What does Laravel development cost? Honest prices and worked examples

"So roughly what does that cost?" is the question that comes up in almost every first call — usually a little hesitantly, because most people expect an evasive answer. Understandable: online you'll find either no prices at all for Laravel development, or numbers ranging from €5,000 to half a million. Neither helps you.

So here's the short answer up front, followed by the long one with the math: Laravel development in German-speaking Europe costs roughly €70 to €150 per hour depending on the provider. We work at €79/h. A clearly scoped project start begins at €3,900 with us, a typical business application lands between €8,000 and €25,000, large platforms above that. What puts your case inside that range is what we'll go through point by point.

The hourly rate is only half the truth

The first reflex with quotes is to compare hourly rates. That's not wrong either — but it regularly leads to the most expensive decisions. The market sorts itself roughly like this:

These ranges are experience values from quotes that clients bring us for comparison — not official statistics. As a Laravel agency we sit in the third row ourselves: a software shop rather than a lone wolf, but without the middle layers you pay for at the big shops. What's behind the number matters more anyway: an hourly rate says nothing about how many hours end up on the invoice.

A simple example from a real comparison we were involved in: provider A offered €45/h and estimated 400 hours — €18,000. We calculated the same feature set at €79/h and 160 hours — €12,640. The difference wasn't magic, it was that we already knew the data model the other side would have had to work out over three iterations. Experience cuts hours. And hours are more expensive than hourly rates.

Then there's the invisible share: how much time you have to invest. On offshore projects we often see the client become the project manager themselves — sharpening specifications, clearing up misunderstandings, accepting results, sending things back. Those hours appear on no invoice, but they're missing from your day-to-day business.

What actually drives the price

When we estimate an inquiry, it's almost always the same six factors that tip the scale. You can go through them for your own project — every line you say "yes" to moves you further up the range.

1. Scope and number of core objects. It's not the number of screens that decides it, but how many business things your software has to manage. Customers, orders, appointments, invoices, vehicles, contracts — each one needs a data model, validation, an interface, permissions and tests. As a rough ballpark: we figure 8 to 20 hours per properly built-out core object.

2. Interfaces to third-party systems. The classic cost driver. Connecting a documented, modern REST API is manageable. A 15-year-old ERP with no documentation that spits out CSV over FTP is not. That's why we never estimate interfaces as a flat rate — we look at the other side first. What that looks like in detail is described in our post on connecting systems through APIs.

3. Roles and permissions. "Everyone sees everything" is cheap. "Field sales only sees their region, accounting sees prices but not customer notes, the managing director sees everything, customers see their own portal" is a sub-project of its own — and it has to take effect and be tested at every single spot.

4. Test coverage and quality bar. Automated tests genuinely cost 15 to 25% more time to write. They're still the point where we compromise least, because they're the only insurance against change number 40 breaking feature number 3. Saving here means paying in maintenance.

5. Migrating from legacy systems. Taking data over from an old system or from grown Excel files is rarely "import it once". It's cleaning up, merging duplicates, catching format breaks, rescuing histories and getting the result signed off by the people who know the business. When replacing old systems, migration is regularly one of the biggest single line items — more on that in our article on replacing legacy software.

6. Interface and ease of use. A functional standard backend is cheap. An interface an untrained employee understands on day one costs design and polish time. Both can be right — but it's a deliberate difference of several thousand euros.

Three worked examples from practice

All three examples are anonymized and modeled on real projects in scope and order of magnitude. The numbers are ranges, not fixed prices — but they show you realistically where things end up.

Example 1: customer portal for a service business

A trades business with around 30 employees wanted to give its customers online access to jobs, appointments and documents — instead of phone calls and email attachments.

The project started as a project start from €3,900 with a concept and a first usable state. Only then was the decision made about the rest — built out in three stages over four months.

Example 2: internal business application replacing Excel

A mid-sized company ran project planning, resources and billing through a grown Excel landscape of five linked files. Classic pattern: it works until two people save at the same time.

That's the order of magnitude most of our Laravel projects land in. If you're wrestling with similar Excel chaos, our post on replacing Excel with custom software covers the thinking that comes before it.

Example 3: API backend for an app and a website

A provider with an iOS app and a website needed a shared backend so both would work off the same data — previously there were two separate systems with a nightly sync.

The API documentation at the end isn't a luxury — it's the reason the project can be used today by two different frontend teams without anyone having to ask questions.

The running costs after go-live

Software isn't a piece of furniture — it's a living system in a changing environment. Honestly, these line items belong in every calculation:

• Maintenance from €119/month. That covers security and framework updates, monitoring, keeping an eye on backups and small adjustments. Cancelable monthly, with a fixed point of contact. Why that isn't optional luxury is something we argued at length in why software maintenance matters.
• Hosting. For an internal business application with 20 to 50 users, a solid server is usually in the low double digits per month. Add Redis, a separate database server, a staging environment and daily backups, and you're more likely in the mid double digits to low three digits per month. That's an order of magnitude, not a quote — we size hosting to actual need, not to the maximum.
• Further development. The item almost everyone underestimates — and it's actually a good sign. When an application gets used, ideas appear. For the first year after launch, realistically plan 10 to 20% of the project sum for expansion, billed at €79/h.
• Domains, certificates, services. SSL is free these days, but email delivery, SMS, mapping services or payment providers cost by usage. Usually double digits per month — but it belongs on the list before it surprises you.

Why cheap often costs twice

The most expensive sentence in our industry is: "We had this built once before, but nothing came of it." We regularly take over projects like that, and the pattern is remarkably uniform.

One quote was noticeably cheaper than the others. Something did come out of it, and at first glance it worked. Then came the first change — and took unexpectedly long. Then it turned out there are no tests, no documentation, that business logic sits in the frontend and the database has no clean relationships. From there on every change is more expensive than the last, because nobody can say for sure what else it breaks.

The point isn't that cheap providers do bad work. The point is: when a calculation is tight, the invisible things get cut first — data model, tests, structure, documentation. And those are exactly what decides the cost of the next three years. In practice we then see rework of 40 to 60% of the original project sum, just to get back to a foundation you can change.

And honestly: sometimes we advise against building on and recommend a rebuild, because that's simply cheaper. If you find yourself in that situation, our post on switching Laravel agencies is the right next step.

How to get a number you can rely on for your project

Flat prices for custom software are either a matter of luck or calculated with a hefty risk premium. So we do it differently — and you can expect this from any provider:

1. Free first call. 30 to 45 minutes in which we understand what you actually want to solve. Often that's something different from what the inquiry said.
2. A rough classification right away. After the call you get a range and the factors that influence it — not a quote, but a number you can plan with.
3. Concept phase as a project start from €3,900. Data model, scope, technical decisions, first usable milestone. After that the estimate holds up, because we know what we're talking about.
4. Billing by time at €79/h, monthly and traceable. You see what was done and can re-prioritize or stop at any point.

If you want to get a picture yourself first, our price configurator helps: you click your project together and get an order of magnitude immediately — no contact form and nobody chasing you by phone. How we work after that is laid out openly in our process, and what we cover in detail as a Laravel agency is on the services page. Why we bet on Laravel for all of this instead of a website builder is explained in why we build with Laravel; the general cost logic beyond the framework is in what does custom software cost?.

Bottom line: prices are plannable when you say them out loud

Laravel development isn't flying blind. The hourly rate is quickly compared, but what decides it is scope, interfaces, migration and quality bar — and you can steer those together with a provider, if they'll tell you honestly what costs what. A project start from €3,900, typical business applications between €8,000 and €25,000 and maintenance from €119/month: that's the frame the vast majority of our projects move in.

Got an idea in your head and want to know whether it lands closer to €8,000 or €30,000? Write to us — we'll look at it together in a free first call and you'll get an honest range with reasoning instead of a made-up number. No sales pressure, no follow-up meetings you don't want. And if we think an off-the-shelf solution would be cheaper for you, we'll tell you that too.