The question we get asked most is also the hardest to answer briefly: what does it cost? Not because we want to talk around it, but because a web application is not a product from a catalogue. This is what we can say.
Why there is no fixed price tag
A web application is a collection of screens, rules and integrations that follows exactly your way of working. Two companies that both ask for “a client portal” can mean something very different: one wants clients to download invoices, the other wants them to place orders, upload documents and approve a quote. That is a factor of three in work.
That is why every project with us starts with a conversation and a list: what should it do, for whom, and what comes first. Only then can you talk about money without guessing.
Five things that determine the price
1. The number of screens and actions
Every screen someone sees has to be designed, built and tested. A list, a detail page and a form are manageable. A workflow with five steps, approvals and exceptions is not.
2. Integrations
An integration with your accounting, CRM or payment provider saves daily work, but costs build time. Good APIs are quick to connect, old or poorly documented systems are not. Count your integrations and you already have an important part of the price.
3. Roles and permissions
Can everyone see everything? Then it is simple. Are there administrators, staff, clients and external parties, each with their own permissions, then structure is added that returns everywhere in the application.
4. Design
An internal system for five colleagues needs a different design than a portal that a thousand clients use without explanation. The more people have to work with the application without training, the more attention the design requires.
5. Data and migration
Transferring existing data from an old system, Excel or a package takes time, especially when quality varies. It is almost always worth it, but it belongs in the budget.
An honest range
With those five factors in mind we do dare to give direction. These are ranges we see in practice, excluding VAT and meant as a first reference, not a quote.
| What | Indication |
|---|---|
| Simple website without CMS | from € 1,250 |
| Basic web shop | from € 2,500 |
| Custom website with its own CMS | from € 2,500 |
| Custom application, SaaS product or mobile app, first version | from € 4,000 |
Amounts are indicative and depend on the five factors above.
Prefer a lower starting amount? Part of the build costs can go into a higher monthly amount, so you start without a large upfront investment. What you pay in total is agreed in advance.
If your question is below the bottom of a range, a standard package is probably the better choice. We will say so.
What you pay after delivery
An application is never finished. Laravel gets updates, browsers change and so does your business. Count on a fixed amount per month for maintenance: updates, monitoring, backups, security and a number of hours of further development. With us hosting is always included; a server without maintenance is not a saving but a risk.
For a simple website that starts at € 25 per month. A rule of thumb for larger applications: count on ten to fifteen percent of the build sum per year for maintenance and hosting. For that the application stays secure, fast and up to date.
How to keep the budget under control
- Start with the core. Which three things must the application do on day one? The rest comes in round two.
- Build in rounds of two to three weeks and review the result in a test environment every round. That way you adjust before money is in the wrong place.
- Choose integrations deliberately. Every integration should replace an action that costs time now.
- Agree in advance what happens if you ever want to switch: who delivers what and how the data comes along. That keeps you free to make a different choice later.
Conclusion
A custom web application does not cost a fixed amount, but the price is easy to predict once you know what it has to do. Start small, build in rounds and count maintenance in from the start. If you want to know where your question falls in the range, a half-hour conversation is usually enough for a first indication.
