Overall Sitecore 10 XM Hosting Costs (PaaS)
Sitecore always gives us options. They provides a number of default topologies and sizing options for Sitecore. In this article we'll looking at the Sitecore XM topology across the sizes of: XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL.
This the sizing is based on the ARM templates provided by Sitecore and the pricing of the different Azure services used.
Also worth noting, we're only looking at pricing the PaaS (platform for a service) model of Sitecore. PaaS maximizes the value of Azure services and gives us superior flexibility for scaling and cost. Whenever possible, it's the best way to host Sitecore.
Sitecore XM By Service
Here is a breakdown of the different services used to run Sitecore XM.
App Services
- Identity Server
- Content Management
- Content Delivery
SQL Databases
- Core
- Master
- Web
Session State
- Redis
Indexing / Search
- Solr
Advanced Logging
- Application Insights
Sitecore 10: XM Hosting Cost Breakdown
First we'll look at estimated overall totals with some rounding and assumptions for factors that may vary (we'll get into more detail on those later).
Sitecore XM Hosting Cost By Size (Summary)
I know - quit stalling Dan. Let's dive into the numbers!
| Size | Approximate Cost | Visits/month (approx) |
|---|---|---|
| Extra Small (XS)* | $1,061 USD | 0 - 150K |
| Small (S)* | $1,277 USD | 150K - 500K |
| Medium (M) | $1,581 USD | 500K - 1,000K |
| Large (L) | $2,318 USD | 1,000K - 2,000K |
| Extra Large (XL) | $2,683 USD | 2,000K - 5,000K |
| XXL | $4,031 USD | 5,000K - 10,000K |
| XXXL | $4,633 USD | 10,000K - 20,000K |
I would advise to only use the visits per-month as relative measurement between sizes. There is no such thing as a standard website.
Assumptions In This Pricing
Let's look at some assumptions used to created these prices.
- Solr for indexing / searching is provided by SearchStax.
- Extra Small and Small sizing do not use a high availability configurations (these are multiples more costly)
- Each setup includes $150 USD/month of Application Insights logging at $2.76/GB
Sitecore XM Hosting Cost By Size (Detailed)
Now we'll take a look at the cost based on the provided ARM templates, rolled up by the services listed at the top of the article:
- App Services
- SQL Databases
- Session State
- Indexing / Search
- Advanced Analytics
Sitecore 10: XM - Extra Small
| Service / Role | Cost (USD) |
|---|---|
| App Service | $657 |
| SQL Database | $103 |
| Session State | $101 |
| Indexing / Search | $50 |
| Adv. Logging | $150 |
| Total | $1,061 |
Sitecore 10: XM - Small
| Service / Role | Cost (USD) |
|---|---|
| App Service | $803 |
| SQL Database | $103 |
| Session State | $101 |
| Indexing / Search | $120 |
| Adv. Logging | $150 |
| Total | $1,277 |
Sitecore 10: XM - Medium
| Service / Role | Cost (USD) |
|---|---|
| App Service | $803 |
| SQL Database | $103 |
| Session State | $101 |
| Indexing / Search | $424 |
| Adv. Logging | $150 |
| Total | $1,581 |
Sitecore 10: XM - Large
| Service / Role | Cost (USD) |
|---|---|
| App Service | $1,241 |
| SQL Database | $162 |
| Session State | $101 |
| Indexing / Search | $664 |
| Adv. Logging | $150 |
| Total | $2,318 |
Sitecore 10: XM - Extra Large
| Service / Role | Cost (USD) |
|---|---|
| App Service | $1,606 |
| SQL Database | $162 |
| Session State | $101 |
| Indexing / Search | $664 |
| Adv. Logging | $150 |
| Total | $2,683 |
Sitecore 10: XM - XXL
| Service / Role | Cost (USD) |
|---|---|
| App Service | $2,774 |
| SQL Database | $280 |
| Session State | $163 |
| Indexing / Search | $664 |
| Adv. Logging | $150 |
| Total | $4,031 |
Sitecore 10: XM - XXXL
| Service / Role | Cost (USD) |
|---|---|
| App Service | $2,774 |
| SQL Database | $427 |
| Session State | $329 |
| Indexing / Search | $953 |
| Adv. Logging | $150 |
| Total | $4,632 |
What About Sitecore Managed Cloud?
When using Sitecore Managed Cloud these are PaaS based topologies and sizes that are deployed by default.
However, Managed Cloud agreements typically have a spending buffer built-in for Azure spend to cover new services, sizing adjustments, contingency, etc. The expectation is that team members will adjust the specific sizing to be appropriate for your project.
What About Solr For Indexing / Search?
This article references SearchStax as a managed service provided for Solr. You'll see in the pricing breakdown that running Solr in s high-availability cluster through SearchStax becomes quite expensive (see M through XXXL). This is not a criticism of its value, per se, but it does seem an outsized expense.
If you're looking to save cost, you can setup your Solr servers. This opens up the opportunity to run Windows or Linux virtual machines, or perhaps run a Solr server from the Azure Marketplace.
In doing that you're likely missing out on the high-availability feature set SearchStax delivers (it's complicated to setup) but it is something to consider.
While Solr is a critical piece of the infrastructure, does it really warrant replicated clustering that is more complicated than the redundancy of the website itself?
Sitecore: Reducing Costs & Increasing Performance
While these topologies and sizings are useful to understand pricing, they are not optimized or tailored to your specific site.
At Fishtank we've invested a lot of time and energy and developed best practices for reducing cost while increasing speed. For example as of this writing, we run our website on Sitecore PaaS for around ~$540/month and achieve initial page load speeds of sub 100ms. Which is pretty good.
We've also increased customer site performance by 10x and for others reduced existing infrastructure spend by +50%. For most Sitecore customers we can do a bit of both.
If you need help with new infrastructure, optimizing your infrastructure, increasing site speed, reducing cost or anything else Sitecore XM / XP related please contact us for an absolutely painless conversation. :)
Thanks again for reading!
