ColdFusion TCO Calculator
What will ColdFusion actually cost you?
Compare the total cost of ownership (TCO) for ColdFusion 2025 against alternative platforms. This calculator includes licensing, infrastructure, development, training, support, and monitoring costs.
Project Parameters
Expected concurrent active users
Average daily request volume
Full-time developers on project
Production application servers
TCO calculation period
Total Cost of Ownership (3 Years)
ColdFusion 2025
Node.js
ColdFusion Savings
Cost Assumptions
ColdFusion 2025
- Licensing: $2,930/server/year (Enterprise subscription)
- Developer salary: $100,000/year average
- Training: $1,000 per developer (one-time)
- Infrastructure: $200/server/month
- Support: $5,000/year (Convective 24/7)
- Monitoring: $79/server/month (FusionReactor)
Alternative Platforms
- Node.js: No licensing, $115K dev avg, higher training
- Ruby: No licensing, $115K dev avg, higher support
- ASP.NET: Windows Server ~$1K/yr, $115K dev avg
- Python: No licensing, $108K dev avg
- PHP: No licensing, $100K dev avg, lower infra
Hidden Costs Not Included
⏱️ Time to Market
ColdFusion's rapid development approach can reduce time to market by 40-60% compared to alternatives, representing significant opportunity cost savings not captured in TCO.
🔧 Maintenance Overhead
Framework complexity and dependency management in alternatives can increase ongoing maintenance costs compared to ColdFusion's integrated approach with built-in features.
🎯 Developer Productivity
ColdFusion's tag-based syntax and built-in features can improve developer productivity by 40-60% for business logic implementation, reducing development time beyond baseline salary differences.
🔄 Migration Risk
Switching platforms introduces 6-12 months of risk, potential business disruption, and opportunity costs that vary significantly based on application complexity and team size.
TCO Factors Explained
💰 Licensing Costs
ColdFusion: $2,930/server/year for Enterprise edition (subscription). Standard edition ($760/server/year) available for smaller deployments.
Alternatives: Most are open-source (free licensing) but may require Windows Server licenses (ASP.NET ~$1,000/year) or commercial support subscriptions.
🖥️ Infrastructure Costs
ColdFusion: Efficient resource usage means fewer servers needed. Typically $150-250/server/month for cloud infrastructure.
Alternatives: Node.js and PHP often cheaper per-server but may need more servers. Python and Ruby have moderate costs.
👨💻 Development Costs
ColdFusion: Average $82-100K/year based on 2025 salary data. Smaller talent pool but higher productivity can offset team size requirements.
Alternatives: $100-115K/year depending on platform. Larger talent pools available.
📚 Training Costs
ColdFusion: $1,000/developer for CF 2025 training. Adobe certification is $149, plus supplemental materials. Experienced CF devs need minimal training.
Alternatives: $2,500-3,500/developer due to framework complexity, tooling ecosystem, and best practices learning curve.
🛟 Support Costs
ColdFusion: $5,000/year for 24/7 Convective support. Adobe support also available.
Alternatives: $6,000-10,000/year for commercial support options. Community support free but unpredictable.
📊 Monitoring Costs
ColdFusion: PMT included free, FusionReactor $79/server/month. Purpose-built for CF performance.
Alternatives: Datadog APM $31-40/host/month plus Infrastructure $15-23/host/month (~$50 total). New Relic uses usage-based pricing starting at $0.30/GB ingested.
Need Help with Platform Decision?
Convective can help you evaluate ColdFusion against alternatives for your specific use case, providing detailed TCO analysis and migration planning.
Discuss Your Platform Needs