Sitecore hosting on cloud with consumption based pricing includes Sitecore license cost?

Question

I am aware of the consumption based pricing model of Sitecore

• Licensed based on the amount of visits your site receives
• No large up-front purchase, but you don’t “own” a license
• Can be paid for as-you-go
• One fee covers usage, support, and maintenance

Based on these lines, I can understand that there would not be additional cost for Sitecore license and it is covered in above pricing model. But still wanted to be confirmed on few queries.

1. Azure hosting cost would be additional to it?
2. Sitecore consumption based pricing model includes Sitecore license cost?
3. What additional cost might need to consider in estimation?

Answer 1

Sitecore licensing is a separate cost from Azure usage costs. At its most basic, one bill pays Sitecore and one bill pays Microsoft.

Consumption-based licensing (also known as subscription licensing) is just another model for buying your license, but there are many different possible costs that could be involved here. For example, you might license only the basic XM (CMS-only), but if you want the whole Experience Platform (XP) or Experience Commerce (XC) that would be additional. Make sure when discussing your licensing procurement with your sales rep that you get the quote for the parts of the platform you need.

In addition to licensing and Azure usage costs, you should think about what you need from a non-production environment, and also what you need from a hosting/deployment/development perspective. You can do all the infrastructure management and deployments and development yourself, or you can choose a partner to work with to manage some or all of that for you. That would be an additional cost to consider in terms of how much responsibility you want in-house and how much you want to delegate.