Pricing · hidden costs

Does 399Apps have hidden charges or sudden price hikes?

Short answer

No. 399Apps is a flat ₹399/month for your first app, with unlimited users and no per-seat, per-device or per-invoice charges. Each additional app is a flat ₹399/month, so you only pay for what you switch on. GST is added as the law requires, and the full price is published on the pricing page — not quoted on a sales call.

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What you actually pay: 399Apps vs typical per-user and desktop tools

The costs that usually appear after you sign up — and what 399Apps charges for each.

Feature	399Apps (Nidhi Books)	Per-user / desktop tools
Extra users	₹0 — unlimited users on every plan	Per-seat add-ons (Zoho) or a multi-user licence (Tally Gold ~₹67,500 one-time)
Desktop + mobile	Same login on browser and mobile, no extra cost	Desktop and mobile often billed as separate plans (Vyapar)
Upfront licence	None — pay monthly, cancel anytime	TallyPrime Silver ~₹22,500 one-time, single user
Yearly renewal	Flat monthly price, published upfront	Annual renewals (e.g. Tally TSS) and periodic price increases
Additional apps	₹399/month per app — opt in only when you need it	Higher tiers that bundle features you may never use
WhatsApp Business API	₹0 — free with any paid plan, set up for you in your own Meta account; Meta bills messages to you directly, no 399Apps markup	WhatsApp platforms such as Wati, Interakt and AiSensy charge a monthly platform fee plus a markup on each message
Optional add-ons	Paid add-ons such as Remove branding are priced in the App Shop before you buy — never switched on for you	Add-on packs bundled into the next tier
GST / taxes	Added as the law requires, shown before you pay	Often added at checkout

Pricing reflects publicly listed plans and is indicative; verify current pricing with each vendor.

What the ₹399 actually includes

The entry plan is a flat ₹399/month for your first app (Nidhi Books or Nidhi Inventory), and that price is the price. Every plan includes unlimited users, so adding staff, a second branch or your accountant costs nothing extra — there are no per-seat, per-device or per-invoice fees waiting in the background. You bill, file GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B, and run accounts and stock from any browser or phone on the same login.

If you need a second app, it is ₹399/month, and you only pay for it when you switch it on. GST is added as the law requires — we show it before you pay rather than after. The whole structure is published on the pricing page, so you can work out your monthly cost before you ever talk to us; there is no custom quote and no salesperson deciding your number.

Where the “hidden” costs usually hide

Most price surprises with Indian billing software are not really hidden — they just appear after you commit. The common ones are per-user seats (your bill climbs as the team grows), a separate multi-user licence to let two people work at once, desktop and mobile sold as different plans, and an annual renewal that quietly increases at each cycle. Tally adds a one-time licence (≈₹22,500 Silver, single user; ≈₹67,500 Gold for multi-user) plus a yearly TSS subscription; per-seat cloud tools charge again every time you add a login.

With 399Apps those line items do not exist. Unlimited users is the headline difference: the cost of a five-person shop and a one-person shop on the same plan is identical. There is no upfront licence, no per-device fee, and no separate “mobile” plan. The only way your bill goes up is if you deliberately add another app at ₹399/month or a paid add-on — a decision you make, not a charge that appears.

Add-ons: WhatsApp is free, and paid add-ons are optional

The WhatsApp Business API connection is free with any paid 399Apps subscription. You add it in the App Shop at ₹0, and we set it up for you, free, inside your own Meta Business account, so the WhatsApp number and its message templates stay yours. Meta bills your business directly for messages at its own published rates. 399Apps adds no markup on any message, at any volume. That Meta bill is the one WhatsApp cost you will see, and it comes from Meta, not from us. If you only need to send a bill from your own phone, wa.me quick send needs no Meta account and costs nothing.

Compare that with the usual route. WhatsApp platforms such as Wati, Interakt and AiSensy charge a monthly platform fee, then add a markup to every message on top of Meta’s rate. That is a second subscription, and it grows with every invoice you send. Paid add-ons do exist at 399Apps. Remove branding, for example, takes the “Built by 399apps.com” line off your invoice and receipt PDFs. Each one shows its price in the App Shop before you buy, and none is ever switched on for you.

The honest part: what can change, and what cannot

Being honest about pricing means naming the two real variables. First, GST is genuinely extra — it is a statutory tax, not a 399Apps fee, and we add it transparently. Second, if you grow into more modules, ₹399 × N (for N apps) is more than ₹399 — but every rupee of that is a feature you chose to turn on, listed on your invoice. No usage meter, no overage, no “you exceeded your limit” email.

List prices can change over time, as with any software — but there is no lock-in that traps you if they ever do. Your data is yours and exportable to Excel, CSV and PDF at any moment, and you can run 399Apps self-hosted instead of in the cloud. So the worst case is never a surprise bill you cannot escape: you see the published price, you keep your data, and you can leave on your terms. The simplest check before you commit is the free trial — set up your real invoices and confirm the number for yourself.

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