Contents
- Flexera's annual State of the Cloud report consistently finds that 30%+ of SaaS spending is wasted on underutilized licenses, redundant tools, and shelfware.
- Contractor costs to manage those platforms dropped from $9,046/month at peak to $0.
- The financial data across 28 months (February 2024 - January 2026) shows the inflection point clearly:
- SaaS displacement is not just a cost story.
Stealth Labz eliminated $82,640 per year in combined SaaS subscriptions ($19,909) and contractor management costs ($62,731) by replacing 6 vendor platforms with one internally built operations system, reducing monthly operating costs from $6,312 to $825.
The SaaS Waste Problem
Flexera's annual State of the Cloud report consistently finds that 30%+ of SaaS spending is wasted on underutilized licenses, redundant tools, and shelfware. But the visible subscription cost is only part of the problem. The hidden cost is the contractor and staff time required to manage, integrate, and troubleshoot a multi-vendor stack. In Stealth Labz's case, $1,565/month in SaaS subscriptions required $9,046/month at peak in contractor costs just to keep the platforms connected and functional.
What Was Displaced (Itemized)
| Vendor | Function | Monthly Cost | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Konnektive CRM | Order management, CRM, affiliate tracking | $583 | Replaced by PRJ-01 |
| TrackDesk | Affiliate tracking and payouts | $499 | Replaced by PRJ-01 |
| SendGrid/Twilio | Email/SMS messaging | $180 | Replaced by PRJ-01 |
| Socioboard | Social media management | $143 | Replaced by PRJ-01 |
| Sonetel | Phone/communications | $100 | Replaced by PRJ-01 |
| Klaviyo | Email marketing automation | $60 | Replaced by PRJ-01 |
| Total SaaS | $1,565/mo | $0/mo |
Contractor costs to manage those platforms dropped from $9,046/month at peak to $0. Combined displacement: $82,640 annually.
The Cost Trajectory After Displacement
The financial data across 28 months (February 2024 - January 2026) shows the inflection point clearly:
- Before PRJ-01: $6,312/month average operating cost (SaaS + contractors + infrastructure)
- After PRJ-01: $825/month (hosting + AI tools only)
- January 2026: $0 monthly operating cost -- PRJ-01 fully operational, all vendors eliminated
The build cost for PRJ-01 itself was $16,800 over 74 active days. At $5,487/month in savings, the build investment paid for itself in 3.1 months.
Beyond Cost: The Control Advantage
SaaS displacement is not just a cost story. Data moved from 6 siloed platforms to one unified database with 135 tables and 616,543 leads in a single source of truth. Integration points dropped from 15 fragile vendor-to-vendor connections to 8 clean, internally controlled APIs. The operator stopped depending on vendor roadmaps, pricing changes, and support ticket queues.
For decision-makers running $5K-$15K/month in SaaS: the question is whether the integration friction and vendor dependency cost more than building owned infrastructure. The audited data says yes.
Related: [FAQ #72 — Monthly Infrastructure Cost After Building]
References
- Flexera (2025). "State of the Cloud Report." SaaS waste and cloud spending data.
- Keating, M.G. (2026). "Case Study: The Platform Displacement." Stealth Labz. Read case study