True cost · Project management software
Hive true cost: the 36-month total
Hive costs $1,800 over 36 months on Starter at 10 users, billed annually, before 6 cost lines that sit outside the plan price.
What Hive costs over 36 months
Every figure below is Hive's own published rate, annualised and multiplied out over 36 months at 10 users. Where Hive publishes no rate, the row says so instead of guessing.
The same plan at four team sizes
Hive charges per user, so the 36-month figure scales linearly with headcount. These are Starter totals, on annual billing, with no fees added.
1 tier is sales-led (Enterprise), so it carries no figure here.
Renewal sensitivity: three scenarios, not a forecast
Nobody knows what Hive charges in 2029. The table below is arithmetic on a rate you choose, not a prediction: it compounds the year-one total forward at 0%, 5% and 10% so you can see how much of the 36-month figure is exposed to a renewal you have not negotiated yet.
Scenario arithmetic on Hive's own published year-one figure. Uplift rates are illustrative inputs, not observed or predicted rates.
What sits outside the Hive list price
6 lines, sorted by when in the contract lifecycle they land. Lines marked as derived are arithmetic on Hive's own tier table rather than vendor prose.
Each line, what triggers it, and how to avoid it
Paid add-on or module
Stated on the pricing page: Most add-ons cost $5/user/month each.
What triggers it. A separately-priced module. It stacks on top of the plan rate for as long as you keep it, and on a per-unit add-on it also scales with the 10 users basis.
How to avoid it. Build the shortlist at like-for-like scope. Price Hive with the add-ons you actually need against rivals with theirs, or the $1,800 comparison is measuring different products.
Paid add-on or module
Stated on the pricing page: Buzz AI add-on $12/user/month.
What triggers it. Triggered by needing the capability, and then charged every cycle afterwards. Add-ons attach to the Starter subscription permanently, so this is a recurring line the $1,800 figure does not contain.
How to avoid it. Review attached add-ons at each anniversary. Modules bought for one project keep billing long after the project ends.
Feature gated to a higher tier
Stated on the pricing page: SSO and enterprise security gated behind add-ons or Enterprise.
What triggers it. A gate rather than a fee. It costs nothing until the day it costs a full tier upgrade, and it invalidates the $1,800 figure above the moment it does.
How to avoid it. Ask whether the capability can be bought as an add-on to Starter. Vendors frequently unbundle when the alternative is losing the deal.
Unpublished pricing
Derived from the published tiers: 1 of 4 Hive tiers publish no price (Enterprise). No total on this page includes them.
What triggers it. Triggered by nothing you do. This is simply a number Hive does not publish. Every unpublished component is a hole in the $1,800 figure, which is built only from rates the vendor states.
How to avoid it. Ask for it in writing, itemised, before shortlisting. A vendor that will not put a number on a component at evaluation stage rarely gets more forthcoming after signature.
Trial and free-tier conversion
Derived from the published tiers: Hive publishes a free tier. Every 36-month figure above starts from the month you leave it, not from signup.
What triggers it. Fires when free stops being free. Worth mapping precisely, because free-tier limits are where project management tools do most of their upgrade engineering.
How to avoid it. Diarise the conversion date and the cancellation route on day one. An unmanaged trial converting to Starter is the cheapest mistake on this page to prevent and the most common one to make.
Seat expansion
Derived from the published tiers: Five more users on Starter add $900 across 36 months, on top of the $1,800 above.
What triggers it. Growth is the trigger. Because Hive bills on a per-user work-management with add-ons, adding people mid-term adds cost on the original rate card, not on whatever you negotiated once.
How to avoid it. Price your year-three headcount now, not today's. Negotiating the $1,800 commitment at the size you expect to be is how you avoid buying seats twice.
How that compares across project management software
The median project management software tool we track charges $9 a month at its cheapest paid tier. Re-expressed on the same basis as the figure above, 10 users for 36 months, that median works out at $3,240.
Hive lands $1,440 below that figure, 44.4%, measured across 30 tracked tools. A gap either way is a question, not a verdict: cheaper often means fewer included seats or a thinner support tier, and the fee lines below are where that difference usually reappears.
What changes at enterprise scale
Everything above prices the self-serve ladder. Enterprise sits off that ladder, which means the $1,800 figure is a floor for a large deployment rather than an estimate of one.
Enterprise tier is quoted by sales and unlocks SSO, SCIM, and security controls.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Hive cost over three years?
$1,800 on Starter at 10 users, billed annually, which is $50 a month held flat for 36 months. That figure covers the subscription only.
Does paying Hive annually save money?
Hive publishes the same effective rate either way on Starter, so there is no prepay discount to capture. Keep the monthly option unless the vendor offers something for the commitment.
What does Hive charge for outside the plan price?
6 lines: paid add-on or module, paid add-on or module, feature gated to a higher tier, unpublished pricing and 2 more. Each one is broken down above with what triggers it and how to avoid it.
Could Hive cost more at renewal?
Possibly, and nothing on this page predicts it. If the rate held flat the three-year total would be $1,800; at a hypothetical 10% a year it would be $1,986. Cap the uplift in the contract and the question stops mattering.
What does Hive cost for a team of 25?
$4,500 over 36 months on Starter, billed annually. Hive charges per user, so that scales directly with headcount.
Price Hive on your own numbers
This page holds the term axis. The pricing breakdown holds the seat axis: every tier, the per-seat calculator, and the same fee list against the monthly figure.
Sources and method
- List rates and fee disclosures: Hive official pricing page, verified 17 May 2026.
- 36-month totals: the published annual-equivalent rate multiplied by 36, at 10 users. No inflation, no discount, no fee estimates included.
- Renewal rows: scenario arithmetic on rates stated in the table. They are inputs, not observations.
- Category median: the cheapest paid monthly tier of every tool we track in the same category, re-expressed over 36 months.