Cut Software Subscriptions in a Solo Practice
A one-person practice rarely signs up for an expensive tool. It signs up for ten cheap ones: a scheduler, a video tool, a form builder, a newsletter, cloud storage, a note app. Each is a few euros a month, each was the right call on the day, and together they can cost more than the work they support in a quiet month. This guide is a one-hour audit to find the ones worth keeping.
Step 1: list what you actually pay
Memory is a poor guide here, because the subscriptions you forget are the ones you are not using. Go through the last three months of card and bank statements instead, and write down every recurring software charge.
Annual plans hide best, since they appear once a year. Search your email for "receipt", "renewal" and "invoice" over the last twelve months to catch them.
- Tool name and what you use it for
- Price per month, with annual plans divided by twelve
- Renewal date, so you know when you can leave without paying again
- How often you used it in the last month: daily, weekly, a few times, or not at all
Step 2: price each tool per use
A monthly price says nothing about value on its own. Divide it by the number of times you used the tool that month, and the list sorts itself. A €12 tool you open every day costs well under a euro a use. The same €12 for a form you sent twice costs €6 a use.
Anything you used a handful of times, or seasonally, is a candidate to replace. Anything you use every working day is probably fine where it is.
Cost per use: Monthly price ÷ times used last month. Sort the list by it, highest first, and start at the top.
Step 3: look for a model that matches how you use it
A subscription suits a tool you use steadily. For everything else there is usually another way to pay:
Finding these by hand takes time. We built unsubs.org, a directory of pay-per-use, buy-once and open-source alternatives to subscription software, with a calculator that compares costs at your own usage. It is our own project, made by the team behind BooknTalk.
- Pay per use: you pay when you use the tool, and nothing in a month you do not. Good for anything irregular or seasonal.
- Buy once: a single licence, sometimes with paid upgrades later. Good for desktop software you will use for years.
- Free and open source: no licence fee, though you may give up hosting, support or polish. Good when you are comfortable setting things up yourself.
Scheduling is a good place to start
Booking tools are a common example of a poor fit. Most are billed per person per month, while a solo practice books unevenly: busy before a deadline or a new term, quiet in the summer. You pay the same in both.
A per-booking price follows your calendar instead. BooknTalk charges €1 per paid booking and nothing for free events, with no monthly fee, so a month without paid sessions costs nothing. It is not the cheapest choice for everyone: if you take many paid bookings every month, a flat seat can cost less, and our guide on per-seat vs per-booking pricing works through the numbers.
For a wider view, unsubs.org keeps a list of Calendly alternatives that charge per booking, not per seat. BooknTalk is one of them, so weigh that list knowing who made it.
What to keep on a subscription
Not every subscription is waste. Some charge monthly because they do something every month: back up your files, host your website, store your clients’ records securely, keep software patched. Replacing those with a one-off purchase can mean losing the part you were paying for.
Keep a tool on a subscription when you use it most working days, when it holds data you cannot afford to lose, or when switching would take longer than the savings are worth. Cancel or replace the rest, and put a reminder in your calendar to run this audit again in six months.
Frequently asked questions
How much can a solo practice save by cutting subscriptions?
It depends entirely on what you pay for today. The audit above shows the number for your own practice: add up the monthly price of every tool you used only a few times last month.
Is pay-per-use always cheaper than a subscription?
No. Pay-per-use is cheaper when your usage is low or uneven. If you use a tool heavily and steadily, a flat monthly price usually works out cheaper. Divide the monthly price by the per-use price to find the point where they cost the same.
Does BooknTalk have a monthly subscription?
No. BooknTalk charges €1 per paid booking, or per paid seat in a group class. Free events cost nothing, and if you refund a client the €1 is refunded too. Stripe’s card fees apply separately.
Who makes unsubs.org?
The same team that makes BooknTalk. It lists pay-per-use, buy-once and open-source alternatives to subscription software across categories such as scheduling, forms, email, storage and transcription.
The audit takes an hour and needs nothing more than your statements. Most practices find one or two tools they forgot about, and a few more that would cost less if they were paid for the way they are actually used.
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