AI Security TCO Calculator
AegisGate’s self-hosted architecture dramatically reduces total cost of ownership compared to SaaS-only solutions or building an AI security platform in-house. By eliminating per-request fees, providing built-in compliance mappings, and leveraging open-source community contributions, AegisGate delivers enterprise-grade AI security at a fraction of the cost.
Cost Comparison Table
| Cost Factor | AegisGate (Self-Hosted) | SaaS AI Security | Build In-House |
|---|---|---|---|
| License | Free (Community) / tiered paid | $0.50-2.00/request | N/A |
| Infrastructure | Your infra (~$50-200/mo) | Included (markup 3-5x) | Your infra + development |
| Development | 0 (open source) | 0 | $200K-500K (6-12 months) |
| Maintenance | Community + vendor patches | Included | $50-100K/year (1-2 engineers) |
| Compliance Mapping | Built-in (FedRAMP, SOC2, NIST, ATLAS) | Manual or partial | Manual ($50-100K) |
| Incident Response | Built-in playbooks + attestation | Manual | Build from scratch ($100K+) |
| SIEM Integration | Built-in (10+ platforms) | API only | Build from scratch ($50K+) |
| ATLAS Coverage | 52 patterns, 17 categories | 8-20 patterns | Start from scratch |
| FPR Cost (false positives) | ~0% (measured) | 1-5% (staff time) | Unknown until deployed |
| 3-Year TCO (10K req/day) | $10K-50K | $180K-540K | $500K-1.2M |
Scenario Calculations
Startup (1K requests/day)
- AegisGate Community: $0 + infra (~$50/mo) = $1,800/3 years
- SaaS competitor: $0.50/req × 1K/day × 365 = $182,500/3 years
- Build in-house: $200K initial + $50K/yr maintenance = $350,000/3 years
Mid-market (10K requests/day)
- AegisGate Pro: ~$50-200/mo infra + license = $10K-50K/3 years
- SaaS competitor: $0.50/req × 10K/day × 365 = $1.8M/3 years
- Build in-house: $300K initial + $75K/yr = $525K/3 years
Enterprise (100K requests/day)
- AegisGate Enterprise: custom pricing + infra ($500-2K/mo) = $50K-150K/3 years
- SaaS competitor: $0.50/req × 100K/day × 365 = $18M/3 years (volume discounts may apply)
- Build in-house: $500K initial + $100K/yr = $800K/3 years
Hidden Costs of SaaS
- Data egress fees and privacy implications — Every request sends sensitive data to a third party, creating compliance risk and egress charges
- Latency overhead: 50-200ms per request for round-trip to SaaS — adds up at scale and impacts user experience
- Vendor lock-in: Proprietary formats, no self-hosting option — migrating away means starting over
- Compliance gaps: SaaS doesn’t map to your specific framework — you still do manual compliance work
- False positive costs: 1-5% FPR × request volume = significant staff time investigating false alerts
Why Self-Hosted Wins
- Data sovereignty: Your data never leaves your infrastructure
- Zero latency overhead: <2ms total scan time
- Compliance-native: Built-in mappings for 20+ frameworks
- Open source: Apache 2.0 license, no vendor lock-in
- Predictable costs: Infrastructure costs only