What an AMC management system costs to run after handover, line by line
The first question a maintenance contractor asks after reading a one-time price is what it costs every month afterwards. It is the right question, and it deserves a line-by-line answer instead of a range. This is that answer for the system we build for annual maintenance contracts: contracts and visits, a WhatsApp helpline, a technician phone screen, a customer portal and monthly statements. The AMC management system page describes what it does; this post is only about what it costs to keep running.
How this was checked
Every figure comes from the provider's own pricing page, fetched on September 3, 2026, with the link beside it. Where a page did not show a number to us, we say so. The two size points, 10 contracts and 40 contracts, use a stated usage model: two visits per contract per month, each producing a confirmation, a dispatch note, an invoice PDF and one reminder. Dollar prices are converted at the dirham peg of 3.6725. Our own only public numbers are the same as on every page of this site: projects start at 7,000 AED; most land between 10,000 and 35,000 AED depending on scope.
The fixed lines
Hosting: one plan, one account, 5 dollars a month
The system runs on Cloudflare: the application, the database and the file storage under one account in the contractor's name. Cloudflare's Workers pricing page sets the paid plan at 5 dollars a month minimum per account, with 10 million requests and 30 million CPU milliseconds included, and no charge for data transfer. A 40-contract AMC operation produces a few thousand requests a month, so the plan never leaves its included amount. Static pages are free and unlimited on the same page.
Database and files: inside the free quotas for years
The database (D1 pricing) includes 25 billion row reads, 50 million row writes and 5 GB of storage a month before any charge. An AMC book of 40 contracts writes a few thousand rows a month. File storage (R2 pricing) includes 10 GB a month free, then 0.015 dollars per GB-month, with free egress. Before and after photos are the only thing that grows: at a few hundred kilobytes each, 40 contracts at two visits a month with four photos a visit is under 2 GB a year. The quota is crossed in year three or four, at which point the bill is a few dirhams.
The helpline number: a real SIM, because customers call
The helpline receives calls as well as WhatsApp, so it is a real SIM in a real phone someone answers. On e&'s Wasel Flexi the plan customises from AED 33.33 a month, with 30 flexi minutes at AED 10 per 28 days, VAT included; the SIM is free online and the AED 57.75 connection fee is waived for online purchase. du's equivalent could not be verified on the day (its shop was under maintenance), so it is not quoted here.
An off-site backup copy: pennies
The nightly backup goes to a second provider so a problem with the main account cannot take the history with it. Backblaze B2 charges 6.95 dollars per terabyte per month with the first 10 GB free and free transfer between it and Cloudflare. An AMC operation's backups sit inside the free 10 GB for years.
The one line that grows: WhatsApp messages
Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform pricing has charged per delivered message since July 2025. Three rules decide the bill. Replies inside 24 hours of a customer's message are free. Utility templates, such as a visit confirmation or a reminder, are free inside that window and charged outside it. And the UAE utility rate, from Meta's rate card as we read it for our WhatsApp cost guide, is about AED 0.06 per message. A reminder sent before a visit is sent by the business unprompted, so it sits outside the window and costs that AED 0.06. Forty reminders a month is under 3 AED; a hundred and sixty is under 10. This is the line that scales with contracts, and it is the whole of it.
One date to know: Meta's page announces rate changes for several countries on October 1, 2026, and the UAE is not among them. The UAE's last change was a higher marketing rate in October 2025. Marketing messages, which this system does not send, cost roughly three times a utility message.
The table, at 10 and at 40 contracts
| Line | 10 contracts | 40 contracts | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting plan (Workers Paid) | 5 dollars, about AED 18 | 5 dollars, about AED 18 | Fixed per account |
| Database, files, pages | AED 0, inside the included quotas | AED 0, photos bill at 0.015 dollars per GB past 10 GB | Grows years out |
| WhatsApp utility messages | about AED 2.4 for 40 messages | about AED 9.6 for 160 messages | Grows with visits |
| Helpline SIM (e& Wasel Flexi plus 30 minutes, VAT in) | AED 43.33 | AED 43.33 | Fixed |
| Off-site backup copy (Backblaze B2) | AED 0 to 1 | AED 0 to 1 | Pennies per TB |
| Total, paid to providers | about AED 65 | about AED 72 | Estimate, inputs above |
Provider prices as published on September 3, 2026. Message counts and photo volumes are the stated usage model, not a measurement; a contractor with more reactive calls sends more messages. Payment processing is not included because this system issues statements, not card payments.
Read the table for its shape rather than its last dirham: the total moves by about 7 AED between 10 contracts and 40, and every dirham of that movement is messages. The hosting plan is per account, not per user or contract, so a fifth technician or a thirtieth villa changes nothing on the bill.
Against the two nearest products
Zoho FSM: cheapest at the smallest size, then per appointment
Zoho's FSM pricing page says it plainly: you pay for the appointments you create. The free plan carries 30 appointments a month for up to 20 users, with work orders, dispatch, service reports and invoicing, which is a real option for a contractor at 10 contracts. When we checked the paid tiers on August 31, 2026, Professional was about AED 128 a month on annual billing with up to 200 users and 60 appointments a month. Past that, the bill rises with appointments, which is to say with contracts. Local taxes are added on top.
Joblogic: per user, on a long term
Joblogic's pricing page publishes its Standard tier at 45 pounds per user per month billed annually, about AED 220 per user, so a six-person team is around AED 1,320 a month before any appointment is booked. The page says most customers commit to 24 or 36 months. Its bill grows with staff, not contracts, which is the opposite shape from Zoho's and from a custom build.
What this means when you choose
Two contracts' worth of hosting a year, not two contracts' worth of software
Sixty to a hundred and twenty dirhams a month is about one hour of a technician's time. A subscription product at 40 contracts is a multiple of that every month, for as long as the business runs. The custom build moves the money to the front: a one-time project, then provider costs only.
The free plan is a fair fight at 10 contracts
If the operation is small, may stay small, and fits a product's shape, Zoho's free tier is the cheaper answer and we would say so on a call. The custom system earns its price when the business is growing, when its rules do not fit a product (a signature on every visit, a 100 AED parts threshold, a warranty clock per item), or when the office has to run three tools to get one answer.
Ask any vendor for this table
Whoever quotes you a system should be able to name every recurring line, who bills it, and which lines grow with what. If the answer is a range with no lines under it, the range will grow.
Frequently asked questions
For a contractor with 10 to 40 villa contracts on the stack we build on, the fixed part is one hosting plan at 5 dollars a month (about 18 AED) and a prepaid SIM for the helpline from about 43 AED including minutes and VAT. Message fees add a few dirhams at that volume. Under 100 AED a month for hosting, and roughly 60 to 120 AED all in, paid to the providers directly. The build itself is a one-time project: projects start at 7,000 AED; most land between 10,000 and 35,000 AED depending on scope.
Not the hosting or the licence, because there is none: the 5-dollar plan covers the account, not the users. The one line that grows with activity is WhatsApp, at about AED 0.06 per utility message sent outside the 24-hour customer window, and the free storage quotas run out eventually on a photo-heavy history, years away at this scale. Zoho FSM bills per appointment, so contracts raise its bill; Joblogic bills per user, so staff raise its bill.
At the smallest size, yes. Zoho FSM's free plan gives 30 appointments a month for up to 20 users at no cost, and its Professional tier was about AED 128 a month on annual billing when we checked it on August 31, 2026. The custom system costs more up front and less per month, and its shape is the contractor's own process rather than a product's. Which one wins depends on whether the business plans to grow past the free plan and whether it needs the system to fit its exact rules.
Two things. The number itself: a prepaid SIM, since the helpline takes calls as well as messages; e& Wasel Flexi starts from AED 33.33 a month with 30 minutes at AED 10, VAT included. And the messages: replies inside 24 hours of a customer's message are free, and templates sent outside that window are about AED 0.06 each for utility messages. Forty reminders a month is under 3 AED.
The business does, directly, on accounts opened in its own name. We set them up during the build. There is no reseller margin and no invoice from us for hosting. Ongoing support is separate and optional; the model is built as a one-time project you host and manage yourself, or fully managed by us on a monthly subscription that covers hosting, updates, and support.
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