POS Cost Calculator: Prepaid Bundle vs Monthly Subscription
“As low as ₱1,500 a month” and a ₱49,999 package are not the same kind of number, so they cannot be compared directly. Put your actual quotes in below and see the upfront cash, the effective monthly rate and the three-year total for each.
The two quotes
Enter what each vendor actually quoted you. Nothing here is pre-filled with any vendor's price.
Option A — prepaid bundle
The first term usually includes hardware; later terms normally renew as software only. Put that renewal price here — or leave it equal to the bundle price to assume nothing changes.
Option B — monthly subscription
Tablet, stand, receipt printer, cash drawer — whatever the bundle includes that a monthly plan would not.
Compare over time
Prepaid bundle, 36 months
₱134,399
₱124.44 per day
Monthly plan, 36 months
₱79,000
₱73.15 per day
The monthly plan is ₱55,399 cheaper over 36 months
Monthly plan becomes the cheaper total above ₱3,038.86 per month over this horizon.
- Cash out on day one — bundle
- ₱55,999
- Cash out on day one — monthly
- ₱26,500
- Effective monthly — bundle (first term)
- ₱9,333
- Effective monthly — monthly plan
- ₱2,194
| Horizon | Bundle | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| 12 months | ₱71,679 | ₱43,000 |
| 24 months | ₱103,039 | ₱61,000 |
| 36 months | ₱134,399 | ₱79,000 |
The trap in “as low as ₱X per month”
A headline monthly rate is usually the effective rate of the longest term offered, divided down. The rate you get quoted for a shorter term is often materially higher, and the figure is normally VAT-exclusive. Divide the actual quoted bundle by its actual term before you compare anything.
Four questions to ask before you sign
- 1. Is that price VAT-inclusive? A VAT-exclusive quote costs 12% more for a VAT-registered business.
- 2. What happens if I stop paying? On a cloud-dependent system, non-payment can mean losing access to your own sales history. Ask directly, and get it in writing.
- 3. What is the total term cost, not the monthly rate? Multiply the quoted bundle by the number of terms in three years.
- 4. Can I keep using the hardware if I switch software? Bundled hardware is only an asset if it is not locked to one vendor.
How this is calculated
Four decisions, stated plainly, so you can check the output against your own quotes.
Compare totals, never rates
A monthly figure and a bundle figure are not the same unit, so they cannot be compared directly. Everything here is converted to a total cost over a fixed horizon — 12, 24 or 36 months — because that is the money that actually leaves your business.
Add the VAT a VAT-exclusive quote hides
Philippine POS packages are commonly quoted VAT-exclusive. If you are VAT-registered, a ₱49,999 quote is ₱55,999 out of the bank, not ₱49,999. Tick the box and the real number appears.
Make the hardware fair
This is where most comparisons mislead. A bundle that includes a tablet, stand, receipt printer and cash drawer is not comparable to a software-only monthly fee unless you add the hardware you would have to buy. The calculator adds it to whichever side needs it — unless you already own it.
Then look at the cash-flow shape, not just the total
A bundle can be cheaper in total and still be the wrong choice if it means ₱55,999 before you serve a single customer. Both an upfront figure and an effective-monthly figure are shown, because a restaurant's problem is usually cash timing, not arithmetic.
Questions to ask before you sign anything
Why do Philippine POS vendors quote a 6-month or annual bundle instead of a monthly price?
Bundles collect cash up front, which suits a vendor financing hardware and on-site installation. It also makes the headline rate look lower, because a longer term divided down produces a smaller monthly figure. The practical consequence for you is that the commitment and the cash are both front-loaded, and the price usually rises if you want a shorter term. Always ask for the total cost of the term you are actually considering, in writing.
Is a POS that advertises a lower monthly fee actually cheaper?
Not necessarily, and the difference is usually hardware and VAT. A low monthly software fee plus ₱25,000 of hardware you must buy can cost more over three years than a bundle that included the hardware. Run both through the calculator with your real quotes rather than comparing the two advertised headline numbers.
Should I buy POS hardware or let the vendor bundle it?
It depends on whether the hardware stays useful to you. Bundled hardware is convenient and often cheaper than buying the same items separately, but it is only an asset if it is not locked to one vendor's software. Android tablets, standard ESC/POS thermal printers, cash drawers and barcode scanners are widely compatible, so a tablet-and-peripherals setup you own outright can be moved to another system later. Ask specifically whether the hardware will work with different software before you sign a bundle.
What happens to my sales data if I stop paying the subscription?
Ask this question before you sign, and get the answer in writing. On a cloud-dependent system, your sales history lives on the vendor's servers under their account, so ceasing to pay can mean losing access to records you are legally required to keep. On a local-first system like WSI POS, your sales live in a database on your own machine, and backups can be exported. That is a structural difference worth more than a few hundred pesos a month.
Does this calculator use any specific vendor's prices?
No. Every figure is an input you control, and no vendor's price is asserted as current — published pricing in this market changes, so a hard-coded competitor price would quickly become wrong. Enter the quotes you have actually been given. The tool only does the arithmetic, and the arithmetic does not care whose logo is on the quote.
Does the calculator send or store my numbers?
No. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is submitted, logged or stored, and no account or email address is required.
Where this connects to WSI POS — honestly
WSI POS is designed around a local-first architecture, so core counter operations are not dependent on a cloud subscription being active, and your sales database lives on your own hardware with exportable backups. We have not published final commercial pricing — a deployment is scoped to your branches, hardware and implementation. What we will not do is quote you a headline monthly rate that turns out to be the effective rate of a term you were not offered.
Get a quote you can actually compare
Bring the quote you are holding, and we will walk through the total cost, the offline behaviour and the exit path on a live demo.
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