The short answer
For a small or mid-sized business working with a specialist studio, a custom web application costs somewhere between $8,000 for a tightly scoped MVP and $120,000 for a full SaaS platform. Most of the applications we quote fall between $15,000 and $60,000. Anyone who gives you a number before asking what the application does is guessing.
Those figures are for design and development together, delivered as a fixed price. They exclude hosting and ongoing maintenance, which we cover at the end.
Cost by type of application
| Type | What it usually includes | Typical range | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focused MVP | Accounts, one core workflow, a simple admin view, one integration such as Stripe or a CRM | $8,000 – $25,000 | 4 – 8 weeks |
| Business application | Several user roles, dashboards, document handling, reporting, two or three integrations | $25,000 – $60,000 | 2 – 4 months |
| Customer portal | Self-service area connected to an existing system: orders, cases, invoices, uploads, messaging | $20,000 – $50,000 | 2 – 3 months |
| SaaS platform, first version | Multi-tenant, subscriptions and billing, admin console, audit logs, public API, onboarding | $40,000 – $120,000 | 3 – 6 months |
| Marketplace or complex platform | Two-sided users, payments split between parties, search, messaging, trust and safety tooling | $80,000 – $250,000+ | 6 – 12 months |
Industry surveys put "medium complexity" applications at $25,000 to $85,000 and enterprise builds well into six figures, which matches what we see. The main reason our ranges start lower is that a small senior team spends less time in meetings than a large agency does.
The six things that move the price
- Number of user roles. Every role is a set of screens, permissions and edge cases. A customer, an admin and a staff member is three applications wearing one coat.
- Integrations. Each external system adds mapping, error handling and testing against a sandbox. A well-documented API such as Stripe is a day or two. A legacy system with no API can be weeks.
- Custom design versus a component library. A distinctive interface designed screen by screen costs more than a clean layout built on a proven component system. For internal tools, the library is usually the right call.
- Data and reporting. Importing years of historical data, complex reports and exports are consistently underestimated. Ask for them explicitly in the scope.
- Compliance and security. Payment card handling, health or legal data, and audit requirements add design constraints and testing. They are worth paying for once rather than retrofitting.
- Scope precision. The vaguer the brief, the larger the contingency in the quote. A one-page written scope with a list of screens and rules is the cheapest way to lower a price.
Where the money actually goes
On a typical $40,000 business application built by our team, the budget divides roughly like this:
| Phase | Share | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and scoping | 8% | Written scope, screen list, data model, fixed price |
| UX and UI design | 17% | Wireframes, clickable prototype, final screens |
| Development | 55% | Front end, back end, integrations, admin |
| Testing and security review | 12% | Automated tests, manual QA, penetration checklist |
| Launch and handover | 8% | Deployment, monitoring, documentation, training |
How to spend less on version one
- Write the must-have list and the later list. Building only the must-haves routinely cuts a first version by 30 to 40 percent, and half of the later list never gets built because users did not ask for it.
- Buy what is commodity. Authentication, payments, email delivery, file storage and analytics are solved problems. Custom code there is expensive and worse.
- Use a component library for internal screens. Save custom design for the screens your customers see.
- Start with one integration. Connect the system that matters most; add the rest once the core works.
- Launch to real users early. A four-week MVP that ten customers use teaches you more than a four-month build that nobody has seen.
Costs after launch
An application is never finished, only shipped. Budget for three ongoing items:
- Hosting: from a few dollars a month for a small application on shared infrastructure to $50 to $300 a month on a VPS or cloud setup with backups and monitoring. See our hosting plans.
- Maintenance: security updates, dependency upgrades, monitoring and small fixes. Plan on 10 to 20 percent of the build cost per year. Our maintenance plans bundle this with development hours.
- New features: the work that turns version one into the product your customers keep paying for. Quoted per feature or drawn from a monthly retainer.
How we quote
We run a discovery call, write a one-page scope with a screen list and the rules that matter, and return a fixed price with milestones. The price does not change unless the scope does, and scope changes are quoted before they are built. If you want a number for your project, tell us what it needs to do and we will come back within two business days.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a simple web app cost?
A focused, single-purpose application with accounts, a database and one core workflow typically costs between $8,000 and $25,000 when built by a small specialist studio. Offshore rates are lower; large agencies are higher.
How much does a SaaS platform cost to build?
A first commercial version of a SaaS product with subscriptions, multiple user roles, an admin console and a couple of integrations usually lands between $40,000 and $120,000. Enterprise-grade platforms run well past that.
Why do quotes for the same app vary so much?
Team location and seniority, whether design is included, how much is custom versus off-the-shelf, and how precisely the scope was written. Two quotes are only comparable when they are for the same written scope.
What are the ongoing costs after launch?
Hosting, monitoring, security updates and support. Budget roughly 10 to 20 percent of the build cost per year for a maintained application, plus any new feature work.
Want a real number for your application?
Describe what it needs to do. We reply with a scoped, fixed-price proposal.
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