If you have ever tried to budget for practice management software as a registered migration agent, you will know the frustration: most vendors will not show you a price until you sit through a sales demonstration. Migration Manager is one of the better-known options in the Australian market, and its pricing is one of the most commonly searched-for numbers in the profession. This article lays out what Migration Manager publicly advertises as at 2026, walks through the true total cost of ownership, and gives you a neutral framework for weighing it against the alternatives.
A note before we start: every figure below is taken from publicly listed / as-advertised sources and is current to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing (May 2026). Pricing changes, and most of it is ultimately confirmed during a vendor demonstration. Treat this as a planning baseline, not a quote — always confirm the current numbers directly with Migration Manager before you commit.
Why Migration Manager's pricing is hard to find
To Migration Manager's credit, it does publish pricing on its website, which is more than several competitors do. The catch is that the headline experience still nudges you toward booking a demonstration, where a consultant runs you through a "cost-benefit analysis" tailored to your firm. That is a perfectly normal enterprise sales motion, but it makes it hard to do a quick, like-for-like comparison when you are still shortlisting tools.
So here is the publicly advertised structure, broken into its three real components: the per-licence subscription, the one-off setup and training fee, and the optional Templates add-on.
The per-licence subscription (as advertised, 2026)
Migration Manager is priced per licence, per month, and the monthly rate depends on how long you commit. As publicly listed in 2026, the tiers are:
- 12-month plan: approximately $339 per licence per month
- 24-month plan: approximately $259 per licence per month
- 36-month plan: approximately $239 per licence per month (advertised as the "most popular" option)
All of these figures are advertised as excluding GST, so add 10% to model your real outlay. The pattern is straightforward: the longer you lock in, the lower the monthly rate, with the cheapest per-licence price reserved for a three-year commitment.
The thing to notice is that "per licence" means per user. The headline rate is for one seat. A two-person practice on the 12-month plan is looking at roughly $678 per month before GST, and a three-person team closer to $1,017 — confirm the exact figure with the vendor, but the multiplier is the part that catches people out.
The setup and training fee
On top of the subscription, Migration Manager advertises a one-off professional setup and training fee of around $900 (ex GST). This covers a one-to-one welcome call, installation and configuration, Q&A sessions, access to a self-paced training platform, and — usefully for trust-accounting compliance — training delivered by an accountant experienced in client and trust accounting.
It is worth being precise here, because the numbers can blur together. The base setup and training fee is advertised at roughly $900. There is a separate, larger setup fee attached to the Templates add-on (covered below), which is advertised at a higher figure and is sometimes discounted on multi-year plans. Don't conflate the two when you build your budget.
The Templates add-on
Migration Manager's document templates are sold as a separate product, not bundled into the base subscription. As publicly listed in 2026, the MM Templates add-on is advertised at:
- Approximately $50 per month, advertised as covering unlimited users
- Plus a one-off customised setup fee advertised at around $1,800, reduced to roughly $1,400 when purchased with a two- or three-year plan
For that you get access to a large library (advertised as over 4,000 documents) with monthly updates. Whether you need it depends on whether you already have your own letter, advice and service-agreement templates. Many agents do — and if you have spent years refining documents that map to your own advice style and the current OMARA Code of Conduct obligations, a generic library may duplicate work you have already done.
Working out the real total cost of ownership
The sticker price of any practice tool is only the first line of the budget. To compare honestly, model the total cost of ownership (TCO) over the full contract term. For a solo agent on Migration Manager's 36-month plan, a rough, illustrative model looks like this (all ex GST, all figures as-advertised and to be confirmed):
- Subscription: ~$239/mo × 36 months = ~$8,604 over the term for one licence
- Setup and training: ~$900 one-off
- Templates add-on (optional): ~$50/mo × 36 = ~$1,800, plus ~$1,400 setup
That puts a single-user, three-year commitment with templates somewhere in the order of $12,700 over the term before GST — and proportionally more for each additional licence, since the subscription is per seat. A two-agent firm roughly doubles the subscription component. Run your own numbers with the figures confirmed at demo, but build the model on a multi-seat, full-term basis, not the single-seat monthly headline.
The questions to ask before you commit
- How many licences do you actually need? Per-seat pricing scales linearly, so headcount is the biggest single driver of cost.
- What contract length are you comfortable with? The lowest monthly rate requires a three-year lock-in. Weigh the saving against the loss of flexibility if your needs change.
- Do you need the Templates add-on? If you already maintain compliant templates, you may be paying for a library you won't use.
- What is the cooling-off and exit position? Migration Manager advertises a 30-day cooling-off period — confirm what happens after that if you need to leave mid-term.
- Does it cover your compliance workflow? Whatever tool you choose, it has to support written fee disclosure before you start work, itemised invoicing, and proper file records — all of which the Code of Conduct requires.
What to weigh up (neutrally)
Migration Manager is a mature, well-supported product with deep roots in the Australian migration market, and for some firms the per-seat, multi-year model is exactly right — particularly larger practices that value its trust-accounting depth and want a heavily configured setup. None of the above is a knock on the software itself.
The honest trade-offs to consider are: pricing scales with headcount, so growth has a direct cost; the best rates require a multi-year commitment; and the templates that many agents assume are included are a separate line item. For a sole practitioner or a small, growing firm, those three factors can add up to a larger and less predictable bill than the headline monthly figure suggests.
How LodgeHQ compares
We built LodgeHQ specifically because pricing in this category is opaque and seat-based, and we wanted the opposite. LodgeHQ is a flat $99 per month (or $948/year, a 20% saving) — and that is the whole price. It includes unlimited users and unlimited clients, every feature, with no per-seat multiplier, no separate setup or training fee, and no templates upsell. There is no multi-year lock-in to reach the best rate, and you can start on a free trial without sitting through a demo first.
Put plainly against the figures above: a three-person firm on a flat $99/month pays the same as a sole agent, where a per-seat model multiplies. For a small or growing practice, that predictability is usually the deciding factor. We have written a detailed, side-by-side breakdown at LodgeHQ vs Migration Manager — including features, not just price — and if you are still shortlisting, our guide to the best software for OMARA-registered agents covers the wider field. You can also compare us directly against other tools like EzyMigrate or AgentCIS.
We are not going to pretend any single tool is right for every practice — the questions above matter more than any one vendor's pitch. But if a flat, transparent price with unlimited users sounds like the model your firm needs, start a free trial of LodgeHQ and see it on your own caseload, or read more about how LodgeHQ works. No demo required.
Pricing figures for third-party products in this article are as publicly advertised at the time of writing and are subject to change; confirm current pricing directly with the vendor before making a decision.