Most custom software and app projects we build cost between $20,000 and $150,000. The price depends on how many features you need, how complex the backend is, and what it has to connect to. A discovery phase, usually $3,000 to $6,000, lets us give you a fixed quote to build your application.
Most custom software and app projects we build land between $20,000 and $150,000. Where yours falls depends far more on what happens underneath the screens than on the screens themselves.
How much will this cost is almost always one of the first things people ask us, and it is a fair question. Nobody wants to spend weeks talking through an idea only to learn the budget was never realistic. This article covers the ranges we quote, what moves the price, how we get from a rough range to a quote you can plan around, and how AI has changed the math over the last few years.
The price ranges
| What | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Discovery phase, including an interactive prototype | $3,000 to $6,000 |
| Custom software or app build | $20,000 to $150,000 |
| Fixing an app you built with AI | Often far less than building from scratch |
Those ranges are wide for a reason. A focused internal tool and a customer-facing platform are both custom software, and they are not the same project. Treating them as though they were is how people end up with quotes that fall apart halfway through a build.
Why the range is so wide
A $20,000 project and a $150,000 project can look similar from the outside. What determines cost and complexity is usually the backend architecture, so two apps with the same number of screens can be very different amounts of work.
Features and types of users come first. Every screen, workflow and type of user adds work, and an app where everyone sees the same thing is far simpler than one where customers, staff and administrators each need their own views, permissions and actions.
The backend comes next, and logins, permissions, payments and data handling take more time than screens do. This is the part of the software that has to be right, because it is where your customers' information lives and where mistakes get expensive.
Then there are connections to other tools. Most businesses already run on something, whether that is accounting software, a CRM, a payment processor or a spreadsheet someone has maintained for years. Linking new software to those tools adds cost, so we encourage clients to decide early which connections the first version truly needs.
Platforms matter as well, whether that is a web app, a desktop app, a mobile app or all three. Building for more than one platform is not simply more screens, because each one carries its own testing, release process and upkeep. AI features sit in the same category. Document processing, search or assistants that work against your own data can save your team real time, and they add their own layer of design and testing, particularly around how your data is handled.
As a general rule, a focused tool for one team with a handful of workflows on a single platform sits toward the lower end of the range. A customer-facing product with several types of users, payments, integrations and apps on more than one platform sits toward the upper end.
How we get to a defensible number
We use the discovery phase to fully define the product you are building, which we feel is the most responsible way to give you an accurate quote with no surprises. Discovery usually runs $3,000 to $6,000, depending on how complex the software is and how much of it the prototype needs to cover.
It starts with a consultation, where you tell us about your project and we ask a lot of questions about who will use it, what problem it solves, what you already have and what has to be true for the first version to be a success.
Then we build an interactive prototype of the first version, something that looks and feels like your app. You can click through it and show it to people, which tends to surface missing pieces and shifting priorities while they are still inexpensive to change.
From there we write the product definition. We define exactly what the first version includes, from the features to how people move through it to the technology it is built on. You review it and sign off, so we are both working from the same picture. Our developers then break the approved definition into tasks with time and cost estimates, and that becomes the fixed quote to build your application.
If your product is already partly built with AI, we start with an audit instead of a prototype, because the first job is understanding what you already have.
How paying for it works
We do not lock you into a long-term contract or require that we build everything for you. Each phase is agreed in a Scope of Work that spells out the milestones, timeline and cost, so you always know what you are committing to before the work starts.
You also choose the pace, so you can build faster with a bigger monthly budget or more slowly with a smaller one. That lets you match the project to your cash flow instead of the other way around.
What is not in the build price
The build is not the last cost. Software needs updates, fixes and small improvements after it launches, and the devices and services it runs on keep changing underneath it. We provide support and maintenance for every project we build, and we talk through that pricing as the build nears completion, so it is part of your plan from the start rather than a surprise later.
How AI has changed the math
In 2019, getting custom software built meant starting from a whiteboard. Mockups, a brand, user flows mapped by hand, a scope, and then development. A mid-size product could easily run $200,000 or more.
Today a lot of that early work goes faster. AI design tools let us reach a prototype that feels real much sooner, and some clients arrive with a designed front end, a finished brand or much of the product already built. That can bring the cost down considerably, especially when what is left is the backend and the work of making everything secure and dependable. If that sounds like where you are, we have written up what it costs to fix an AI-built app.
What AI has not changed is the part that makes software hold up over time. The architecture, the security and the way your data is handled still take experienced developers, and that is usually where most of the budget goes.
How to get the most out of your budget
Start with the first version, because one of the fastest ways to blow a budget is trying to build everything at once. Decide what the first version has to do for real users and save the rest for later releases once you have learned from people using it.
Bring what you already have, because sketches, spreadsheets, an AI-built prototype, a brand or even a list of apps you like will shorten discovery and make the quote more accurate.
Choose your first platform carefully. When most of your users will be on their phones, or most of the work happens at a desk, starting with that one platform keeps the first version focused.
Plan for life after launch, and budget for maintenance and improvements from the beginning. In our experience the most valuable software is the kind that keeps getting better once people start using it.
Questions to ask any development company about cost
Whether you work with us or someone else, a few questions will tell you a lot about how reliable a quote is.
Ask what exactly is included, because a quote should spell out the features, platforms and milestones it covers so you can tell what is in and what is not. Ask what happens when something changes, since priorities always shift once people see the software, and you want to know how changes are scoped and priced before you start.
Ask who owns the code, because you should know whether the software is yours to keep, host and change once it is paid for. Then ask what it costs after launch, including support, maintenance and hosting, so the full cost of owning the software is clear from day one.