A cost oriented profiler (COP) mechanism that analyzes the behavior of input application source code with regard to the software total cost of ownership (TCO). The cost analysis tool provided by the mechanism analyzes the behavior of the source code and generates a cost report with indications as to the portions of the source code that have the most impact on the TCO of the application. Based on simulations and by comparing multiple versions of the source code, the COP mechanism determines if a particular change to the source code will increase or decrease software TCO. Behavior analysis, including static and dynamic analysis of the source code, is used to generate one or more code recommendations to reduce the TCO.