According to Commodore Joe Redcloud :

Having a plow guy is going to cost you a ton more in the long run. I'd expect
that in New England, the $750 snowblower would be a "break-even in about 2 or 3
years. The following 20+ years would be gravy, and in all that time you'll never
have to wait for the plow guy to get done with his BIG accounts before he shows
up at your house.

It's highly dependent on what you have available for a "plow guy".

In our area, there's two choices. The guys with blade-mounted pickup
trucks, and the farmers with heavy duty blower/blade rigs on their
tractors. The latter have divided the area up into regions, with one
designated to each region.

The blade-mounted pickup guys tend to charge a fixed rate ($200-$400CDN) for
a season. They're relatively slow, late to arrive, and with driveways
to clear such as are common around here, it's often not a very good job.

The farmers charge $16/visit (usually 10-12 visits over the season).
Ours does our _big_ driveway in 10 minutes, and he's always got it
done by the time we need it.

I have a tractor with a blower. It takes me around 2 hours to do it. I'm
having to perform maintenance and repairs - it's a _good_ tractor (Cadet
hydrostatic), but it's feeling its age. Head gaskets last summer, "split
the tractor" (ugh!!!) next summer to replace part of the drive shaft. Wheel
bearings. Pulley bearings. Belts. Hard to start in cold weather.
Leaky tires (hawthorn, sigh. I really need to replace 'em). Thing
doesn't steer very well on ice, occasionally gets stuck. Frozen
battery every couple of years.

And, it's not enclosed, so I get a good faceful (worse, snow on
the kidneys, I have to remember to wear the insulated overalls and
a full face shield). And sometimes I'm just too tired/busy to do it.

No, I don't do it myself anymore. Not worth it, both in time and money.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.