What Operations Software Actually Costs in Kenya
Actual numbers, in shillings, with our own on the page. What the subscription costs, what the first three months cost on top of it, and the three line items every quote leaves out — because they are yours rather than the vendor's.
Software pricing in this market is deliberately hard to compare, and the mechanism is not dishonesty — it is that vendors quote the part they control. A monthly figure per user is a real number and it is somewhere between a third and two-thirds of what the first year actually costs you. The rest is your own time, your own data cleaning, and the modules you did not realise were separate.
So here are numbers. Ours, because we can state them without hedging, and the ranges for everything else based on what Kenyan SMEs actually end up paying.
The subscription, stated
Priced in Kenyan shillings, per month, with annual billing charged at eleven months — so a year paid up front costs one month less than a year paid monthly. Figures below are current at the time of writing; the pricing page is the live version.
| Plan | Per month | Per year | Users | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | KES 0 | — | 2 | — |
| Basic | KES 2,500 | KES 27,500 | 3 | 10 |
| Pro | KES 5,800 | KES 63,800 | 5 | 25 |
| Premium | KES 12,500 | KES 137,500 | 10 | 100 |
| Enterprise | On application | — | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Extra users beyond the plan are KES 525 a month each, or KES 6,300 a year. Extra employee records for payroll are KES 150 a month each, or KES 1,800 a year. Those two add-ons are where most businesses' real figure lands somewhere between two plan tiers, and it is worth doing the arithmetic both ways rather than assuming the higher plan is more expensive.
When an add-on beats an upgrade — 7 users, 20 employees
The reason to go to Premium before you need the seats is usually the other limits rather than the users: saved reports, workflow rules, webhooks and how often a scheduled workflow may run. If automation matters to you, price that rather than the headcount.
What the first three months cost besides the subscription
This is where quotes stop and reality continues. Every figure below is your own cost, not a vendor charge, which is exactly why nobody puts it in a proposal.
First-year total for a 40-staff distributor, honestly
The subscription is between 17% and 30% of that. Which is the actual point of this article: choosing the cheaper subscription changes your first-year cost by a few per cent, and choosing badly on ownership, sequencing and data quality changes it by half. Year two drops to the subscription plus about two hours a month, which is where the arithmetic becomes comfortable.
The three line items every quote leaves out
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The internal owner's time, and what it comes off
Twelve to fifteen days across a rollout, and it has to be taken off something else. It is the largest single cost in most first years and it appears in no proposal because no vendor can charge for it. Budget it explicitly or it will be paid for out of whatever that person was supposed to be doing.
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Data cleaning
Four to twelve hours on the item list, done by somebody who knows which of two similar items you actually still stock. Not delegable to a vendor, not delegable to an intern, and the highest-return work in the entire project.
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The counting day
A Saturday, most of your store staff, and probably overtime. Skippable in theory and, in practice, the thing that decides whether your stock figures are arguable for the next two years.
What is not on our list, and what to check on anyone else's
What AWRA OpsHub does today
- Priced in Kenyan shillings. That is the real currency of the contract, and a dollar figure shown anywhere is derived from a live rate for reference only.
- All modules included in the plan — inventory, procurement, sales, POS, accounting, HR, projects, assets, helpdesk and reporting. There is no per-module licence.
- Annual billing at eleven months rather than twelve.
- A free tier with two users that is a real tier rather than a trial with a clock on it.
- Extra users and extra employee records available as add-ons, so you are not forced up a tier for two seats.
What it does not do
- No implementation fee from us — which sounds generous and mostly means the implementation work is yours. Read that as a cost transferred, not removed.
- No paid training programme. There is an academy, a help centre and an assistant, and your managers do the teaching.
- No formal service-level agreement at these tiers, and no dedicated account manager.
- No usage-based pricing, so a very low-volume business pays the same as a busy one on the same plan.
On any other vendor's quote, the four things worth asking about explicitly: is implementation separate, are modules licensed individually, what does an extra user cost mid-term, and is the price in shillings or in dollars. The last one is not a detail — see paying in shillings versus dollars.
A rough sizing guide
Under 5 staff, one location
Free or Basic
Around KES 0–2,500 a month plus about a week of your own time. At this size, do not buy anything before reading when not to buy operations software — occasionally the honest answer is a better spreadsheet.
5–25 staff, one or two locations
Pro, possibly with add-on users
KES 5,800–8,000 a month, and a first-year all-in figure somewhere around KES 150,000–250,000 once your own time is counted.
25–100 staff, multi-branch
Premium
KES 12,500 a month, first-year all-in in the KES 300,000–500,000 range. At this size the automation limits matter more than the seat count.
Above 100 staff, or unusual requirements
Enterprise, on application
Priced against what you actually need. Also the point at which a custom build starts appearing in the conversation — build versus buy has the arithmetic.
Our take
The subscription is between a sixth and a third of your first year, so optimise the other two-thirds. Budget your internal owner's twelve to fifteen days explicitly, budget the data cleaning and the counting day, and check whether add-on users beat the next tier before you upgrade. Then compare vendors on implementation, per-module licensing and currency rather than on the headline monthly figure — those are where the real differences hide.
The numbers, in shillings, on one page
Four tiers with the user and employee limits stated, add-on pricing so two extra seats do not force an upgrade, annual billing at eleven months, and every module included rather than licensed separately.
See plans & pricingFrequently asked questions
How much does operations software cost in Kenya?
For an SME, the subscription is the small part. Ours runs from a free two-user tier through KES 2,500, 5,800 and 12,500 a month, with annual billing at eleven months. The first-year all-in figure for a forty-staff business is more like KES 260,000 to 460,000 once you count your internal owner's twelve to fifteen days, the data cleaning, the counting day and the training time — none of which appears on any quote because none of it is a vendor charge.
What is not included in the subscription price?
Your own time, principally. There is no implementation fee from us, which sounds generous and mostly means the implementation work is yours — read it as a cost transferred rather than removed. Also no paid training programme, no formal service-level agreement at these tiers and no dedicated account manager. What is included is every module: there is no per-module licence.
Is it cheaper to add users or upgrade a plan?
Add-ons win for a long way. Extra users are KES 525 a month each, so seven users on Pro with two add-ons costs KES 6,850 against KES 12,500 for Premium — the flip point is around eighteen users. But the reason to move up early is usually the other limits rather than seats: saved reports, workflow rules, webhooks and how often a scheduled workflow may run.
Do you charge per module?
No. Inventory, procurement, sales, POS, accounting, HR, projects, assets, helpdesk and reporting are all in the plan. This is worth checking explicitly on any competing quote, because per-module licensing is common and a headline figure covering two modules is not comparable to one covering ten.
What is the largest cost in the first year?
The internal owner's time — twelve to fifteen working days across the rollout, which at a manager's day rate is usually more than the subscription. It appears in no proposal because no vendor can charge for it, and if it is not budgeted explicitly it gets paid for out of whatever that person was supposed to be doing instead.
Is there a discount for paying annually?
Annual billing is charged at eleven months rather than twelve, so a year paid up front costs one month less than a year paid monthly. That applies at every paid tier and to the user and employee add-ons.
