whirrwork

Free calculator · about 2 minutes

Buy, rent or hire?

Buy the robot, rent it by the month, or pay someone to do the job? Pick a job and we fill in sourced prices (with receipts). Add your own quotes and costs, and see the totals, the break-even point and the maths.

Buy

You pay once and own the robot. You also pay to keep it running and someone on your side runs it.

No sourced price for this option and job. Type a quote you have, or leave it empty.

Rent (RaaS / lease)

A monthly fee to use the robot yourself, usually with maintenance included. You still run it.

No sourced price for this option and job. Type a quote you have, or leave it empty.

Hire a service

A company brings the robot (or the people) and does the job. You pay per job, per acre, per visit…

No sourced price for this option and job. Type a quote you have, or leave it empty.

Where in each sourced range?
Add your running costs (makes buying honest)

Nothing is stored. Your numbers live only in this page's address.

Start with a job we have receipts for

Each one opens the calculator with sourced prices filled in. You can change every number.

Commercial floor scrubbingBuyRent (RaaS / lease)4 sourced pricesCommercial carpet vacuumingBuyRent (RaaS / lease)5 sourced pricesCrop spraying by droneBuyHire a service13 sourced pricesDrone pressure washing & soft washingRent (RaaS / lease)Hire a service3 sourced pricesRestaurant serving robotsBuyRent (RaaS / lease)3 sourced pricesHousehold humanoid robotsBuyRent (RaaS / lease)2 sourced pricesRehabilitation & exoskeletonsBuyRent (RaaS / lease)2 sourced pricesSports field line markingBuyRent (RaaS / lease)2 sourced pricesAdvertising & wayfinding robotsBuyRent (RaaS / lease)3 sourced pricesIndoor building & hotel deliveryBuyRent (RaaS / lease)2 sourced pricesRobotic kitchen & fry stationBuyRent (RaaS / lease)2 sourced pricesPatient transfer & nursing assistBuyRent (RaaS / lease)2 sourced prices

How the maths works

Every option is a one-off cost plus a monthly cost, added up over the period you pick. No interest, no inflation, no guesses of ours.

  • Buy: purchase price + (upkeep + staff hours × wage) × months − resale value.
  • Rent (RaaS / lease): setup fee + (monthly fee + staff hours × wage) × months. A yearly fee is divided by 12.
  • Hire a service: service price × how much you need a month × months. The provider's operator is included in their price.
  • Break-even is the month when buying has cost the same as the alternative: purchase price ÷ the monthly saving. Resale is ignored here.

What this leaves out

  • Financing, interest and tax. A lease can be cheaper or dearer than it looks once those are in.
  • Capacity. One robot may not cover your volume, and a service can scale up on a busy week.
  • Downtime, training, and the robot wearing out before the period ends.
  • Prices on public pages are often list or 'from' prices. Your quote may differ.

Which sourced prices count as buy, rent or service was decided by hand (43 receipts, checked 2026-10-26). Read: Robots as a service, explained

Put this calculator on your site A small card, free, no cookies or scripts. It opens this tool. 
<iframe src="https://whirrwork.com/embed/tool/buy-rent-or-hire/" width="100%" height="320" style="border:0;max-width:520px" loading="lazy" title="Buy, rent or hire? (Whirrwork)"></iframe>

For agents: the same maths as JSON, with every receipt. GET /api/v1/buy-rent-or-hire?job=commercial-floor-scrubbing&months=36