Custom Software Development: What is it and How much does it cost?

As a business owner, you must take care of several things daily. But your nights should be peaceful. If even after working your heart out, you are still struggling with questions like:

• Is my team operating as efficiently as possible?
• Are we leaving money on the table because of CX that is “just fine”?
• Are our business processes optimized?

There is something wrong with how you work, and you need to figure it out ASAP. If you think there has to be a better way to help you get your work done, you are right. Customer Software Development can help!

Several organizations rely on custom software to meet their specific business requirements. Now, what is custom software development, what are its benefits, and how much would it cost you. In this article, we will find out answers to all these questions.

So, let’s get started.

What is Custom Software Development?

Custom Software Development is the process of designing, building, deploying, and maintaining software according to the demands of a particular business or segment of users. Unlike off-the-shelf software solutions, you must build custom solutions from scratch by choosing the technology stack most suitable for its development.

In a nutshell, custom software is a lot like Rome – you can not build it in a day. The process of custom software development involves many steps, a lot of careful planning, programming, architecture, design, and quality assurance. Without a doubt, all of these things impact the time of development. And time is money!

Indeed, you will have to pay a little extra for building custom software, but your investment will be worth every penny, owing to the benefits that custom software will provide your business:

1. Personalization

Because custom solutions are built keeping specific business needs in mind, they enable companies to provide personalized experiences and build better relationships with users.

71% of consumers expect businesses to deliver personalized digital solutions, and 76% get irritated when companies don’t – McKinsey.

2. Flexibility & Scalability

If you buy off-the-shelf software, you can not modify or scale it after a certain point, and that will limit your company’s creativity and willingness to deliver top-notch experiences. But, there is no such problem with custom solutions as they are extremely scalable and flexible.

3. Complete Ownership

If you decide to use off-the-shelf software because of the less complexity involved, keep in mind that you will never own the product. You will pay rent to use it for powering your business processes. On the other hand, custom software will be yours, and you will have complete control over it.

In addition, custom software development provides you with benefits like better security, countless integrations, reliability, and perfect business workflows, saving time and effort in the long run. Let’s now check out how much it would cost to develop a custom solution.

5 Factors that Influence Custom Software Development Cost

While no one can predict the exact cost of developing custom software without knowing the precise requirements, we will provide you with a ballpark number by the end of this blog. But, before we estimate, it is essential to know about factors that can impact the time and cost of custom software development.

1. Software Complexity

If you are developing complex software needing high-end technologies and logic, it will have more variables, and the cost will be higher. Or, if your project requires the execution of a brand-new idea that has never been implemented before, you will need to build logic from scratch. This can increase your development time and cost.

On the other hand, if you plan to build simple software to streamline a business process, it can cost you lower. For example, the cost to develop a basic eCommerce app is around $20,000. And, if you plan to build an advanced solution having features like AR/VR, Artificial Intelligence, and others, the cost can go up to $70,000.

Thus, the cost of a custom software development project depends a lot on the complexity involved. The more complexity, the more will be the development time and cost.

2. Your Development Approach

The development cost also depends on the approach you follow to develop your project. Some of the popular approaches to custom software development are:

• Waterfall Approach
• Agile development methodology
• DevOps deployment methodology
• Rapid application development

Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the cost will vary depending on which approach you plan to use. Indeed, you need a reliable and fast approach that helps you develop quality solutions in less time. Agile is one such approach.

It allows you to create a roadmap to specify allocation, tasks, and iteration metrics, resulting in reduced technical debt and team effort. Agile projects are comparatively cheaper and can be delivered fast. On the other hand, waterfall projects are more expensive in the short as well as long run.

“We use the agile approach to custom software development as it provides great flexibility and helps us cut unrequired expenses by prioritizing features and testing” – Raj Dhiman, Technical Solution Architect at Netsmartz.

3. Location of Your Developers

The cost of building custom software depends a lot on the location of your development partners. For example, the average cost to build custom software in the USA differs from that of India and Europe.

The reason? Most of the custom software developers work on the hourly pricing model. And the development rate per hour varies from country to country. If you hire a mobile app developer in the USA, they can charge you anything between $100-$850 per hour.

On the other hand, you can find highly experienced and expert developers in Asian countries like India for $30-$120 per hour. To provide you with a fair idea of pricing, here is a list of hourly rates of developers from various parts of the world:

4. Size of Your Development Team

You will need to hire resources according to the size and complexity of your project. More complex projects will require more developers and will cost you more money. Whether you outsource your project or hire in-house developers, you will have to pay developers as per their hourly rates.

For example, imagine your software development project needs a front-end developer, a back-end developer, a software tester, and a project manager. Here is how much it will cost you if they charge $30 per hour and work for 3 hours a day for 3 months:
While this is just an example, you can optimize this cost by hiring different talents from offshoring agencies. The best approach is to Build Your Own Team at Netsmartz and have complete control over the cost of your project.

5. The Choice of Platform

Your choice of platform will impact your development cost largely. For example, if you choose to build a native app for Android, the cost will be higher than if you choose to build a cross-platform application. Android is one of the most popular platforms that target the masses, and it also captures the market of other devices like laptops, wearables, and streaming tools.

Also, you can not use code written in Java or Kotlin elsewhere, as it will be platform specific. So, the cost will be higher. On the other hand, if you choose to build a cross-platform app, the cost will be lower, as you can build once and launch it everywhere.

How Much Would Custom Software Development Cost at Netsmartz?

Giving an estimation of custom software development cost is easy, but if project requirements are precise. However, we could only provide you with a ballpark number without precise requirements. Here is what we estimate:

• A custom software development project can take around 4.5 months
• The average custom software development cost can be between $20k-$50k with the basic features
• The cost can range from $3k-$120k depending on the complexity of your project

However, if you request a proposal with clear requirements, we can help you with exact numbers and a proper plan to execute your idea. So, contact custom software development experts at Netsmartz today!