How much does custom software cost?
It is every small business's first question, and the honest answer is: it depends. Here is what it depends on, and how to avoid bad surprises.
By Jean Lussier · 2 min read
What drives the price
The price of custom software depends on a few factors, always the same ones:
- The number of features. A tool that handles one thing costs less than a platform that covers all your operations.
- Integrations. Connecting the application to Microsoft 365, your CRM or an existing database takes extra work.
- Data migration. Recovering years of data from an Access database or an Excel file, and cleaning it up, can be a large part of the project.
- Security and hosting. An application that holds personal information or is exposed to the outside needs more protection.
- Maintenance. Software is never finished: security patches, updates and small improvements are part of the real cost.
Why quotes vary so much
Several of our clients had received quotes of more than $250,000 before calling us. An amount like that rarely comes down to the code itself.
Large firms bill their structure: project managers, account managers, offices, layers of approval. Those costs end up in your quote. When you deal directly with the person who designs, builds and secures your application, they disappear.
Fixed price or hourly rate?
With an hourly rate, you pay for time spent, and the total is only known at the end. With a fixed price, the scope is defined up front and the price does not move, even if the project takes longer than planned.
At JL Dev, every project is delivered at a fixed price, from $5,000. New ideas that come up along the way go into a bank of hours or a second phase, and you decide when and how much.
How to lower the cost
- Don't rebuild the past. Old systems pile up features nobody uses. Leaving them behind makes the application simpler and cheaper.
- Start with the essentials. A first phase that solves the real problem, then improvements once the foundation is solid.
- Keep what works. If your team already lives in Microsoft 365, the application can plug into it instead of reinventing everything.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Is the price fixed for the described scope?
- Do I own the source code, the documentation and the data?
- Where will the application be hosted, and who monitors it?
- What does maintenance include, and what does it cost?
- Who will I work with day to day?
The simplest way to get a real number for your project is an assessment: it is free, it takes one call on Teams, and you leave with an honest answer.