Custom software costs depend on scope, complexity and team size — but the honest ranges are narrower than the internet suggests. At UP2DATE, a focused internal tool typically runs €30,000–80,000; a full web platform with integrations is €80,000–250,000+; a mobile app MVP is €25,000–70,000 and a full mobile product €70,000–200,000+. Here is what each range covers and what moves a project up or down inside it.
The real ranges, by project type
| Project type | Typical range | What it usually includes |
|---|---|---|
| Internal tool (back-office, operations, reporting) | €30,000–80,000 | One or two user roles, workflows that replace spreadsheets, integrations with a small number of internal systems |
| Customer-facing web platform | €80,000–250,000+ | Multiple user roles, payments, third-party integrations, admin back-office, real load and security requirements |
| Mobile app — focused MVP | €25,000–70,000 | One core flow, both stores, backend and API, analytics and crash reporting |
| Mobile app — full product | €70,000–200,000+ | Multiple roles, payments, back-office integrations, regulated or platform-scale requirements at the top end |
Legacy modernization and system-integration work does not fit a table honestly — the cost is driven by the state of the existing system, which no vendor can price before looking at it. Anyone who quotes it sight unseen is guessing with your money.
What moves a project inside its range?
The number of user roles and permission levels. Every role multiplies screens, states and test cases. Integrations. Each external system adds a contract to read, an API to learn and a failure mode to handle — three integrations can cost more than a whole feature. Compliance. Anything touching health, finance or personal data at scale carries audit trails, encryption requirements and stricter testing; it is also where our ISO 27001-certified process stops being a bullet point and starts being the plan. Migration of existing data. Moving years of messy production data safely is real engineering, routinely underestimated. The unknowns you have not written down. The gap between “we roughly know what we want” and a written scope is where budgets go to die.
Fixed price or time-and-materials?
We give fixed-price estimates for well-defined scopes and time-and-materials for evolving products — and that split is the honest answer for the industry, not just for us. Fixed price transfers risk to the vendor, so it only works when the scope is genuinely nailed down; forcing it onto a fuzzy scope just buys you change-request fights later. Time-and-materials fits products that will learn and change — but only with the controls that make it safe: a milestone plan, weekly demos of working software, and cost visible against progress at every step.
How do you keep the budget under control?
Three habits do most of the work. First, invest in discovery before development — decisions on paper cost a fraction of decisions in code. Second, cut scope, not quality: shipping fewer features properly beats shipping everything fragile, and the features you cut become a roadmap informed by real usage. Third, insist on seeing working software weekly — budget problems announce themselves early in demos and late in reports.
The ranges above are what we actually quote for custom software development, built by senior engineers with 8+ years of production experience, with a specialist consultant as your single point of contact from the first call. For a milestone-based estimate on your specific scope, get in touch.
