Insight
How much does custom software development cost in 2026?
Published 2026 figures run from under $30,000 to over $300,000. Here is where those ranges come from, what moves a build up them, and what it costs to run.
The honest answer to “how much will it cost?” is a question back: how much of it do you need in the first version? The published figures below show how wide the market is. The rest of this piece is about where your project lands in it.
We don’t publish our own prices, because they depend on the choices below. What we can do is show you what the market says, where each figure comes from, and which of your decisions move it.
What do 2026 surveys say a build costs?
Two sources, measured two different ways. Read the basis row before the numbers.
| Project size | GoodFirms survey | Keyhole Software benchmarks |
|---|---|---|
| Small app or first version (MVP) | Under $30,000, 1 to 3 months | $40,000 to $120,000, 2 to 4 months |
| Medium business system | $30,000 to $100,000, 3 to 6 months | $120,000 to $300,000, 4 to 8 months |
| Large system | $100,000 to $200,000, 6 to 12 months | $300,000 to $1,000,000+, 8 to 18+ months |
| Enterprise | $200,000+, 12 to 24 months | Included in the row above |
| Basis | What over 100 development firms, mostly small and mid-sized and over half in Asia or Eastern Europe, said they charge (updated 28 September 2026) | A US consultancy’s figures from over 200 projects, October 2024 to January 2026 (published 14 January 2026) |
Sources: the GoodFirms custom software cost survey and Keyhole Software’s 2026 benchmarks.
Clutch’s pricing guide (updated 21 September 2026), built from client reviews rather than vendor answers, finds most reviewed projects cost $10,000 to $49,999, with an average of about $132,500 over roughly 13 months. A common bracket that low beside an average that high suggests a few large projects pull the average up.
The two columns disagree by a factor of two or more for the same size of project. Neither is wrong. They are measuring different teams in different places.
Why do the ranges differ so much?
Where the team is based. The same surveys show hourly rates that differ several times over by region.
| Region | Typical hourly rate (GoodFirms) | Clutch, by country |
|---|---|---|
| South Asia, Africa, parts of Eastern Europe | Under $20 to $50 | India $25 to $49 |
| Eastern Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia | $20 to $50 | Ukraine, Mexico, Philippines $25 to $49; Poland $50 to $99 |
| Central and Southern Europe | $50 to $100 | Spain $25 to $49 |
| United States, Canada, Western Europe including the UK | $100 to $250, above $250 in the top hubs | US $50 to $99; Canada $100 to $149; UK not given |
| Australia | (not separated) | $100 to $149 |
GoodFirms’ figures are what vendors said they charge. Clutch’s are from firms reviewed on its site, which is why its US rate sits below Canada and Australia and below what GoodFirms calls standard for North America. Techreviewer’s 2026 rate survey of 127 vendors found the most common band worldwide was $30 to $49. The same build at $30 an hour and at $150 an hour is a five-fold difference before scope changes at all.
What “medium” means. One firm’s medium project is another’s small one. Compare what is in the scope, not the label on it.
Who is measured. Vendor surveys report what firms say they charge. Review-based figures report what clients say they paid. Both are useful; they are not the same number.
What moves your project up the range?
The biggest cost drivers are decisions you make, not rates you negotiate.
- How many kinds of user. One type of user is one set of screens. Customers, staff and admins who each see something different multiply them.
- Platforms. A web app is one build. Mobile apps add another, though one shared codebase can cover iOS and Android.
- Integrations. Each system the software has to talk to, such as payments, a CRM or a booking channel, is its own piece of work with its own failure cases.
- Payments and accounts. Taking money, refunds and sign-in have to be right on day one.
- Data you already have. Moving and cleaning existing records is often underestimated.
- How much is decided up front. Unknowns cost more than known things. Settling them early makes the rest easier to estimate.
What does it cost after launch?
Building is the smaller part of what software costs over its life. Robert Glass, in a widely cited 2001 IEEE Software article, put maintenance at 40 to 80 percent of total lifetime cost, most of it improvements rather than fixes.
As a yearly figure, the vendor guides above estimate maintenance at 10 to 20 percent of the build (GoodFirms) or 15 to 25 percent (Keyhole). Those are rules of thumb rather than research, but they give you a budget line to plan for. The two kinds of figure measure different things, so don’t add them together.
Whatever you spend, make sure you own what you paid for. Our software handover checklist lists what should be in your hands when the build ends.
How do you get an honest estimate?
Describe the problem, not the solution
One real example of what goes wrong today tells a developer more than a feature list. Our free brief template covers the six questions that matter.
Ask for the estimate in parts
A single number hides the assumptions. An estimate split by feature and by risk shows you which parts you could drop or delay.
Ask what happens after launch
Support, hosting and handover should be in the proposal, not a surprise later.
If you would rather talk it through, send a brief or start from the project brief template. We will tell you what your first version needs, what can wait, and what would move the cost.