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How much does custom software development cost in 2026?
With Lytvynov Production custom software starts from $10,000. A website or simple web app typically costs $10,000 to $15,000, an MVP $10,000 to $50,000 with most landing at $10,000 to $20,000, a full online business with admin, payments and integrations $35,000 to $70,000, a full CRM/ERP for a mid-size company $40,000 to $90,000, and very large multi-platform products $100,000 and up. A typical US or UK agency quotes roughly 2.5 to 4 times more for the same scope.
The project type sets the range; the details decide where inside it you land. Roles, integrations, data migration and how much has to work on day one move the price far more than the choice of framework or the number of screens. You can get a first range for your own project in a few minutes with our estimate form.
What are custom software price ranges by project type?
The table shows our typical ranges for a one-off build, including design, development, testing and launch, next to what a typical US or UK agency quotes for the same scope.
| Project type | Typical scope | Timeline | With Lytvynov Production | Typical US/UK agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website or simple web app | Marketing site, client portal, booking or calculator, CMS | 4 to 8 weeks | $10,000 to $15,000 | $25,000 to $60,000 |
| MVP (web or mobile) | One core workflow, sign-up, admin, analytics | 6 to 12 weeks | $10,000 to $50,000, most $10,000 to $20,000 | $25,000 to $200,000 |
| SaaS product | Multi-tenant accounts, subscription billing, roles, admin back office | 2 to 4 months for a first release | from $10,000 | from $25,000 |
| Full online business | Product, admin, payments, integrations, production-ready | 3 to 5 months | $35,000 to $70,000 | $90,000 to $280,000 |
| Custom CRM/ERP for a mid-size company | Orders, scheduling, staff, warehouse, compliance, reporting | 4 to 6 months, in modules | $40,000 to $90,000 | $100,000 to $360,000 |
| AI feature in an existing product | Assistant over your data, document processing, an AI agent step | 4 to 8 weeks | from $10,000 | from $25,000 |
| Complex AI product | Fine-tuning, RAG memory, custom models | 4 to 9 months | $60,000 to $150,000 | $150,000 to $600,000 |
| Very large multi-platform product | Web, iOS, Android, partner APIs, several user types | 6 months and more | $100,000 and up | $250,000 and up |
These are orientation ranges by project type, not quotes. We give a fixed quote after a short scoping call, split into milestones, because two projects with the same label can differ by three times once the roles and integrations are listed.
How much does app development cost?
App development cost with us typically starts at $10,000 to $20,000 for a focused MVP and reaches $35,000 to $70,000 for a production-ready app with iOS and Android versions, an admin panel, payments and integrations. The biggest single lever is building both mobile platforms from one codebase with React Native or Flutter instead of two native apps.
| App type | What drives the cost | With Lytvynov Production |
|---|---|---|
| Web app MVP | Number of roles and the one core workflow | $10,000 to $20,000 |
| Mobile app MVP (iOS and Android) | Cross-platform build, store release, push notifications | $10,000 to $50,000 |
| Marketplace or two-sided app | Two user types, payments, reviews, maps, chat | $35,000 to $70,000 |
| App with AI features | Model integration, evaluation, usage limits | AI part from $10,000 |
Store fees, push notification services and maps are small monthly lines; the larger ongoing cost is keeping the app compatible with new iOS and Android versions, usually covered by a maintenance plan.
What drives the cost of custom software?
Seven factors explain most of the difference between a $15,000 project and a $70,000 one.
- User roles. Each role sees and does different things. A product with customers, staff and admins is three products sharing a database.
- Integrations. Payments, accounting, calendars, CRMs, logistics, government portals. A modern API takes days; a legacy system or file exchange can take weeks.
- Data migration. Moving years of spreadsheets or an old database into a new model is a milestone of its own.
- Business rules. Pricing formulas, approval chains and automatic status changes are where your process lives, and each needs tests.
- Platforms. Web only, web plus mobile, or web, iOS, Android and partner APIs.
- Quality bar on day one. Audit logs, high availability, accessibility, security reviews and load testing all add scope. Some are required from the start, many can wait.
- AI features. A model call is cheap to add; making it reliable with evaluation sets, guardrails and cost limits is the real work. Our AI app development cost guide covers that layer in detail.
What usually does not move the price much: the number of simple screens, the choice between two mainstream frameworks, or a visual design built on a solid component library.
How much does a web application cost?
A web application typically costs $10,000 to $15,000 with us for a portal, booking system or internal tool with a few roles, and $35,000 to $70,000 for a full online business with admin, payments and integrations. Large web platforms with several user types and partner APIs start around $100,000.
Our web development page describes what we include in a typical web project. For a sense of scale, our own AI SaaS for resume writing was built in about three months and now serves 50,000 monthly active users; a sports events platform we built for a UK sports tech company combines APIs, embeddable widgets and a parsing engine that unifies hundreds of external calendars.
What do real-world budgets look like?
Three illustrative scopes, described by type rather than by client, show how the same "custom software" label lands in very different ranges with us.
- A booking portal for a service business. Public booking pages, a staff calendar, email and SMS reminders, a simple admin and card payments. One customer role, one staff role, two integrations. Typical range: $10,000 to $15,000, about 6 weeks.
- A B2B SaaS first release. Company accounts with several users each, subscription billing, a core workflow, an admin back office and usage analytics. Typical range: from $10,000 for a focused first release, more as integrations and roles grow; 2 to 4 months.
- An operations platform for a 40 person company. Orders that become jobs, crews and shifts, stock reservations, compliance documents, management dashboards, data migrated from years of spreadsheets, and accounting integration. Typical range: $40,000 to $90,000, delivered in modules over 4 to 6 months.
The jump between the first and the last is almost entirely roles, integrations, migration and rules. The number of screens grows far less than the budget does.
What does custom software cost after launch?
Budget three recurring lines after launch: hosting, third-party services and maintenance. For a typical business application they add up to a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month.
| Monthly or yearly cost | What it covers | Typical range (market, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Servers or managed cloud, database, backups, storage | $50 to $500 a month |
| Third-party services | Email delivery, SMS, maps, monitoring, error tracking | $0 to $300 a month |
| Payment fees | Card processing | A percentage of revenue |
| AI model usage | Tokens for OpenAI or Anthropic Claude calls | $0 to several thousand a month, by volume |
| Maintenance | Updates, security patches, small changes, monitoring | Often 15 to 20% of build cost per year |
There are no license fees on custom software you own. This is the main financial difference from per-seat SaaS, and it grows with every person who uses the system.
How do you keep custom software cost under control?
Keep cost under control by fixing the scope before the price, shipping the first release early and adding features based on use rather than guesses.
- Scope first, price second. A written scope with roles, workflows, integrations and exclusions is what makes a fixed quote possible and comparable.
- Cut release one hard. Ship the one workflow that proves value; push reports, settings pages and nice-to-haves to release two.
- Use proven building blocks. Authentication, payments, admin panels and notifications should come from mature libraries, not be written from scratch.
- Pay per milestone. Tie payments to working software on a staging server, not to calendar months.
- Own the code from day one. Your repositories, your cloud accounts. It keeps future changes cheaper because any team can continue.
Fixed price per milestone works best once the scope is written down; time and materials fits work that is still exploratory.
Why are offshore and nearshore quotes lower?
The main reason is salary levels. A senior engineer in Eastern Europe costs a fraction of one in San Francisco or London, and a well-run nearshore team passes that difference to the client. The risks are in communication and process, which is why the questions in our vendor checklist focus on seniority, written scope, code ownership and weekly demos.
How we price custom software
We are a custom software development company founded in 2020, with senior engineers leading every project and AI coding agents speeding up routine work internally, which is part of how we keep timelines short. Our minimum project size is $10,000. Every project starts with a short scoping call, then a written scope and a fixed quote split into milestones, so you know the total before work starts and pay for delivered software.
If your project is an internal system, read our guide to custom CRM development; if it is a first product version, see MVP development cost. For everything else, our custom software development page explains how we work, and the estimate form gives you a first range for your scope.
