Did you know that custom software is a great way to get a leg-up on your competition? In fact, McDonald's, Google, and Apple all use custom software as a way to remain leaders in their industry.
When it comes to building custom software, it can be as simple as your phone’s calculator or as complex as a full enterprise billing system that millions of people use every day.
If you’re thinking of developing custom software for your business, you need to take into consideration both the upfront development costs and the total cost of ownership. But it’s also important to factor in the return on investment your organisation will receive.
To get a better idea of how much custom software could cost your business, here are the most costly factors of custom software development:
The Size of Your Software
It’s simple, the more functions, screens, and processes your software has, the more work it takes to develop, and the more costly the project will be.
A simple project, such as mathematical formulas reference app (not calculator!) might come in at around a thousand pounds, whereas if you’re building complex enterprise software this can run into the hundreds of thousands to millions.
The Complexity of Your Software’s Functionality
Will your software need to perform heavy analysis, scoring, or number crunching? This could increase the cost because complicated logic means the developers will need more time for coding and testing.
What’s more, if your application has a lot of nuances and permutations, it could need special attention which can also increase costs.
The Creativity and Usability of Your Design
Design is always one of the most fun parts when it comes to custom software. You can be as creative as you like when it comes to picking your fonts, colour palettes, and images. You can even add custom illustrations and animations to help your software stand out.
Of course, the more creative you are, the more costly it can be. UI design and UX design can range from the basic (i.e. more affordable) to heavily user-researched based on demographics - which will require extra resources.
Your Software Integration Needs
Does your custom software need to integrate with external software? Depending on the type of integration your custom software needs it could add to the total cost of the project.
For example, it’s relatively easy to integrate custom software with payment providers like PayPal. But older, or lesser known systems could create some significant challenges and up the cost of your total bill.
Your Data Migration Needs
If your company has existing data that needs to go into your new custom software, then you will need migration. Data migration means using custom scripts or exporting functionality that takes data from your old system and enables it to fit into your new system.
Most migration efforts need to be tested a few times once the software is finished to ensure that everything was transposed correctly, and the new system is using the data properly.
The work that goes into figuring out these rules, writing the scripts, and conducting a series of tests and adjustments, all contribute to increasing the price of the total project.
Upfront Costs Vs Ownership Costs
Upfront costs include the cost of initial design, development, testing, and launching your software while the total cost of ownership is the cost associated with operating, enhancing, and retiring the legacy software.
The less you pay upfront, the more you will pay later on for improvements, scalability, fine grain user experience, or any problems regarding performance. So it’s important to consider both aspects when seeking to create custom software for your business.
You will also need to factor in ongoing costs such as cloud storage and processing (if required),
A Design for Every Budget
Just like you can’t build an entire house for £10,000 you can’t build custom software for £100. However, just like building a house, software can be developed to fit into budget range.
A good software development team will be able to pair back requirements to fit your budget range - or let you know exactly why the project won’t be achievable within your budget requirements,
After the initial design and cost estimates are complete, you can always opt to add or remove certain features until your desired target amount is achieved. It’s worth starting with a realistic budget which is typically between £40,000 – £250,000.