Hire vs Automate
Compare a person, software, and management time before deciding what to hire or automate.
Compare hourly wage × monthly hours against the monthly tool stack plus amortized setup. Toggle Manager Overhead to add the 15–20% hidden tax you pay for supervising humans.
Part of: Saving & Spending Calculators
Before you trust the result
Check the inputs that matter most: dates, rates, units, costs, and any optional fields you skipped. A calculator can only work with the numbers entered here, so use the result as a decision check rather than a final answer when money, health, tax, legal, or safety consequences are involved.
If the result feels surprising, change one input at a time and watch which number moves. That usually shows the real lever behind the decision.
More about this tool
How to use this tool
- Enter Hourly Wage and Hours/Month for the hire.
- Enter monthly Tool Stack cost and Setup Hours (amortized over 12 months).
- Optional: enable Manager Overhead and adjust the %.
- Verdict: the cheaper option wins, with cost-per-task shown for each.
Examples
Next up
Frequently asked questions
› Why include setup time for automation? Troubleshooting
Tools are rarely plug-and-play. Setup hours amortized over 12 months approximate the real cost of getting them to work.
› What if the task is complex?
Automation typically wins on repetition, humans on judgment. Use the tool for volume work, not bespoke decisions.
Tips & related reading
See the Saving & Spending Calculators hub →Tips & how-tos
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