Do ten people using a SaaS tool need ten paid seats?

Start with the work each person will do

A seat is a user's access license. It may be paid or free, and it is separate from permission to edit a particular record. Someone who only checks progress might fit a free viewing role. Someone who adds comments, assigns tasks or logs sales emails needs access that supports those actions.

For example, take a team with four editors and six internal readers. The table shows how that headcount works under the named plans. It does not rank the products: a store platform, an SEO toolkit and a CRM serve different jobs.

On a small screen, scroll the table horizontally.

Sources: HubSpot seats, monday.com user roles, Asana view-only licenses, Semrush user management and Shopify user limits.

Two different reasons to buy more seats than editors

monday.com sells paid seats in groups: three, then multiples of five. Four editors therefore mean buying five seats, even if the six readers are free. Asana sells two to five seats individually, then uses five-seat steps through 30 users, ten-seat steps through 100, 25 through 500, and 50 above that. Seven paid users need ten seats; 31 need 40. monday.com seat groups; Asana pricing and seat increments.

Asana Starter has another cost in this example: its six internal readers still need ordinary paid seats. At the US annual rate of $10.99 per user per month equivalent, ten seats cost 10 × $10.99 × 12 = $1,318.80 a year, before tax. Four Starter seats would cost $527.52 a year; including the six readers adds $791.28. Enterprise view-only licenses may change that structure, but an Enterprise quote belongs in a separate comparison.

Sharing a result and sharing a toolkit are different

Semrush can share supported assets for free viewing. That can fit a manager who only needs the report, while the four people doing the analysis need toolkit users. Using the published SEO annual equivalent of $117.33 and $45 per extra SEO user per month, the four-user estimate is ($117.33 + 3 × $45) × 12 = $3,027.96. If all ten need toolkit access, it becomes ($117.33 + 9 × $45) × 12 = $6,267.96. These are US-dollar subscription estimates, before tax, AI licenses or other additions; the displayed annual equivalent can produce checkout rounding. SEO usage limits are shared across users. Semrush prices.

monday.com's seat count also does not settle its total. Customers offered the eligible seat-plus-credit AI work-platform model must buy credits alongside seats. For those contracts, the seat price alone leaves part of the bill out. AI-credit purchase conditions.

Estimate seats from your own quote

Use the sample HubSpot and monday.com rates ($45 and $12) to explore seat rules, then replace them with your current quote. Add the plan fee and other required charges separately. Semrush assumes every reader and collaborator needs toolkit access. The annual output is a subscription estimate, not a payment-date schedule. Save keeps figures in this browser; a copied link includes them.

Start fromHubSpot seat rules, sample $45monday.com seat groups, sample $12Asana StarterSemrush SEO, 1 user includedYour own figuresPeople entering dataPeople who only read (inside the company)People outside the company (agencies, clients)Are the read-only people charged?No, they are freeYes, at the full seat priceAre the outside people charged?No, they are freeYes, at the full seat pricePrice per seat per month, annual billingPlan fee per month on top of the seats, annual billingSeats already included in that plan feeMinimum number of seats you can buyHow seats are sold (people:increment; the last number applies above that)

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Outside collaborators need a different check

Asana's organization guests use an email domain outside the organization and can see only what is shared with them. Its guest allowance is for external business partners, not a way to give employees guest accounts instead of paid subscriptions. HubSpot's free Partner seats are for eligible Solutions Partner employees; Shopify collaborators use Shopify Partner accounts. An outside agency is not automatically eligible for either route. Asana guests; Shopify collaborators.

Guest billing is more detailed than a yes/no switch in monday.com: Standard allows up to three guests free, with every fourth counted as a paid member; Pro and Enterprise allow unlimited guests. Use those rules when preparing a quote with guests. The calculator's binary guest setting cannot reproduce Standard's groups of four.

A viewing role saves money only if it covers the work

HubSpot's View-Only role cannot edit records, save reports or log emails. Downgrading a salesperson to it turns off email logging. Asana's Enterprise view-only license also excludes commenting and mobile-app use. A reader who starts contributing needs a different license; counting them as free would underestimate the work's cost.

Removing a person does not necessarily reduce the bill immediately. HubSpot says purchased seat counts cannot fall until renewal, and removal does not adjust the current invoice. Asana's Subscriber Terms require notice for reductions and downgrades at least 30 days before term end, unless the order changes the applicable conditions. Asana contract terms.

If most colleagues only need progress reports, establish the viewing access first. If they comment or edit, count them among the paid users. Then ask for a quote using three separate numbers—editors, internal readers and outside collaborators—and have it state purchased seats, included seats, additional charges and payment dates. That gives you a usable budget without assuming the lowest seat price buys the right tool.

Official roles and conditions checked 10 October 2026; prices use the US examples above. Shopify US annual Advanced is $299 per month equivalent, or $3,588 for the year, before tax and other charges; its higher plan also changes features and payment rates. Shopify pricing.

Buying from Japan? See the Japanese edition for the same 10-person case with Shopify priced in yen →

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