Why there is no price list
Custom software is unique by definition. A client portal for an accountancy firm and a planning tool for an installer have little in common, even though both are called 'a web application'. Anyone who promises you a price per screen or per feature without knowing your process is guessing. Either they add a generous margin to cover themselves, or the extra costs arrive later, once building has started and you have little choice left.
A price list mostly gives a false sense of certainty. What you can know is which factors set the price. Once you know those, you can judge where your project sits, and make deliberate choices to keep it affordable.
What drives the price of custom software?
Roughly six factors decide how much work goes into your software. Some weigh more than others, depending on what you build.
- Scope: how many screens and processes your software has, and how many roles. A tool for one team is a different thing from a platform where staff, clients and suppliers each have their own permissions and overviews.
- Integrations with existing systems: your accounting package, your ERP, a webshop or an external service. Every integration has to be built, tested and looked after, and depends on how well the other system can be reached.
- Data migration: does existing data from spreadsheets or an old package need to come along? Cleaning data and moving it over correctly is often more work than expected.
- Security and compliance: if you handle personal, medical or financial data, that calls for extra measures around access, logging and retention.
- Hosting and availability: an internal tool used during office hours has different needs from a client portal that must always be reachable.
- Design: a simple, functional interface for internal use takes less than an application your clients use every day and that has to carry your brand.
Fixed price or time and materials: what is the difference?
Broadly, there are two ways to have software built. On time and materials you pay for the hours actually worked. That is flexible, but the risk sits with you: if it takes longer, you pay more, and you only learn afterwards what your project cost.
With a fixed price you know upfront what you pay. The risk of a wrong estimate sits with the builder. That only works when it is clear beforehand what will be built. A fixed price based on a vague description inevitably leads to arguments about what was and wasn't included. That is why a good fixed price doesn't start with the quote, but with a clear description.
How do you get to a fixed price?
With us it happens in set steps, as our page on our approach explains. The key point: you only decide once you know exactly what you get and what it costs.
- A free first meeting: we listen to how your business works, where it pinches and what you want to achieve.
- A free product document: we write down what your software must do, for whom and why. That way we both speak the same language.
- A free design: you see what the screens look like and how you move through them, before a line of code is written.
- A fixed quote per part: based on the product document and the design, you get a fixed price for each part. Only then do you decide whether, and with which part, to start.
Because the price per part is fixed, you can also choose to build the most important part first and the rest later. You can read more about how we price on our pricing page.
What does software cost after launch?
Software is never quite finished. After launch it has to run somewhere, frameworks and libraries need updating, there have to be backups and you want to know when something goes wrong. Include those costs when you set a budget. We offer three plans for it, each cancellable monthly:
- Maintenance: hosting in Europe, security updates, backups and monitoring. Your software stays safe and online.
- Support: everything in Maintenance, plus a helpdesk through a dedicated contact, a reply within one business day and small changes.
- Partner: everything in Support, plus fixed development hours per month and a quarterly review of your roadmap.
What belongs in such a contract and what drives the monthly price is explained in our article on maintenance contracts. Either way, the code is yours, whatever you choose.
How do you keep the cost of custom software down?
The most expensive software is software that does more than it needs to. A few principles help you watch your budget without giving up on quality.
- Start small. Build the part that brings the most value or removes the biggest frustration first. What you really miss after that, you only learn by using it.
- Phase the work. A fixed price per part makes it easy to build in steps and adjust course along the way.
- Reuse standard parts. Logging in, payments, email or document storage don't need to be invented again. Build custom where your business makes the difference, and use proven building blocks for the rest.
- Be critical of exceptions. Every exception in your process becomes a rule in your software. Sometimes it is cheaper to simplify the process.
What should you prepare for a first meeting?
You don't need to bring a technical analysis. It does help if you have thought about a few questions:
- Which problem should the software solve, and how do you solve it today?
- Who will use it: your team, your clients, your suppliers?
- Which systems does it need to talk to, and which data has to come along?
- Is there a deadline, such as a season or a contract that ends?
- Which examples, spreadsheets or forms do you use now? Feel free to bring them.
That is all it takes. See what we build on our page about custom software, or book a free first meeting. Afterwards you know exactly which steps follow, and you only decide once you have a fixed price.