How much does a custom software solution cost?

4 min readAug 15, 2022

It’s a question as old as software development itself. You have a killer idea in your head and found a couple of software development suppliers that you could work with to put it into practice. You’ve talked a bit with each one and got some of the basics down. And now comes the hard part. How much will my custom software solution cost?

The answer is that it depends. It’s easier to estimate the cost for an off the shelf solution because pretty much everything is already built and any extra costs related to development have to do with small things that need to be changed here and there. Which seldom put you over the top budget wise.

However when we’re talking about custom software, a solution that is tailored to your specific needs and gives you the exact features that you are looking for, the situation changes. There are a lot of variables that are taken into consideration when a price for such a solution is estimated. And in this article, we will be looking at the most important factors that shape the process.

Software complexity

Is your software something simple that only requires a couple of screens and a minimum number of functionalities? Then chances are that the costs won’t be very high.

But if you need a software solution with a lot of complicated and unique features such as voice recognition, image recognition or one that needs to do a lot of heavy analysis the cost will also increase. The more complex the logic behind your solution, the more time it will take to code it, test it, analyze it and so on.

Software size

If your application has a lot of screens or pages it will take more time and money to develop. On average the number of screens for a small, medium or large custom software solution are as follows:

Small: 10 to 15 screens
Medium: 25 to 40 screens
Large: 40 screens

A screen is anything that the users see when they use your application. So, your landing page is a screen, any page where the user is taken after clicking on a button or menu item is also considered a screen. For example, if you have a screen that shows contact info for a client and one where you can edit that information, those will be considered two different screens.

Design

The way your custom software looks like is important. Especially if you operate in the SaaS industry. Having a friendly and vibrant interface can increase both customer satisfaction and also their numbers, ultimately leading to the success of your business.

Even for an enterprise solution, design matters. Employees will be more willing to embrace a new company software if it’s got a bit of color and personality rather than a dull collection of fields and screens that you need to go through to accomplish a certain task.

But bear in mind that any images, animations or illustrations that you use have to be designed and implemented. If you’ve got the budget you can go for something extravagant but there are more budget friendly options which can help you keep costs under control.

Integration

Software solutions usually require some form of integration to make them workable. If you are planning on monetizing your software, for example, you would need some sort of payment system integration such as PayPal or Patreon. Most of the times these integrations are easy to do because a lot of solutions already have API’s which are easy to work with.

But if you need an API developed from scratch to work with older systems such as might happen for an enterprise solution then you will most likely see an increase in terms of costs as well.

Development team

Project complexity usually determines the size of the team. A small app with limited functionality and a basic design won’t require a very large team. Even a team of two, where the developer also does software testing and the project manager is also the business analyst, can probably get it done.

If we are talking about a large custom enterprise software with many features and systems that it needs to be connected to, you will certainly need a bigger team. Just keep in mind that your typical software development team should have software developers, software testers, business analysts and project managers. Again, depending on the complexity, you will also need to add other roles such as software architects.

How can QTeam help?

If you’re planning on developing a custom software solution or updating and maintaining your current one, let’s get in touch. We’ve helped companies, big and small, tackle their software challenges and we can do the same for you. Check out what our current clients have to say.

Whatever your idea is, we can help you turn it into software https://qteam.solutions/#contact

Originally published at https://qteam.solutions on August 15, 2022.