How much custom software costs

How much does custom software cost, in figures?

There are three entry thresholds: 10,000 € for an MVP, about 15,000 € for an essential management system for a garage and 45,000 € for an Enterprise platform. They apply to software built on your process, with analysis, design, testing, go-live and handover included.

Where custom software starts

euro

MVP or first module10,000Essential management system15,000Enterprise platform45,000

An MVP (minimum viable product) is the first version of a piece of software that solves a single problem well enough to be used every day. It tests on real work the choices that would otherwise stay assumptions. A typical project lasts about four months on average, but that is a historical average and not a promise: the real estimate comes out of the analysis.

These are entry thresholds, not a price list. They tell you straight away whether your project is in our order of magnitude; the exact figure comes after the analysis, within a range.

What pushes the figure up?

Six factors move the price, not the number of screens: integrations, artificial intelligence, security and compliance, roles and workflows, devices and data migration. A serious quote justifies them one by one instead of adding them up as a lump sum.

The first is integration with the systems you already have. Almost one Italian SME in two with at least 10 employees uses an ERP system, 48.8% in 2025 according to ISTAT, and custom software usually connects to it instead of replacing it. Each connection costs in proportion to how well documented the system on the other side is: a modern interface connects quickly, an old management system without interfaces takes more work.

Then the artificial intelligence components, such as reading documents, sorting requests or drafting replies: they cost their development and then the use of the models, which is a recurring cost and has to be estimated up front. Then security and compliance: personal data under the GDPR, traceability of operations, the rules of your sector. Then the number of roles and workflows, because software used by two people with a single workflow is a different project from software used by the warehouse, the accounts office and sales, each with its own permissions.

Then the devices. A web app opens in the browser on computer, tablet and phone from a single codebase, and we design it starting from the phone. An app to download from the stores is something we build when the use case calls for it, and it adds testing on iOS and Android and publication on the stores to the project.

The last is the one nobody budgets for: migrating historical data from Excel sheets or the old system, which has to be cleaned, mapped to a schema and checked.

What brings the figure down is starting small. The point that hurts most is released first, and the next priorities are set by real use, not by a document written months earlier.

Why do prices online vary so much?

Because they often measure different things: the configuration of a product that already exists, a figure without analysis or testing, the start of hourly work, the labour cost of another market. Searching for this answer you find entry thresholds ranging from just over a thousand euro to tens of thousands, and pages from abroad reach hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are not necessarily wrong.

A very low price is usually the configuration of a product that already exists, with a few adapted modules, and that is fine if your process resembles the one the product was built for. Other times the figure leaves out analysis, testing, training or handover, which arrive later as separate items. Other times again it is the starting point of hourly work, and tells you where it begins, not where it ends. Figures from abroad, finally, reflect the labour cost of another market.

Two numbers can only be compared by knowing what is inside them: the items to look for are in the last table of this guide.

Does a ready-made product cost less?

In the first year it often does, when it covers work that is the same as everyone else's, like accounting or payroll. The vendor handles the updates for new rules and the cost is shared among many customers. But the bill changes shape, it does not disappear: a subscription, often per user and every year, the configuration, the extra modules and the data migration, as with custom software. On top of that comes the cost of bending the way you work to the product, when that is exactly what sets you apart from competitors.

The comparison is made on the cost over several years, not on the first quote. Often the answer is both: the ready-made product for the part that is the same for everyone, custom software for the rest, connected to the first. The question that decides between the two roads, when you already have software, is in the guide to legacy software.

Why don't we give you an hourly rate?

Because we do not sell hours: we work per project, on the solution. An hourly rate tells you what an hour costs, not how many hours it will take, and the number of hours is exactly the unknown of a project. When you buy hours, the risk of that unknown stays with you.

With a project price we estimate the unknown ourselves, up front, and we answer for it: requirements analysis produces a scope, the scope a range, and the range has a maximum written into the contract. Hours remain our problem, and you get a timesheet only if you ask for it.

Who pays if the cost exceeds the estimate?

It depends on the pricing model: by the hour, you pay; at a fixed price without a written scope, often you, after a negotiation; with a range and a maximum, the supplier, if the requirements do not change. It is the biggest difference between two quotes that look the same.

The average is misleading. In a study of 1,471 IT projects published by Harvard Business Review, the average cost overrun was 27%, but one project in six overran by 200% on average, with a delay of almost 70%. The real risk is not overrunning a little: it is ending up in that tail.

That is why we work with a range and a maximum. If the initial requirements do not change, the price stops at the top of the range and we absorb the excess. If they do change, you know the impact on cost and time before deciding, and nothing is developed, or billed, without your approval.

How do you pay, and when does the code become yours?

By milestone, and the code becomes yours one part at a time, with each paid milestone. A deposit on signing, from 25% for clients we have worked with for years to 35% for the most complex projects. Then payments tied to the phases, always with a milestone at the end of development, before testing. Finally the balance, a few days after the acceptance session, to give you time to try the release.

Each paid milestone transfers to you ownership of the part of the project it covers. This is not a detail. Italian copyright law gives the employer, unless otherwise agreed, the economic rights to software written by its employees (article 12-bis of Law 633 of 1941). When a supplier writes the software, instead, what passes to you is set by the contract. That is why the transfer is written into the contract, with access to the repositories and the API documentation, and there is no licence fee on the software we develop for you. If one day you change supplier, the code is already yours.

How much does it cost after release?

For the garage management system in the example below, hosting, backups, security updates and small changes cost between 1,500 and 2,500 € a year. There are three items, and it pays to know them before signing: recurring costs, the warranty and maintenance.

The recurring costs are yours: hosting, third-party component licences, use of AI models. We declare them in the quote and they stay visible while the software runs, because software that costs too much to keep running is a bad investment even if the development was right.

The warranty is included: one month after release for blocking bugs and minor tasks.

Maintenance is a separate contract, with written response times, and only if you want it. Many guides advise budgeting a percentage of the development cost for it every year, usually between 15 and 25%. We estimate it on the work your software really needs: security updates to its libraries, changes in the services it is connected to, backups and monitoring, the small changes you expect to ask for. A large project on a stable process can need less maintenance than a small one connected to five external services that change often: the percentage charges for the size of the project, not for the work.

An example: the management system of a garage

A garage with six people writes its quotes by hand and keeps the customer history between paper cards and memory. The first release costs about 15,000 € and includes the analysis work and the ceremonies of the method, from planning to reviews with the software in hand. It also includes the design of the experience and of the interface, conceived first for phone and tablet, and login with profiles and roles. Finally it includes customer and vehicle records, with a card of the work done for each customer; orders and quotes, sent to the customer by email and by message; go-live. From start to finish you have one person in charge who answers to you. Invoicing stays in the accounting system the garage already uses, and connecting the two is the next step, quoted separately.

After start-up, hosting, backups, security updates and small changes cost between 1,500 and 2,500 € a year. Over three years, development and running together come to between about 19,500 and 22,500 €, without the modules you add later. That is the number to set beside what a ready-made product would cost over the same period. What can come next, module by module, is on the page of the workshop management software for garages.

If your garage works like every other garage, a ready-made garage management product costs less, and we tell you so before the quote. Custom software is worth it when the ready-made product forces you into double data entry and side spreadsheets, or when the way you work is an advantage worth protecting. A tyre shop, for example, manages seasonal tyre storage, a bicycle workshop manages components and maintenance cycles.

Does AI lower the cost of software?

In part, and it is worth knowing which part. Code assistants and agents make us faster at writing and testing software, and we do not bill you for the hours saved. What AI does not shorten is the work that decides whether the software will be useful: understanding your process, choosing what to do first, trying it with your people, answering for what goes into production.

In the hands of professionals, AI makes software more solid, because the code written with its help is always reviewed by a person who answers for it, and a model is never the last check before production. When a price drops thanks to AI, this is the question to ask: who reviews that code, and who answers for it if it is wrong.

How do you compare two quotes?

Put them side by side and look at what is included and excluded, whether the price has a maximum written into the contract, how changes are approved and what is yours with each payment. Then when the code passes to you, recurring and hidden costs, the warranty, maintenance and what you receive if you change supplier. The item that is missing is the one you will pay for later.

Sources and further reading

• Bent Flyvbjerg and Alexander Budzier, “Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier than You Think”, Harvard Business Review, September 2011arxiv.org, accessed 22 October 2026
• ISTAT, “Imprese e ICT, anno 2025” (Enterprises and ICT, 2025), 15 December 2025istat.it, in Italian, accessed 22 October 2026
• Italian Law no. 633 of 22 April 1941 on copyright, article 12-bisnormattiva.it, in Italian, accessed 22 October 2026