Cost guide
What drives the cost of custom software
A practical breakdown of what drives the price of a custom web application or business system — written so you can estimate your own project before you talk to anyone.
There is no list price for custom software, because you are not buying a product — you are paying for the engineering time it takes to solve a specific problem. The useful question is not "how much does custom software cost", but "what in my project makes that number go up or down".
Below is how we scope and price work at Vorion Solutions: the five factors that move the budget the most, what typical engagements look like, and the levers you can pull to spend less without ending up with software you have to throw away.
Five factors that decide the budget
Scope: how many workflows the software has to cover
Cost tracks the number of distinct screens, roles and business rules, not the size of your company. A single-purpose internal tool with one user role is a fraction of the work of a system that handles clients, staff, scheduling, invoicing and reporting. The fastest way to control the budget is to cut the first version down to the one workflow that hurts most today.
Integrations with systems you already use
Every external system — accounting software, a payment provider, an ERP, a fiscal or e-invoicing service, an existing database — adds development and testing time. Well-documented modern APIs are cheap to connect. Legacy systems with file exports, undocumented endpoints or no API at all are usually the single most underestimated line in a quote.
Data: how much exists and what condition it is in
Starting from an empty database is inexpensive. Migrating years of spreadsheets or an old application means mapping, cleaning and validating data, and running the migration twice — once as a rehearsal, once for real. Budget for the cleanup, not just the import script.
Technology stack and non-functional requirements
For most business web applications we use a modern TypeScript/React stack and a relational database such as PostgreSQL where that suits the project requirements. Costs rise when the project genuinely needs more: native mobile apps, offline support, real-time collaboration, heavy reporting, strict audit trails, or compliance requirements that force formal documentation and review.
Team composition and who you buy from
The longer the chain of people between you and the build, the more of the budget goes to coordination rather than the software itself. A shorter chain is cheaper and decides faster — ask any studio how many people your request passes through before it becomes code.
What typical engagements look like
We do not publish fixed prices, because a number attached to the wrong assumptions is worse than no number. What we can be concrete about is scale: these are examples of project scope. A fixed price is given only once the scope is written down and agreed, which may take more than one conversation.
Focused internal tool
One workflow, one or two user roles, no external integrations. Replaces a spreadsheet or a manual process.
Duration depends on the agreed scope; stated in each proposal
Business or workflow system
Multiple roles, records and permissions, one or two integrations, reporting and an admin area. The core system a team works in daily.
Duration depends on roles, integrations and data; stated in each proposal
SaaS MVP
Multi-tenant accounts, subscriptions and payments, onboarding, and the smallest feature set that lets real customers pay and use it.
Duration depends on the first feature set; stated in each proposal
How to spend less without wasting the money
Ship one workflow first
Build the part of the process that costs you the most time today, put it in production, and let real usage decide what comes next. Features that get specified in a meeting but never used are the most common form of waste.
Decide the scope before the build starts
Changes are cheap in a document and expensive in code. A written scope with agreed screens and rules is what makes a fixed price possible in the first place.
Skip integrations until they earn their cost
A weekly CSV export can stand in for a full integration until the volume actually justifies building one.
Plan for the running cost, not just the build
Hosting, database, domains and email are usually modest for a business system, but ongoing changes are real. A small monthly support arrangement is cheaper than a rescue project a year later.
Common questions
- Is custom software more expensive than a SaaS subscription?
- Up front, almost always yes. Over several years, it depends on per-seat pricing and on how much manual work the generic tool leaves in place. Custom software makes financial sense when you are paying for seats you barely use, working around the tool daily, or when the process is the thing that makes your business different.
- Do you work fixed price or hourly?
- Fixed price per agreed, written scope. You know the number before the work starts, and changes to scope are quoted separately rather than silently billed.
- What does maintenance cost after launch?
- It depends on how much the software keeps changing. Options range from a small monthly arrangement for fixes and dependency updates to ordering changes only when a new feature is needed.
- How accurate is an estimate before discovery?
- Not accurate enough to rely on. A conversation about your workflow, your data and the systems you already use changes the estimate more than any number pulled from a general price list.
Want a number for your project?
Send a short description of the process you want to fix. Once the scope is agreed, you get a written proposal and price, not a sales sequence.
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