Custom software costs from €3,900 with us for a clearly scoped pilot module and from €11,900 for a complete solution with several modules, roles and integrations. Where we bill by effort, our rate is €79/h; ongoing support starts at €119/month. That's the short answer. This page explains how those numbers come together, what pushes them up, and when a fixed price is a good idea — and when it quietly costs you money.
The short version
- Three price anchors: pilot module from €3,900, complete solution from €11,900, work by effort at €79/h.
- Building blocks: integration from €1,900, roles concept from €1,400, automation from €1,400, Excel data migration from €690.
- Ongoing: maintenance and support from €119/month — no license fees, because the code is yours.
- Fixed price: sensible per stage with a clear scope, dishonest for "the whole software".
- Quick estimate: the package configurator gives you a non-binding range in a few minutes.
All figures are net in euros and reflect German market rates. If you're collecting quotes across countries, the scope behind a number tells you more than the number itself.
Custom software cost by project size
"What does custom software cost?" is about as answerable as "what does a house cost" — only in orders of magnitude. Here are ours, net, and to be read as starting points:
| Project size | What's typically in it | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot module | One workflow, one user group, no third-party integration. Replacing a central spreadsheet, for example. | from €3,900 |
| Complete solution | Several modules, user roles, reporting, integration with existing systems, automations | from €11,900 |
| Further development | New features, taking over an existing project, refactoring | €79/h |
| Support | Updates, monitoring, bug fixing, one fixed contact | from €119/month |
In between sits the range where most projects actually land: a pilot plus two or three building blocks. Those have their own prices:
| Building block | Price |
|---|---|
| Integration with a third-party system (inventory, accounting, payments) | from €1,900 |
| Roles and permissions concept | from €1,400 |
| Automating a recurring workflow | from €1,400 |
| Migrating your existing Excel data | from €690 |
The complete solution already includes roles, one integration and automations — which is why it costs less than the sum of the individual blocks.
Two examples, worked out
Small: replacing Excel for one team. An order list that lives in a spreadsheet today becomes an application five people work in at the same time. One module, one user group, the old data comes along.
- Pilot module: from €3,900
- Migrating the existing Excel data: from €690
- Total: from €4,590, then optionally €119/month for support
Medium: order processing with a customer portal. Quote, order, delivery and invoice run in one application; customers see their status in a protected area; the inventory system gets the data automatically.
- Complete solution including roles, one integration and automations: from €11,900
- Second integration, to accounting for instance: from €1,900
- Migrating legacy data: from €690
- Total: from €14,490, then €119/month for support
These are deliberately shown as compositions, not as lump sums. That's exactly how your quote comes together too: from blocks you can follow one by one — and cut one by one.
Fixed price or by effort? When custom software becomes predictable
This is the real question behind the price question, and the one most providers dodge. Our answer is uncomfortable, but it saves you money:
Fixed prices work per stage, not per software. When the scope of one step is clearly described — this module, these fields, this one integration — we can name a fixed price and stand by it. That's exactly why our pilot has a firm entry point from €3,900.
A fixed price for "the whole software" is usually a trick, and it's at your expense. The logic is simple: nobody can seriously quote a system that hasn't been thought through yet. Anyone who does anyway builds in a risk buffer — 30, 50, sometimes 100 percent. If the risk doesn't materialize, you paid for the buffer. If it does, the argument starts over whether a requirement was "already included". Either way you're paying for uncertainty instead of software.
Billing by effort is fair, but only with a ceiling. €79/h is honest because you pay for software that got built, not for a buffer. Without an agreement, though, it turns into an open tab. So we tie effort to an upper limit per stage: we say up front what range a step will move in, and we get in touch before that range is blown, not after.
That's how custom software becomes predictable — not through one big number at the start, but through small, fixed stages you re-decide after each time. What that process looks like in practice is in custom software development: process, cost and examples.
Top tip
Before you compare quotes, split your budget into three buckets: 60 percent for building, 20 percent for the things you only notice in daily use (every project has them), 20 percent for the first year of operation — hosting and support from €119/month. Put your entire budget into building and you'll have nothing left on launch day for the software you now have to work with.
What pushes the price up — five factors with a number
Technology doesn't set the price. PHP, Laravel or something else changes the bill surprisingly little. What does move it are these five things — and for four of them we can name you an amount directly:
- Scope of features. By far the biggest lever. Between "one workflow" and "all workflows" sits €3,900 versus €11,900 — roughly a factor of three. Every feature has to be thought through, built, tested and later maintained; the fourth costs more than the first, because it has to work together with the other three.
- Integrations: from €1,900 per system. The most underestimated line item. Not because of the technology, but because of the cases behind it: what happens when the other system is offline? When it rejects a record? When two systems write the same master data ID differently? More on that in API integration: connecting your systems.
- User roles and permissions: from €1,400. As long as everyone may do everything, it's easy. The moment sales isn't allowed to see purchase prices and field staff only their own customers, a list turns into a permission model — and that runs through every single view.
- Automations: from €1,400. A workflow that runs without input still has to decide correctly when nobody is watching. That's more thinking than typing.
- Data migration: from €690 for existing Excel data. The price depends less on volume than on condition. Clean tables move over quickly. Grown ones with duplicates, four date formats and a "notes" column that actually holds three separate pieces of information need a cleanup step first.
What does not cost as much as many assume: the number of users. Whether ten or two hundred people work in the application changes the development effort very little — unlike license models, where that's exactly what drives the bill.
Running costs: €119/month and what's in it
The purchase price is only half the truth. Software isn't furniture, it ages — frameworks get new versions, vulnerabilities get published, PHP versions fall out of support. So plan for:
- Support from €119/month. That covers framework and dependency updates, security patches, monitoring, keeping an eye on backups, bug fixing and one fixed contact who knows your project.
- Hosting. Not with us, but with your provider — for an internal application we're talking about a two-digit monthly amount, not a major item.
- Further development as needed: €79/h. Not mandatory, but realistic: software that gets used generates wishes.
- License fees: none. The code is yours. That's the difference from a subscription solution whose monthly bill grows along with you.
Why this isn't optional luxury is spelled out in why software maintenance matters. Short version: the most expensive projects are the ones nobody looked at for three years.
What does the market cost? An honest comparison
So you can put our numbers in context: hourly rates for custom development in German-speaking Europe sit far apart. Freelancers start roughly around €80; specialized agencies with sales, project management and several layers in between are well above that — three-digit rates are the norm there.
Our €79/h sits at the lower end deliberately. Not because we do less, but because nobody sits in between: you talk directly to the developer writing the code. What you don't get, we'll say just as plainly — no team that pushes a project through in three months, and no round-the-clock on-call. If you need that, a larger agency is the right call, and we'll tell you so in the first conversation.
When custom software doesn't pay off
The section you rarely find on agency sites. There are clear cases where we advise against it:
- An off-the-shelf solution covers 90 percent. Then building the missing tenth yourself costs more than the workaround ever will. The full comparison is in off-the-shelf vs. custom software.
- The process isn't stable yet. If the workflow changes every month, we're building against a moving target. Sort out the process first, then digitize it.
- The benefit is smaller than €3,900. If the manual step in question costs you ten hours a year, the math is obvious — and we'll say so.
- Nobody in-house owns it. A project without a contact who really knows the process and is allowed to make decisions gets expensive. Not because of development, but because of the waiting.
We earn nothing on these recommendations. But we earn more in the long run from clients who didn't walk into a project that could never have paid off.
Bottom line: what does custom software cost for you?
Between €3,900 for a first sensible step and €11,900 plus building blocks for an end-to-end solution — that's the corridor most projects move in. The route to your own number doesn't run through a price list, but through two questions: which single workflow costs you the most today? And what is that workflow worth to you?
Have a rough idea of your project and want to know what range it sits in? Put together a non-binding estimate in the package configurator in five minutes — or just tell us about it. In a free first conversation we'll give you an honest ballpark, even when it's "this isn't worth it for you". What custom software covers with us is on the service page.
Frequently asked questions
What does custom software cost?
With us, a clearly scoped pilot module starts from €3,900 and a complete solution with several modules, roles and integrations from €11,900. Work billed by effort is €79/h, and ongoing support starts at €119/month. Individual building blocks: integration from €1,900, roles concept from €1,400, automation from €1,400, migration of existing Excel data from €690.
Is there custom software at a fixed price?
Per stage yes, for the whole software no. If the scope of one step is clearly described, a fixed price can be named — which is why our pilot module starts firmly from €3,900. A fixed price for a system nobody has thought through yet always contains a risk buffer that you pay for even if the risk never materializes. So we work with fixed stages plus an upper limit for work billed by effort.
Which factors drive the price most?
Five: scope of features (between one module and a complete solution sits roughly a factor of three), integrations with other systems from €1,900 per system, user roles and permissions from €1,400, automations from €1,400, and migrating legacy data from €690. What does not drive the price is the technology used — nor the number of users, unlike with license models.
What does custom software cost to run?
Support with updates, security patches, monitoring and a fixed contact starts at €119/month, plus hosting with your provider. Further development is billed as needed at €79/h. There are no license fees because the source code is yours — the essential difference from a subscription solution whose bill grows along with you.
When is custom software not worth it?
When an off-the-shelf solution covers around 90 percent of your requirements, when your process is still changing constantly, when the annual benefit is below the €3,900 entry price, or when nobody in the company can take on the role of contact person. In those cases we advise against it — and we earn nothing on that recommendation.