Industry Watch · Published June 11, 2026
Choosing Software After the SaaS Spring
Subscription enthusiasm cooled; procurement logic returned to pragmatism: total cost and data ownership.
SaaS was hot for years, with startups offering a subscription for nearly every scenario. The heat has cooled, some vendors folded or raised prices, and companies are recalculating whether subscriptions pay off.
What the retreat exposed
Downtime risk: one company's collaboration vendor ran out of funding and dragged data export for a month, nearly halting operations.
Unpredictable pricing: low entry prices rose year on year while switching costs stayed high.
Limited tailoring: roadmap decisions belong to the vendor, leaving specific needs queued forever.
The new logic
Compute five-year total cost, not first-year price: subscription, implementation and exit costs all count.
Put data ownership in the contract: full export at any time in common formats is the baseline.
Core systems lean private deployment or custom build; peripheral work stays SaaS. Tiering beats one-size-fits-all.
SaaS is not disappearing, but it is no longer the default answer. Firms choose by business criticality and keep data and exit paths in hand.
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