Research - verifiable analyses of software economics

FW Delta Research

Publicly verifiable analyses of software economics, portability, automation and self-controlled infrastructure.

No paid rankings. No invented benchmarks. Methodology, sources and assumptions are published alongside.

7 flagship reports · open datasets · traceable methodology · versioned corrections

published reports: 7
numbered sources: 233
open datasets: 33
data cutoff: 29 July 2026

How this series came about

These issues were worked on over several months. Data collection, modelling, source checking and review take time, which is why they are not released one by one but as a complete series. All issues listed here were released together on 29 July 2026. From here on the series continues on a rolling basis.

The month in an issue name marks its place in the series, not its release date. Both are stated separately on every report page, together with the data cutoff and the version, and the same applies to the machine-readable metadata. There are no backdated values.

A documentation score measures publicly findable documentation. It is not a compliance, security or quality statement. Missing information means "not documented", not "does not exist".

Sorted by edition month, newest issue first. The series reads from the most recent question backwards; the real first publication date is on every card.

FDR-2026-03 Software Economics Edition March 2026

Software Ownership Economics Report 2026

FW Delta discloses the conditions under which software built in-house makes economic sense – and when SaaS or a hybrid model remains superior.

First published: 29 July 2026
Data cutoff: 29 July 2026
Methodology: deterministic TCO, present value, operations and Monte Carlo scenario analysis
Objects examined: 5 ownership scenarios; 3 self-hosted profiles; 3 operating models; 50,000 simulations per scenario and horizon

Key findings

CALCULATED Across the five base scenarios, the nominal break-even lies between 21.3 and 33.3 months.
CALCULATED Two of the five scenarios show nominally positive savings after 36 months but a negative present value at eight percent. Nominal savings and economic advantage are therefore not identical.

View methodology and sources

FDR-2026-01 Software Economics Edition January 2026

SaaS Commercial Transparency Index 2026

FW Delta examines how well SaaS buyers can publicly model pricing logic, scaling, renewal and Exit before signing a contract.

First published: 29 July 2026
Data cutoff: 29 July 2026
Methodology: three-part public document analysis with a pricing, contract and scaling module
Objects examined: 20 products in the pricing index; 10 vendors in the renewal/Exit module; 10 public Seat plans; 8 vendors in the joint composite

Key findings

CALCULATED The median of the pricing transparency index is 80 out of 100 points; 13 of 20 products reach at least 80 points.
CALCULATED In the ten-vendor sample, the renewal/Exit module reaches a mean of 79.0 and a median of 80.0 points.

View methodology and sources

Research standard and methodology

Statement classes, source hierarchy, score standard, handling of missing information, price and currency rules, rounding and conflict of interest.

Read the standard

Corrections and versions

Version policy, correction log, reporting route for factual errors and the current version status of every issue.

View the log