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| Criteria | On-Premises Software | SaaS |
| Initial cost | Tends to be high; often companies must pay for "multi-user" license in order to secure enough licensing for the entire group | Customers are often set up on a "pay-as-you-go" basis, allowing them to control costs minutely |
| Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) | Can be low for companies who already have a strong IT department, but may be very high if companies must hire experts to install, deliver, and run the software as well as train employees in how to use it | Controlled cost due to predictable monthly fees; all maintenance and error resolution is done off-site |
| Accounting | Often taken as a one-time capital outlay | Usually taken as a monthly expense |
| Scalability | Relatively inflexible; forces companies to spend money during times of rapid growth | Easily scalable; allows companies the flexibility to grow quickly or slowly |
| Customization | More customizable for customers who order specialized software directly from the vendor | More uniform, forcing companies to adopt uniform practices |
| Location | Located on-site to meet certain government and company requirements about data storage | Located off-premises; may be stored overseas |
| Deployment | Usually slow and fraught with difficulty; often impossible to get everyone operating the same software in the same way, particularly when frequent updates are required | Easy to deploy and update simultaneously to hundreds or thousands of users |
| Security | Often compromised if the company does not invest heavily in in-house experts to protect data | All data protected in secure facilities by the company offering the software, who are often much better able to protect the customer |
| Accessibility | Located only on-site; must develop systems to access information from off-site locations | Data available anywhere through cloud access |
