Agency software is rarely discounted at the top of the pricing page, but most vendors leave room to pay less if you know where to look. Here is where the real savings are, with numbers from each vendor's public pricing page (checked October 2026).
1. Annual billing: the discount everyone offers
Almost every vendor discounts annual billing. The size of the discount varies more than people expect:
- Monton: up to 40% off with annual billing, on a flat price per plan.
- Teamwork.com: about 29%.
- Harvest: 20%.
- Timely: roughly 18–21%, depending on the plan.
- Productive: up to 17%.
- Scoro: 13–17%.
- Function Point: "over 11%".
Before you commit
Annual plans are usually non-refundable. Run a trial or free plan with real projects first, and switch to annual only once the team is logging time every week.
2. Free plans and free seats
For small agencies, a free plan can beat any discount:
- Monton: free forever for up to 5 people, with every feature (time tracking, staffing, invoicing, CRM, profitability).
- Teamwork.com: free for up to 5 users and 5 projects.
- ClickUp: a free plan with storage and automation limits.
- monday.com: free for up to 2 seats.
- Harvest: free for 1 seat and 2 projects.
Productive, Scoro, Timely and Float have no free plan. They offer trials instead: 14 days for Productive, Scoro, Timely and monday.com, and 30 days for Float and Harvest.
3. Nonprofit, volume and other discounts
- Nonprofits: Productive offers 50% off. Function Point takes $2 per seat off.
- Volume: Productive offers volume discounts above 50 users on its Professional and Ultimate plans. Larger teams can usually negotiate with any vendor that sells through sales.
- Payment terms: some vendors want annual billing and a minimum number of seats before they accept bank transfer instead of card.
4. Watch the costs that cancel out discounts
A 20% discount doesn't help if you pay for seats you don't use:
Seat minimums. Scoro requires 5 users on every plan, Productive and monday.com 3, and Teamwork.com 3 on Basics and 5 on Accelerate.
Seat buckets. Some tools sell seats in steps, so a 6-person team may pay for a bigger bucket.
Paid freelancers. Productive bills freelancers and contractors like employees.
Features on higher tiers. If the feature you need sits two plans up, the starting price is irrelevant. Time tracking on monday.com starts at Pro, and profitability on Teamwork.com needs Optimize.
Onboarding fees. Function Point charges new customers an onboarding fee.
What does a 5-person agency actually pay?
Here's a common scenario: 5 people, annual billing, the cheapest paid plan.
- Per-user tools (Productive, Teamwork.com, Timely, Harvest, ClickUp, monday.com) land around $45–50 a month (€45 for monday.com), before any upgrade to the plan that includes the feature you need.
- Scoro: at least 5 users on its cheapest bundle, about €75 a month.
- Monton: free, since the free plan covers up to 5 people. Paid plans start at €19/month billed annually for the whole team, not per person.
What about client access?
If clients need to log in, check whether they count as paid seats:
- Productive lets you invite clients for free.
- Float's guests are free.
- ClickUp includes guests on every plan, and monday.com from Standard.
- Scoro's client portal is a paid extra.
For a full breakdown of costs by agency size and the hidden costs of switching, see our agency software pricing guide. For plan-by-plan comparisons, see Monton vs Productive, Monton vs Scoro and Monton vs Teamwork.com.
Frequently asked questions
- Where can I find discounts on agency project management software?
- The biggest, most reliable discount is annual billing, which typically saves around 15–30% across vendors (up to 40% on Monton). Beyond that, look for free plans for small teams, nonprofit pricing (Productive offers 50% off), volume discounts for 50+ users, and free guest or client seats.
- How much does annual billing save on agency software?
- Based on public pricing pages in October 2026: Productive up to 17%, Scoro 13–17%, Harvest 20%, Timely around 18–21%, Teamwork.com about 29% and Monton up to 40%.
- How much does agency PM software cost for a 5-person agency?
- With annual billing, most per-user tools land around $45–75 a month for 5 people. Some cover 5 people for free: Monton's free plan includes up to 5 people with every feature, and Teamwork.com's free plan covers up to 5 users with basic features.
- Do I have to pay for client access?
- It depends on the vendor. Productive lets you invite clients for free, Float's guests are free, ClickUp includes guests on every plan and monday.com from Standard. Scoro sells its client portal as a paid extra. Always check whether clients count as paid seats before you buy.
- Is it better to pay monthly or annually?
- Pay monthly while you're evaluating, then switch to annual once the team is actually using the tool. Annual billing is cheaper, but most vendors don't refund unused months if you cancel.