
Short answer
Ask first whether the data may leave your network; only then start comparing prices. If regulation keeps the data inside your perimeter or inside your jurisdiction, SaaS is out — that is a compliance question, not a pricing one. Where data can leave, compare three-to-five-year total cost of ownership, how fast requirements change, and whether you have anyone to run the system: long service life, stable user counts and heavy customisation favour buying outright; unsettled requirements, fast iteration and no ops headcount favour subscribing. There is also a hybrid path between the two that most comparisons skip.
The table below is framed for mainland-China enterprise procurement. Note that vendors define "buy-out" very differently — whether source code is included, whether support is bundled, whether user or site counts are capped — so align those definitions before comparing prices, or the headline gap tells you nothing.
| Dimension | One-off buy-out (self-hosted) | SaaS subscription | Hybrid |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Paid once; technical support optionally renewed from year two | Recurring, by year, seat or usage | Core modules bought outright, peripheral capabilities metered |
| Where the data lives | Entirely on the customer's own servers or internal network | On the vendor's cloud, subject to their regions and compliance posture | Sensitive data stays inside; non-sensitive workloads go to the cloud |
| Time to go live | Servers, domains, certificates and third-party accounts must be ready first — typically weeks | Sign up and start, typically days | Paced by the deployment of the bought-out core |
| What happens when you stop paying | The system keeps running; you lose ticket response and minor upgrades | Service stops at expiry; data must be exported beforehand | The bought-out core keeps running; the metered parts stop |
| Who it suits | Long service life, stable user counts, compliance requirements, basic ops capability in-house | Unsettled requirements, fast iteration, no ops headcount | A clear sensitivity boundary, but still wanting the latest hosted model capability |
Buy-out side = licence price + servers or cloud + deployment and training labour + support fees in years two and three. Take YGG's meeting management product as a worked example (list price, August 2026): ¥19,800 one-off including the first year of support, with support renewable at ¥3,960 per year thereafter — decline the renewal and the system keeps running, you simply lose ticket response and minor upgrades. Subscription side = annual fee × years × (1 + expected annual increase), where the increase comes from the price-adjustment clause in your contract, or from a deliberately pessimistic industry assumption if there is no clause. Two expensive variables sit outside both columns: the cost of migrating data later, and how often requirements change — a system reworked substantially every year will likely see custom development fees consume the entire price gap.
One: the data cannot leave your network or your jurisdiction. Then the only question is the smallest compliant footprint that works, not which option is cheaper. Two: requirements are still moving. Freezing a half-understood process into bought-out source code costs far more than two extra years of subscription — subscribe while you iterate, buy once the process settles. Three: you need deep customisation or tight integration with internal systems. Buy, and insist on a source-code licence, or you have purchased a black box you cannot modify; also fix the per-person-day rate and response times for custom work in the contract before you are locked in.
Where this applies
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