UK SMEs could save £10,000 by ditching software tools

UK small and medium-sized businesses could save up to £10,000 a year by cutting unused software subscriptions, according to Fasthosts. The estimate comes as firms face rising costs for software-as-a-service tools.

Many SMEs now rely on 10 to 20 software tools across marketing, sales and operations, the company's analysis found. That level of adoption has made software one of the fastest-growing items in operational budgets.

Figures cited by Fasthosts suggest steady price inflation across the sector. A report from Medium found average SaaS prices are rising by 8% to 25% a year, while global business spending on SaaS averages USD $7,900 per employee each year, up 27% over two years.

At the same time, companies are paying for products that staff do not use. Fasthosts cited evidence showing that 40% of organisations had one or two redundant SaaS tools in 2024, while research from Workspace 365 found that 39% of employees do not use the programs their companies have bought.

The maths

To illustrate the cost, Fasthosts used the example of a UK digital marketing agency with 15 employees. Such a business might use Slack, Asana, HubSpot, SEMrush, Hootsuite and Xero, alongside additional software for reporting, automation and integrations.

On that basis, a business with 10 to 15 subscriptions costing an average of £10 to £50 per user each month could spend £27,000 to £54,000 a year on software. Removing just two tools could save as much as £10,000 a year.

The argument is that many software stacks have grown without regular review. Overlapping functions, underused licences and multiple products being used for a single workflow can all push costs higher.

AI shift

AI agents are starting to alter that model, Fasthosts said. It described them as autonomous or semi-autonomous systems that can act across platforms and automate workflows, reducing the need for separate subscriptions in some cases.

Businesses can use AI-led automation to combine tasks that would otherwise require several products. In practice, that could mean a single system handling lead management, customer communication, reporting and scheduling within one workflow.

That shift could reduce the number of standalone applications businesses need to license. It could also move spending away from a broad mix of specialist software and towards fewer systems that handle multiple tasks together.

Search interest in AI agents has risen sharply over the past year, according to Fasthosts, alongside growing attention to terms such as "what is an AI agent" and "agentic AI". The company also pointed to products such as Claude, Zapier and Lindy AI as part of a broader move towards more autonomous workflow systems.

Pricing pressure

The rise of AI is also changing how software vendors charge customers. Per-seat pricing has long been standard in SaaS, but that model is coming under pressure as AI systems begin carrying out tasks previously handled by several staff members or tools.

In response, software providers are moving towards usage-based and outcome-based pricing, where customers pay for actions completed rather than simple access. Examples cited include Salesforce Agentforce at about USD $2 per conversation and Zendesk AI at USD $1.50 to USD $2.00 per automated resolution, alongside extra per-agent fees.

That creates a tension for customers. On one hand, suppliers are using AI features to introduce premium tiers and new fees. On the other, the same technology may help businesses reduce the number of products they need in the first place.

By 2026, around 40% of enterprise SaaS is expected to include elements of outcome-based pricing, according to Fasthosts. For smaller businesses already under pressure to control overheads, that may make software reviews more urgent.

The wider backdrop is a SaaS market that remains large and continues to grow. By the end of 2025, the global SaaS market was estimated to be worth USD $299 billion, underlining how deeply subscription software is embedded in day-to-day business operations.

For SMEs, the central issue is less whether software is necessary than how much duplication exists within their current systems. The question is no longer how many tools they need, but how few they can operate with.