How Much Does Custom Software Development Cost?

Do you want to develop software for your business?

If yes, the first question you probably have in your mind will be – how much does it cost to develop software?

Here is the answer to how much does custom software development cost:

• Startup Business Software Development Cost – $20,000 to $50,000
• Medium-size Business Software Development Cost – $50,000 to $1,25,000
• Enterprise Software Development Cost – Starts from $85,000

Do you want to know how we calculate these cost? Or what are the factors that influence the cost? Read this blog to get an in-depth idea.

As a top software company in Canada, we have experienced developers who have created over 300 software solutions for industries like logistics, food, healthcare, real estate, and so on. Based on our experience we have written this article. By the end of this blog, you will learn about the software development cost breakdown based on three different criteria:

1. Factors that influence software development
2. Based on the type of software you want to develop
3. Location of developers you hire for software development

Let’s get started with a basic answer about the cost of software development.

5 Factors That Influence the Software Development Cost

Providing an estimation of a software project is not easy. As said above, the cost of developing a software depends on several things and even include project scope and project validation. Based on our experience, here is a list of factors that affect the software development cost for any type of software project.

1. Software Complexity

   Whether you want to develop a CRM like Zoho or a simple business management software, the cost varies based on project size, functionalities, customization, the number of features, design, and third-party integrations. To precisely get the timeline details, you need to consult or hire a software development agency. After research and analysis, the company provides you with tentative details for costing.Developing highly complex CRM software with advanced features such as help desk automation, field service management, marketing automation, and analytics tool costs more due to increased development time and labor costs. In contrast, for basic software development, costs are significantly lower due to the smaller project size and reduced feature requirements.

2. Platform selection

   The platform you choose has a significant impact on your custom software development price. Here, business owners need to decide which platform best suits their business needs and budget: Windows, Linux, macOS, or cross-platform apps.Depending on the platform the technologies are decided, developers are selected, and resources are assigned to your project.

   For example

   • If you want to develop Windows software like Freshworks, the developers would be who are experienced in creating CRM software for Windows with features like employee tracking, lead management, real-time data analysis, and workflow automation.
   • If you want to develop cross-platform CRM software like Bitrix24 that is accessible on mobile, computer, and tablet, then developers would be who are experienced in creating cross-platform software. So, the development cost will vary accordingly.

3. Hiring Model

   The hiring model you choose for software developers is a significant parameter that affects the overall cost of software development. You should make the decision based on your project size and requirements. As a reputed software development services provider, we offer three engagement models for hiring software developers, including hourly, full-time, and part-time options.Let’s understand each model in detail.

   When you choose –

   • Part-time developers – Developers work on your project on a daily basis for part-time hours. So, you will need to pay for part-time hours for the time the developer team works.
   • Hourly-rate developers – Developers who work on your project based on hours previously decide. The cost of this model varies depending on the developer’s work for your project.
   • Full-time developers – Developers will dedicatedly work on your project and this will cost you more compared to the above two models. Because developers will work for your project only.

   We recently developed software for a client from the food industry. In a bid to minimize the development time, they hired full-time developers. Check this case study to learn how our full-time developers built this custom software.

   

   Custom Meat Processing Software: We created custom web-based meat processing software for one of our clients. This software automates the entire operations of the organization from receiving orders to packaging and delivering them.

4. Testing requirements

   When developing software for your business, rigorous testing is essential to ensure the quality and reliability of your final product. Whether you are building software for your small business or an enterprise-level organization, testing plays a vital role.Comprehensive testing helps identify bugs or security vulnerabilities that could badly impact your software’s performance and security, potentially harming your business’s credibility. That’s why ensuring your software is secure and safe is an important part of the software development lifecycle.

   Testing ensures that your solution is free from vulnerabilities. Hence, the cost of testing is a crucial factor when developing or updating software. Below are the key factors that influence the cost of software development.
   • The complexity of your software as it requires more resources and time to perform testing.
   • The different types of software testing performed, such as functional, performance, security, usability, and UAT.
   • The total number of QA engineers conducting testing, such as testers, managers, and automation testing specialists.
   • The total number of hours required to conduct testing of your software solution.

5. UI/UX complexity

   You would be thinking about how UI/UX affects the cost of software applications. Have you ever used an application and left it after a while? The reason can be its UI/UX.The UI/UX plays an important role when it comes to user engagement. So, designing a complex UI/UX leads to more time so does the cost of your software development. What does it mean by complex UX/UI? Let’s understand it with the following example.

   For example:

   Designing multiple screens and connecting all the parts to create a proper flow of the application is called complex design. Designing UI screens and connecting each part is a complex process. A few of the complex screen design elements are multi-page forms, multiple mega-dropdowns, infinite scroll, authentication UX, and privacy UX. Integrating these features adds up the cost of software development.

   Now that you’ve gained an understanding of the factors affecting software development cost estimation, let’s move on to discuss the average cost of software development based on its type.

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How to Estimate the Cost of Software Development Based on Types

In this section, you learn the cost of software based on its type. Different types of software are available in the market.

Check the following table to know the answer to your question – how much does it cost to create software?

In the following section, let’s understand the average software development costs in detail of different software projects in detail.

1. Enterprise resource planning software

   ERP is software that helps businesses to manage daily operations like accounting, manufacturing, supply chain management, marketing, sales, and workforce management. As a startup, you can use a ready-made solution.However, when your business expands, you need an ERP solution that effectively caters to your business requirements. An innovative ERP solution can help you save labor costs, get valuable analytics, manage risks, and scale your business effortlessly. Also, it is important to build software following the latest software development trends to ensure it meets modern standards and scales with evolving requirements.

   How Much Does ERP Software Development Cost?

   The custom software cost of ERP ranges from $45,000 to $1,20,000 or more based on your requirements. The cost of developing software like ERP depends on the features you want to choose. As you integrate advanced features like IoT integration, powerful analytics tools, AI integration, and cloud acceleration, then the cost will obviously increase. Because it will increase the time to develop the software.

   Your enterprise software development cost depends on the features you choose to integrate. Here is a list of some common ERP software features.

   Choosing the features you want to integrate into your ERP development will influence the cost. Here is the list of ERP software features.

   Features of ERP Software

   • Accounting/Finance Management
   • Sales and Customer Management
   • Product Management
   • Order Management
   • Integration with Existing Software
   • Data Analysis
   • CRM Management
   • Supply Chain Management
   • Sales and Marketing Management
   • Mobility
   • Human Resource Management
   • Inventory Management
   • Manufacturing Management
   • Third-party Integration
   • Reporting and Analysis Management

2. Customer relationship management software

   CRM is a kind of software that allows businesses to manage their leads and clients with ease. You don’t need to maintain spreadsheets, documents, and databases when you are using CRM software systems.

   Because CRMs allow you to store important details of your business with the software and operate it from anywhere. This way, you achieve better time management, increase efficiency, and complete organized information with a single hand.

   How Much Does CRM Software Development Cost?

   The cost to develop a custom CRM software ranges from $35,000 to $1,00,000 or more based on your organization’s needs and the functionalities you want to integrate. Sometimes even the cost depends on the software development methodologies you choose.

   For example, if you want tailor-made CRM software like Freshsales or Hubspot or Zendesk, then the cost can go up to thousands of dollars.

   Choose the features from the following list to integrate into your CRM software. Here is the list of features.

   Features of CRM Software

   • Contact Management
   • Sales Team Management
   • Lead Management
   • Reports and Dashboards
   • Sales Analytics
   • Mobile CRM
   • Email System Integration
   • Sales Data Management
   • Marketing Automation
   • Chat Integration
   • Third-party Integrations
   • Campaign Management
   • Social Media Management
   • Tracking
   • Project Management
   • Quote Management

3. Content management software

   WordPress or Joomla are also known as CMS software that allows you to create, update, and manage content for your website. So, it becomes easy for you to manage your blogs, press releases, web pages, case studies, and even videos. Several ready-made CRMs are available in the market like WordPress, Joomla, Wix, Drupal, and Magento.

   You can either choose from these readily available solutions or develop a custom solution tailored to your business requirements. Having customized CMS software gives you the liberty to scale according to your business needs. Custom CRM solutions can also help increase profitability by enabling you to sell new services and products.

   How Much Does CMS Software Development Cost?

   The cost to develop custom CMS software ranges from $25,000 to $80,000 or more accordingly.

   As every CMS is different, the cost will be different for each. The basic version of CMS software comes with basic features, configuration, and design. So, as you increase functionalities, the cost will also increase for your software.

   You can choose the features that you want to integrate into your CMS and get a cost estimate. Here is the list of features.

   Features of CMS Software

   • Interactive Dashboard
   • Access Control Management
   • Analytics and Reports
   • Multilingual Functionality
   • SEO Optimized Themes
   • Website Pages Management
   • Publishing Tools
   • Security
   • Staging
   • 24/7 Live Chat Support
   • Customization
   • Social Media Integration
   • Migration
   • Third-party Integrations

4. eCommerce software

   If you are planning to start an eCommerce business, you must create a custom web-based eCommerce software for your business. Several off-the-shelf eCommerce solutions like WooCommerce, OpenCart, Shopify, and Magento are available in the market.

   These eCommerce solutions allow you to create a website to sell and promote your products. But, these platforms offer limited customization to your website.

   So, if you are running an eCommerce business with complex processes, then having an eCommerce software solution built with the right software architecture is useful. So you have freedom for creative design and scale your platform as your business grows.

   How Much Does It Cost to Build a Software Application for eCommerce?

   The cost to develop an eCommerce software ranges from $30,000 to $1,00,000. Every web-based eCommerce software is different because of its features, design, functionalities, and complexity.

   Your eCommerce software development cost depends on the features you want to integrate. Here is the list of eCommerce software

   Features of eCommerce Software

   • Order Management
   • Product Management
   • Access Control Management
   • Delivery Management
   • Order Tracking
   • Sales Analysis
   • Product Return Management
   • Site Content Management
   • Stores Management
   • Push Notifications
   • Chatbot Integration
   • Coupons Management
   • Interactive Dashboard
   • Product Filtering
   • Multilingual Support
   • Payment Gateway Integration
   • Mobile Responsiveness
   • Inventory Management
   • Customer Management

5. Supply chain management software

   SCM is centralized software that allows companies to manage and execute the products/services properly and manage the processes of converting raw materials into final products.

   Using such software allows companies to achieve the business objectives like controlling manufacturing to improve the quality of the final products. Also, businesses are able to ship products by avoiding any problem of shortage of products.

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   How Much Does SCM Software Development Costs?

   The custom software development costs of SCM software projects range from $45,000 to $1,00,000. The cost of an SCM software project depends on various factors like complexity, type of product, software development team, and location of the software developers you hire.

   The following section lists key features that you can integrate into your SCM depending on your requirements. The cost of your custom SCM solution will be estimated based on the features you choose.

   Features of SCM Software

   • Monitoring and Planning
   • Order Processing
   • Order Management
   • Collaboration
   • Analytics and Dashboard
   • Warehouse Management
   • Transportation Management
   • Supply Management
   • Forecasting
   • Return Management

6. Marketing automation software

   Is it difficult to keep track of marketing efforts for your business? Are you planning to develop software that helps you to streamline your marketing? Then, you need marketing automation software. This software helps you to track, manage, execute, and automate the marketing channels of your business.

   Even, the main role of marketing automation software is to help you properly manage customer data. In addition, with the help of AI technology, you are able to enhance campaigns, draw more clients, and increase business growth in an incremental way.

   How Much Does It Cost to Create Marketing Automation Software?

   The average cost of developing marketing automation software ranges from $40,000 to $70,000. The key considerations are features, the location of the software developers you hire, the experience of developers, and the complexity of your software.

   The cost of custom business software development for marketing automation depends on the features you require. Here is the list of features.

   Features of Marketing Automation Software

   • Workflow Management
   • Lead Management
   • Multi-channel Marketing
   • Visitor Tracking
   • Lead Scoring
   • Email Campaigns Management
   • Tracking Marketing Content
   • Automate Lead Assignment
   • Lead Nurturing
   • Creating Landing Pages
   • Third-party Integration
   • Contact Management
   • CRM Integration
   • Social Media Management
   • Analytics and Reporting

7. SaaS software

   Saas refers to software as a service which means you develop software applications that are hosted on cloud servers. Being an entrepreneur, you sell your software to users as a service and against it, you charge some annual fees.

   For example, Shopify is a SaaS software project. Shopify sells its software services to users and charges fees against it. So, if you have a SaaS software project idea, then you surely want to know how much does it cost to develop custom SaaS products? Most SaaS products are different, and each software project’s cost differs.

   In addition, SaaS applications are more secure, user-centric, and provide the best user experience compared to simple software.

   How Much Does SaaS Software Development Costs?

   The basic SaaS development costs ranges from $30,000 to $40,000 or more as per needs.

   Several types of SaaS applications are available in the market like CRM, email marketing, accounting, HRM, and project management. The cost of each of these SaaS applications is different and depends on factors like scalability, high-level data security, customization, payment integration, access control and complexity of functionalities you want to include.

   However, you can even build an MVP version of your SaaS application if you don’t want to launch the fully-featured application. MVP concept in software development helps you to launch your application with essential features and improve later based on the end-users feedback.

   Now that you know the different cost of software development, let’s see the cost of hiring software developers from different locations to build software.

Software Development Cost Estimation Based on Developer Location

The location of developers you hire significantly affects the average cost of custom software development, as hourly rates vary from country to country. The table below lists the average hourly rates of developers in different countries.

The hourly rate of software developers varies depending on the years of experience, location, and technical expertise. For instance, the software development cost in Canada is much higher when compared to the same service in Asia.

Therefore, hiring a junior developer for your project costs significantly less than hiring a senior developer. In contrast, hiring a software engineer generally comes with higher hourly rates, as they oversee the entire software project and its progress.

Follow This 6-Step Process to Get Cost Estimation from Space-O

As one of the leading offshore software development companies, we have successfully delivered 300+ mobile and custom software solutions. With our custom software development process, we can provide you with an estimate of your software project idea. How do we provide the estimation to our clients?

First, we understand your requirements, prepare documentation based on your requirements, and provide you with details, and a final quotation. Here is our detailed process of how we provide cost estimation to our clients.

Get a Customized Quote for Your Software Development

Through this blog, we aimed to provide you with all the essential information needed to determine the budget and average cost of software development. This should give you a general idea of how much it may cost to build your software.

However, we strongly recommend contacting a credible software development firm for an accurate cost estimate. As a leading software development services provider in Canada with a track record of serving more than 100 global clients, Space-O can provide you with a detailed cost quotation.

We also assist in identifying the right features and tech stack based on your project requirements, helping you manage resources efficiently and reduce overall costs. Book a free consultation with our experts today.