This study describes the differences in cost factors for the total cost of ownership of traditional and cloud-based enterprise resource planning systems (ERP). The concept of traditional ERP is aimed at ERP systems that are implemented in-house in and on the company’s IT infrastructure. Articles and magazines related to IT portrays cost factors related to the ownership of ERP and that the cloud is the next stage of development to provide ERP systems. The purpose of this study is to examine the cost factors related to the ownership of traditional and cloud-based ERP systems to be used as an aid in choosing between these ERP systems. We have chosen to limit the study to exclude numbers and focus only on cost factors. We have carried out a qualitative study and conducted five interviews with respondents who are well versed in the subject area. Three of these respondents are from companies that use traditional ERP and the remaining two from companies using cloud-based ERP. As a basis for our interview manuscript we have used our theoretical framework. This is based on scientific articles, literature and books in the field. The conclusion shows that the cost factors related to the ownership of the ERP systems is easier to calculate with cloud-based ERP.