How much does custom software cost?

Custom software pricing confuses buyers because every product is different. A booking portal for one clinic is not the same as a multi-tenant SaaS with billing, roles and integrations. Still, you can make sense of cost if you separate discovery, design, build, launch and support — and you ask vendors to price a defined scope instead of an open-ended “agile” blank cheque.

What you are buying

You are paying for research, decisions, design, engineering, testing and handover. The visible screens are only part of the work. Data models, permissions, edge cases, deployment and documentation often take as long as the interface. When a quote looks cheap, check what was left out: staging environments, accessibility, analytics, training or post-launch fixes.

Typical ranges

Small internal tools and focused workflows often land in the low five figures (local currency). Business platforms with CMS content, CRM integrations and role-based access usually sit higher. Multi-sided products, mobile apps with offline mode, or AI systems with evaluation and access control can reach the mid-to-high five figures and beyond. Treat published “from” prices as starting points, not promises.

What moves the number

Integrations, migrations from legacy systems, complex permissions, offline behaviour, regulated data and app-store release all add cost. So does unclear ownership on the client side — every week spent waiting for decisions stretches the calendar. The cheapest path is a sharp MVP: one primary user, one core workflow, and a written list of what can wait.

How we quote

At Cognipoint we run a short discovery call, then a paid discovery if the problem is large. You get a written scope, assumptions and a fixed quote for that scope. Changes after approval are estimated separately. You own the code after final payment, and support plans are optional rather than forced into the build price.