AppSumo listings show a one-time price next to whatever the tool would normally cost per month, but they never do the actual math on when that one-time price pays for itself — or whether it pays off at all. Enter both prices and how long you expect to use the tool, and this works out the breakeven month and the total you keep either way.
This runs a straight cash comparison: total cost if you paid for the subscription every month for your chosen period, versus the one-time lifetime price. No guesswork, no rounding tricks — the numbers update as you type.
Reviews this calculator pairs well with
A few recent lifetime-deal reviews that spell out the monthly-subscription price they're being compared against — plug those numbers in above.
Brizy Design Kit
Site-building blocks, compared against a recurring design-tool plan.
Read the review →Frequently asked questions
How is the ROI actually calculated?
Multiply the monthly subscription price by the number of months in your usage period to get the total you would have paid month to month. Subtract the lifetime price from that to get total savings. The breakeven point is the lifetime price divided by the monthly price, rounded up to the next whole month, since a subscription charges for the full month even if you cancel partway through it.
Does this include compound interest or inflation?
No. This is a plain cash-cost comparison, not a discounted-cash-flow model. It does not account for what the lifetime price could have earned if invested instead, or for the subscription's price likely rising over the years (SaaS pricing tends to go up, rarely down). Both of those effects would make the lifetime deal look better than this calculator already shows, not worse, so treat the savings number here as a conservative floor.
What if the tool raises its lifetime-deal terms or shuts down?
The calculator only compares cash outlay assuming both options keep working for the full period you select. It cannot price in the risk that a small vendor gets acquired, pivots, or shuts down and stops honoring lifetime access. That risk is real for AppSumo-style deals, which is exactly why each review on this site also covers the vendor and the deal's refund window, not just the price.
A lifetime deal can still be a bad idea even if it saves money on paper. Why?
The savings number assumes you actually use the tool for the whole period you entered. If you stop after a few months, switch tools, or only needed it for one project, you paid the lifetime price for a fraction of the value and the monthly plan would have cost less overall. Run the calculator with a realistic, honest usage window rather than the longest one you can imagine.
Looking for a specific deal?
Every AppSumo review on this site includes the same honest verdict this calculator is built to check: what it costs, what it replaces, and whether the lifetime price is actually worth it.
Browse all lifetime deals