Let's look at the SimplerQMS pricing today, as SimplerQMS is a rather new QMS software out there. Call it "rather new" is a bit ironic, because one auditor told me that its interface mostly looks like Windows 95.
Anyway.. long story short, the pricing starts at $1,200 per month. Hold on, what? Back in the day, Windows 95 was available for less ridiculous prices, chuckle.. but I guess you could argue that SimplerQMS offers a different set of features, so.. that's that.
Importantly, the price tag of $1,200 / month is a minimum price, so that doesn't mean you can go ahead and simply purchase the software at this price. Instead, you'll have to schedule a demo call and attend a probably-unnecessary sales call in which they will try to extract a probably-high price from your company.
According to the SimplerQMS website, their pricing is roughly divided into two tiers:
The Starter tier, which is aimed towards small teams, includes 5-10 users, and "starts at" $1,200 / month
The Team & Enterprise tier, which is aimed at larger teams (10+ users), and probably costs significantly more.
Somewhat confusingly, both tiers include the same set of features (?), as shown in this very helpful comparison table on the SimplerQMS pricing website:
SimplerQMS Pricing Plans
SimplerQMS Pricing Plans
So yeah. The only difference between those tiers seem to be the user count and the price. Huh.
Feature-wise, the SimplerQMS software contains pretty much the usual set of features which you can expect:
Document and record management
Electronic signatures
Trainings & quizzes
CAPA management
One big question is whether it also includes requirements management for the technical documentation of your medical devices. Not all eQMS software packages do, and this is arguably a feature which saves you more time compared to the document and record management.
Anyway, back to pricing, one interesting point is that SimplerQMS has a concept called "license types". If you're ready for some confusion, this is for you.
SimplerQMS License Types
The SimplerQMS license types are part of their pricing and most likely refer to the amount of users you can add to your account, depending on your subscription.
Here's another screenshot which is equally unhelpful:
SimplerQMS License Types
So, um.. here's what we have:
The Single-User License likely refers to "normal" user seats you add to your account. They can do pretty much everything. Each user with a single-user license can log in any time they wish - more on that in the next bullet point.
The Shared License is.. confusing. You can add "unlimited users" under a shared license, but only one of those users can be logged in at any time. So, in my understanding, this is most likely their approach to the conundrum that 99% of companies which purchase QMS software go ahead and share their user seats internally, because user seats tend to be irrationally expensive. So the idea here would be that you technically purchase one seat but can add as many users as you want, with the (gigantic) limitation that those users can't sign in simultaneously. Weird, but interesting.
And then there's the Read & Sign License, which is pretty much the same als the single-user license with the difference that this type of user can't create and edit documents. So it's mainly geared towards people in your company which should only take part in quiz trainings and sign off on documents.
Okay, so that's that. Why the complexity? My guess is that, like all eQMS software providers, the goal here is to extract as much money from your company as possible. As soon as your company grows just a tiny bit in size, the SimplerQMS pricing is happy to bump you up another level by selling you another single-user license.
Additionally, it looks like they are in the business of selling "normal" B2B contracts which typically have a minimum commitment of 1-3 years, similar to Qualio and Greenlight Guru. So there's significant lock-in here.
There doesn't seem to be a "try before you buy" demo which you can sign up for. This means that you'll have to make this purchasing decision, with a minimum price of $14,400 (12 months), based on a sales call with a salesperson. Sounds shady? Welcom to the eQMS software industry.
There's a better alternative though, and I'm obviously biased here: Our eQMS software, Formwork. It's pricing is much more affordable than SimplerQMS as it has a free tier! You can sign up immediately and try out all the features and whether they work for your company. Also, we have no weird "license types", and our most expensive price (499€ / month) includes unlimited seats (!) and is still cheaper than the cheapest SimplerQMS price.. chuckle.
So, nowadays, in a rational world, there's no real rational reason to choose SimplerQMS, due to their high and confusing pricing. That being said.. not all businesses act rationally.
What do you think?
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Dr. Oliver Eidel
I’m a medical doctor, software engineer and regulatory dude. I’m also the founder of OpenRegulatory.
Through OpenRegulatory, I’ve helped 100+ companies with their medical device compliance. While it’s also my job that we stay profitable, I try to dedicate a lot of my time towards writing free content like our articles and templates. Maybe that will make consulting unnecessary some day? :)
If you’re still lost and have further questions, reach out any time!
