How much does custom software cost?

The ranges at a glance

The table below prices typical projects with the same grid as our budget estimator. Amounts are in Canadian dollars, before taxes. They cover scoping, design, development, testing, launch and project management.

Each row opens in the estimator, where you can adjust it to your case.

These ranges may look wide. That is on purpose: before the scope is written down, an honest range beats a precise number that was made up. The gap narrows as soon as we know what the first version must do, and what it won't.

What really moves the price

The number of screens is a poor indicator. Two applications with about twenty screens each can cost very different amounts. Here is what actually weighs.

Business rules

Who can see what, who approves, in which order, with which exceptions. A form that records a request takes a few hours. The same form with three approval levels, deadlines to enforce and special cases by customer type can take several weeks. That is almost always where the complexity hides, which is why we look for it during scoping.

Exchanges with your systems

Connecting the application to your accounting software, your ERP, a point-of-sale system or a partner's API takes more work than most people expect. You have to understand the data on both sides, handle errors and outages, and decide what happens when the two systems disagree. A reliable integration logs every exchange and recovers on its own after an interruption. None of that shows on screen, but it is what keeps data from getting lost.

The number of platforms

A web application runs in the browser, on a computer as well as on a phone. Adding an iOS and Android app, or desktop software, adds interfaces to design, test and maintain. The server and the data are shared, but each platform has its own constraints: app store publishing, devices to test, updates to keep up with.

Security and compliance

Health or financial data, or sensitive personal information, call for finer access rights, an audit trail and sometimes hosting in a specific country. Québec's Law 25, Canada's PIPEDA and Europe's GDPR all set rules on how personal information is collected, stored and shared. Planning for them at design time costs far less than adding them later.

Migrating existing data

Importing years of data from spreadsheets or an old system means cleaning it, deciding what to do with duplicates and incomplete fields, then checking the result with you. This work is often left out of early estimates.

Your team's availability

A project moves at the speed of its decisions. One person on your side who can answer questions and sign off on each demo saves weeks. Weeks saved mean a budget that holds.

What our ranges include

• Scoping: goals, users, business rules and priorities, written down.
• Screen design and technical architecture.
• Development, with a demo every week.
• Testing and bug fixing before launch.
• Production rollout, documentation, and handing over the code and access in your name.

What to budget for after launch

The development cost is not the total cost. An application in production comes with a few recurring expenses:

• Hosting, from a few dozen to a few hundred dollars a month for most business applications, depending on traffic and data volume.
• Third-party services: sending email and text messages, payments, maps, file storage. They are often billed by usage.
• App stores, for a mobile app: an Apple Developer account (US$99 a year) and a Google Play account (US$25, one time).
• Maintenance: security updates, fixes, compatibility with new versions of iOS, Android and browsers, small improvements. A common rule of thumb is to set aside 15 to 20% of the initial development cost every year.

An application nobody looks after does not stay stable: its components age, vulnerabilities are found, the systems it talks to change. That is what our software maintenance service is for.

Lowering the budget without raising the risk

1. Start with a focused first version. One process, one type of user, used for real. What comes next is decided with real feedback instead of guesses.
2. Integrate rather than replace. If your accounting software or your point-of-sale system does its job well, the application can connect to it instead of rebuilding it. That is the approach behind CornerPilot, a platform we designed: it builds on merchants' Clover registers instead of replacing them.
3. Use proven building blocks. Payments, sign-in, email delivery: specialized services do it better and for less than custom code.
4. Write down what is out of scope. A clear list of what the first version will not do prevents additions along the way, a frequent cause of overruns.
5. Keep the code and access in your name. It doesn't save money today, but it is the best insurance against paying for everything twice if you change vendors.

Why quotes vary so much

For the same project, it is common to receive very different prices. The reasons are nearly always the same:

• The scope is read differently. A two-paragraph description lets each vendor picture a different project.
• Not everything is included. Testing, project management, launch, documentation, warranty: check what each price covers.
• Starting points differ. Some vendors adapt a codebase they already own, others start from scratch. The first is cheaper; in that case, check who will own the code.
• Risk has a price. A fixed price on a vague scope always carries a margin for the unexpected.

To compare, give every vendor the same document: your goals, your users, your existing systems and what absolutely has to be in the first version. Then compare the proposed scopes, not just the amounts.

Estimate your project

Our budget estimator applies this guide's grid to your project: type, platforms, features and integrations. You get a range and the cost breakdown in one minute.

For a precise price, write to us. We reply within two business days and, when the project fits, suggest a 30-minute call to define the scope, followed by a written proposal.