Custom Systems
How Much Does a Custom Web App Cost for a Small Business?
Ask five developers what a custom app costs and you will get five answers, and every one of them will start with 'it depends.' That is not evasion. It is true. But it is also useless to you, because you cannot budget around 'it depends.'
So this guide does something different. Instead of quoting a number, it explains what the number depends on, so you can look at your own idea and judge roughly where it sits, and so you can read a proposal and see whether it makes sense. At the end we put our own published starting prices on the table, because hiding them would make the rest of this article hypocritical.
What you are actually paying for
Software is mostly people's time, and time is driven by decisions: how many different things the system has to do, for how many different kinds of people, connected to how many outside services. Four factors account for most of the difference between a modest build and an expensive one.
- How many kinds of users. A customer placing an order, a driver delivering it and an owner dispatching it are three sets of screens, even if they share one database. Every role needs its own login, its own views and its own rules about what it is allowed to see and change.
- How much happens automatically. Anything that occurs without a person clicking, such as a text when the driver is five minutes away, a card charged when an auction closes, or a renewal reminder, has to be designed, built, tested and then watched over time.
- How many outside services it touches. Payments, maps, text messages, email, accounting. Each connection is work, and each comes with its own sign-up, its own fees and its own ways of failing.
- What a mistake costs. A brochure page that is slightly off costs nothing. A system that takes money, or sends a tow truck to the wrong place, has to be tested far harder, and that testing is part of the price.
Notice what is not on that list: the number of pages, or how good it looks. Appearance matters, but it is rarely what makes software expensive. Behavior is.
What a first version should include
The most reliable way to control cost is to be strict about version one. A good first version does one job, end to end, for real users, and leaves everything else on a list for later. 'End to end' is the important part: a half-built version of ten features is worth less than a finished version of three.
Take a delivery app as an example. Version one is a menu, a checkout, a screen where the owner sees new orders and assigns a driver, a driver screen to accept and complete a job, and a live map so the customer can watch. Version two is the list of nice ideas: scheduled orders, loyalty points, multiple locations, a listing in the app stores. Version two is built after version one has real customers using it, which is exactly when you know which of those ideas matters.
A useful test for any feature: if it were missing on launch day, could a customer still complete the thing they came to do? If yes, it can wait.
The costs that are not in the quote
A proposal prices the build. Running the thing has its own costs, and a proposal that never mentions them is incomplete. None of these are tricks. They are simply what it costs to use the services your system depends on.
- Card processing. Whoever processes your payments takes a percentage of each sale. That is true whether the system is custom or off the shelf, and it scales with how much you sell.
- Maps and location. Showing a map or tracking a driver uses a mapping service that typically charges by usage. At small volumes it is modest; at large volumes it needs watching.
- Text messages. Every 'your driver is arriving' text is a small charge, billed by the messaging provider.
- Hosting and care. The system has to live somewhere, be backed up, and be kept patched against security problems. This is the monthly fee, and a build without one is a build nobody is looking after.
- Your own time. You will write or approve the wording, make decisions about rules, and test the thing before launch. The best projects stall on this, not on code.
- App-store fees, if you want them. A web app that installs to a phone's home screen needs no store. A listing in Apple's or Google's store has its own approval process, fees and maintenance, and is normally quoted separately.
Three ways the price gets set
How a project is priced matters as much as the amount, because it decides who carries the risk when something turns out harder than expected.
- Hourly. It sounds fair, and it moves all the uncertainty to you. If the work takes longer, you pay more, and the builder has little reason to be efficient. It suits small, open-ended tasks and rarely suits a project you want to budget.
- Fixed price for a written scope. The builder carries the risk of the estimate, so they have an incentive to scope carefully. Changes are quoted separately. This is our approach, and it is only as good as the scope document, which is why you should read it closely.
- Subscription or retainer. A flat monthly amount can be good for ongoing care and poor for a build, because it can hide a very large total behind a small-looking number. We work through the arithmetic in the real math on monthly website subscriptions.
However it is priced, look at when you pay. Money tied to milestones you can see and check protects both sides; we cover the options in website deposits and milestone payments.
What it costs with us
Our custom systems start at $3,500 for a referral or loyalty program and run up to $12,500 for a multi-seller marketplace, with a flat monthly fee from $59 to $179 that covers hosting, backups, security updates and small fixes. Those are 'from' prices for a first launch: one business, one region and the features listed on each system's page, delivered as a web app. The price for your project is fixed in a written proposal before any work starts.
For context, agencies commonly quote platforms like these well into five figures. We are not claiming that is wrong; larger teams carry larger overheads and often build for larger organizations. We are a single-operator studio building for small businesses, which is why the numbers look the way they do. Every system, with its price and a calculator you can run on your own figures, is on the custom systems page.
How to read any proposal
Whoever you hire, a proposal worth signing answers these questions in plain words.
- What exactly is included, and what is not? The 'not included' list is often more revealing than the included one.
- Is the price fixed, and what happens when I ask for a change? There should be a stated way changes are quoted and agreed before work begins.
- Who owns the code, the data and the domain? You should, without conditions. We explain why this matters so much in who really owns your website.
- What does the monthly fee cover, and what does it not? Hosting and security updates are different from new features.
- What are the milestones, and what do I pay at each? You should be able to see something working before most of the money has moved.
- What happens if I want to leave? If the answer is vague, treat that as the answer.
The contract red flags article goes through the wording that should make you pause.
The cheapest app is the one that does one job and is yours
The price of software is not really the number on the proposal. It is that number, plus what it costs to run, plus what it costs when you need a change and the person who built it is not returning calls. A modest system that does one job well, that you own, and that someone looks after for a flat fee is almost always a better purchase than an ambitious one that does everything and belongs to somebody else.
If you have a rough idea, describe it on the contact page. We will tell you plainly whether it is a system, a smaller add-on or just a better website, and what it would cost, before you commit to anything.
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