Ask five agencies what your software project will cost and you will get five versions of the same non-answer: “it depends.” It does depend — but that is not a reason to hide the numbers. If you are budgeting for 2026, you deserve real ranges before you ever get on a call.
So here they are. These are the starting points we work with, the factors that move them, and the hidden costs most proposals conveniently leave out.
Why nobody gives you a price (and why we will)
There are two honest reasons software pricing feels opaque. First, scope genuinely varies: a “simple CRM” can mean ten different things. Second — less flattering — vague pricing is a sales tactic. If the number only appears after three meetings, you are negotiating from inside the funnel.
We publish starting prices because the clients we work best with are the ones who can plan. A range will not tell you your exact cost, but it tells you whether the conversation is worth having. That alone saves everyone weeks.
What actually drives the cost?
Four factors explain most of the variation between a €3,000 project and a €30,000 one:
- Scope and screens. Every distinct thing the software does — each form, view, role, report — is design, build and testing time. Trimming scope is the single most effective cost lever.
- Integrations. Connecting to your ERP, payment provider or CRM is often where the real engineering lives. A clean, documented API is cheap to integrate; a legacy system with no API is not.
- Edge cases and rules. “Approve invoices automatically” is simple until you list the exceptions. Business rules multiply testing effort quietly.
- Who maintains it. Software that must run unattended for years — with monitoring, alerts and documented handover — costs more upfront and far less over its life.
Price ranges by project type in 2026
| Project type | Typical starting price | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Business website (up to ~6 pages, CMS, lead capture) | from €2,500 | 3–5 weeks |
| Process automation & integrations | from €4,000 | 3–6 weeks |
| AI integration (assistants, RAG over your data) | from €6,000 | 4–8 weeks |
| Custom web app / internal tool / CRM | quoted per scope | 6–12+ weeks |
These match the starting prices we publish — they assume a typical project, exclude VAT, and every real engagement gets a fixed written quote before any work starts.
A note on the last row: bespoke applications resist honest “from” pricing because scope dominates everything. A focused internal tool can land near the automation range; a multi-role platform with complex workflows will not. The fix is not a fake low number — it is a detailed scoping phase that produces a fixed quote you can hold us to.
The hidden costs nobody mentions
The proposal price is not the whole story. Watch for these:
- Maintenance. Dependencies age, browsers change, APIs deprecate. Budget roughly 10–20% of the build cost per year if the software matters to your operations.
- The handover that never happens. If you do not receive the source code, credentials and documentation, you have not bought software — you have rented a dependency. Insist on owning 100% of the code and accounts.
- Per-seat creep. Not a custom-software cost, but the reason custom often wins: SaaS pricing scales with your headcount forever. A built tool costs the same with 5 users or 50.
- Change requests. Mid-project changes are normal; unpriced ones are not. A good partner quotes changes explicitly instead of absorbing them into mystery overruns.
How to keep the budget under control
The cheapest project is the one scoped honestly before it starts. Three habits help:
- Start with the workflow, not the feature list. Describe what your team actually does, in order. Features invented in a vacuum are where budgets go to die.
- Ship a first version that does one thing well. Most of the value usually lives in 30% of the imagined scope. Build that, use it, then decide what earns a second phase.
- Demand a fixed quote in writing. Hourly billing transfers all scope risk to you. A fixed quote forces the hard scoping conversation upfront — which is exactly where you want it.
What a fixed-quote process looks like
Ours is simple, and any good partner’s will look similar: a free discovery call to understand the goal, a short scoping exercise, then a written fixed quote with milestones. You see progress weekly, payments follow milestones, and the code is yours at every stage. No surprises is not a slogan; it is a process.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get something useful for under €5,000? Yes — a conversion-focused website or a well-chosen automation fits comfortably. A full custom application generally does not; if someone quotes one at that level, look very carefully at what is excluded.
Why do quotes from different providers vary so much? Different assumptions about scope, seniority and what happens after launch. Compare what is included — support, documentation, code ownership — not just the bottom line. Our guide on evaluating a software partner covers the questions to ask.
Is AI making custom software cheaper? It is making building faster, and good teams pass that on — it is part of why a serious AI integration now starts around €6,000 rather than five figures. What AI does not remove is the cost of understanding your business, integrating your systems and testing edge cases.
What if I am not sure whether I need custom at all? Then start with that question, not with quotes — off-the-shelf is often the right answer. We wrote a separate guide on build vs buy with a decision checklist.
Sound like a problem in your business?
We scope projects like this every week — a free discovery call and a fixed written quote, no obligation.
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