Cost
What does custom software cost?
The honest answer is that it depends, which is exactly the answer that helps nobody. So here are the ranges we work with, what fits in each, and what pushes the price up.
The ranges
These are the four budget bands in our own intake form. Not because they are neat round numbers, but because projects genuinely arrive in these four shapes.
An integration between two systems, a dashboard that pulls numbers from separate sources, or an automation that removes a recurring chore. Scoped, one flow, few screens. This is where most first projects land, and often where they should start.
An internal application with user roles, a portal for your customers or suppliers, or a set of integrations that works both ways with exceptions per channel. There is a database underneath, people log in, and there are screens you use daily.
Several user groups, your own data model, outward integrations, and a product that has to grow. This is also the range for an MVP that has to serve real first customers, not just demonstrate.
Software that carries your business model rather than supporting it. Multiple modules, real scale, and a roadmap beyond the first release. At this point it is a partnership, not a project.
What drives the price
Almost nobody pays for building screens. You pay for the things you do not see: what happens when an integration fails, who gets to see what, how it keeps working when ten times as much goes through it.
- How many systems have to take part. Every extra API is its own world with its own rules, limits and outages.
- How many exceptions there are. One standard process is cheap. Five variants each with their own quirk is not five times the cost, but it is more than you expect.
- Whether it has to work both ways. Pulling data out is half the work. Writing data back without breaking anything is the other half.
- Who uses it. An internal tool for three colleagues can be rough. Anything your customers see has to be finished.
- What happens when it goes wrong. Error handling, recovery and visibility into what happened is the part people forget to budget and always end up needing.
Why we price differently
The classic sum is hourly rate times hours. That gives an agency a financial interest in taking longer, and leaves you carrying the risk when the estimate is wrong.
We build AI-native, and the honest consequence is that the same work takes fewer hours. We turn that into a number fixed up front, not a longer invoice. We name the figure before we start, and deliver in weeks rather than quarters, so you can judge after the first release whether you want to continue.
What we build is yours. Your code, your data, no monthly licence on something we made for you, and no lock-in if you want to continue with someone else later.
When custom is not the answer
If an off-the-shelf package covers 90 percent of your process, buy the package. We would then build at most the 10 percent around it, which is usually a project of a few thousand euro rather than a few tens of thousands.
Custom is the answer when your process is your edge, when no package can handle your exception, or when you do so much manual work that the sum makes itself. If we doubt it, we say so.
Frequently asked questions
- What does an integration between two systems cost?
- A single integration handling one flow properly, for example orders from your shop into your accounting, usually lands under 10,000 euro. Multiple flows, both directions and exceptions per channel push that towards 10,000 to 25,000 euro.
- What is a realistic hourly rate in the Netherlands?
- In the Dutch market, rates for experienced developers sit roughly between 100 and 150 euro per hour, with nearshore below that. We prefer a fixed project price, because an hourly rate does not answer the question you actually have: what is this going to cost me.
- Are there costs after delivery?
- Yes, and that is normal. Hosting, maintenance and further development continue. Hosting for an ordinary business application is modest. Maintenance depends on how many external systems are involved, because those change without asking you. We say up front what we expect.
- How quickly do I know what my project costs?
- Usually within one working day of your request we have enough to name a band. For a firm figure we need one conversation in which we cut the scope back to what you actually need.
Curious what your project would cost?
Describe briefly what you are running into. We come back within one working day with an honest estimate, including the scenario where you are better off buying than building.