CheckPre

Software Development Cost Estimator

Estimate what an agency will charge to build your app, by feature, sprint and role: design, development, QA and project management, priced in nine regions.

Updated · By Niraj Kumar · 4 sources

Project

The baseline: a React front end with a Node or serverless back end.

Unique layouts, not every page: a product page template counts once.

CRM, ERP, shipping, tax, analytics… 32 hours each.

Features

Sign-up and loginSign-up and login

Email and social login, password reset; SSO or MFA is complex.

User profiles and settingsUser profiles and settings

Profile pages, preferences and account deletion.

Roles and permissionsRoles and permissions

Who can see and do what; complex means custom policies.

Teams and multi-tenancyTeams and multi-tenancy

Organisations, invitations and data isolated per customer.

Admin panel / CMSAdmin panel / CMS

Manage users, content and settings without a developer.

Product catalogue and checkoutProduct catalogue and checkout

Listings, variants, cart, checkout and orders.

Payments and subscriptionsPayments and subscriptions

Stripe or similar: plans, invoices, webhooks and refunds.

Search and filteringSearch and filtering

Full-text search and facets; complex means a search engine.

Email and push notificationsEmail and push notifications

Transactional email, push and in-app alerts.

File and media uploadsFile and media uploads

Uploads to object storage, previews and image resizing.

Real-time chatReal-time chat

Messaging over WebSockets, read receipts and history.

Maps and locationMaps and location

Maps, geocoding, distance search or live tracking.

Reports and dashboardsReports and dashboards

Charts, exports and scheduled reports for users.

AI / LLM featuresAI / LLM features

Chat assistants, summaries or retrieval over your data.

Multiple languagesMultiple languages

Translated interface, locale formats and RTL support.

Offline mode and syncOffline mode and sync

Works without a connection and syncs changes later.

Design and quality

UI/UX designUI/UX design
QA and testingQA and testing

Team

Mid-market US agencies; big consultancies bill $200 to $300 an hour.

Agency tierAgency tier
Seniority mixSeniority mix

More developers shorten the calendar, not the hours.

Sprint lengthSprint length
%
0%50%

A reserve for scope that changes once work starts. 15 to 20% is usual; more for a vague brief.

Likely budget, United States$278,000Range $218,000 to $362,000
Total effort
2,152 hours
1,001 hours of development
Timeline
14 weeks
7 sprints of 2 weeks, up to 20 weeks if the scope grows
Blended rate
$129 an hour
Across every role on the team
Maintenance after launch
$50,000 a year
About 18% of the build: updates, fixes and small improvements
Lowest-cost region
Philippines & Vietnam
$73,500, $205,000 less
Where the budget goes, United StatesHover or focus a row for its hours and share of the budget.
  1. 1Front-end development$68,500
  2. 2Back end, platform and integrations$58,000
  3. 3Contingency reserve$36,500
  4. 4UI/UX design$35,000
  5. 5Project management$26,000
  6. 6QA and testing$22,500
  7. 7Hardening and launch$12,500
  8. 8DevOps and CI/CD$11,000
  9. 9Discovery (sprint 0)$8,300
Sprint plan, 14 weeks192 hours of development per sprint; design, QA, DevOps and PM run alongside.
SprintFocusHoursCostRunning total
Sprint 0Discovery, backlog, architecture and first designs198$25,000$25,000
Sprint 1Project setup, Sign-up and login and 2 more330$43,500$68,500
Sprint 2Roles and permissions, Teams and multi-tenancy, Admin panel / CMS303$39,000$107,000
Sprint 3Admin panel / CMS, Payments and subscriptions, Search and filtering303$39,000$147,000
Sprint 4Search and filtering, Email and push notifications and 2 more303$39,000$186,000
Sprint 5Reports and dashboards, Integrations303$39,000$225,000
Sprint 6Hardening, acceptance testing and launch132$17,000$242,000
Team by role, before contingency
RoleHoursRateCost
Project manager / BA231$130/h$30,000
UI/UX designer302$120/h$36,000
Senior developer488$160/h$78,000
Mid-level developer601$125/h$75,000
QA engineer250$90/h$22,500
Total1,872$129/h$242,000
The same scope in every region, offshore to onshoreMid-market agency rates at the tier you picked, with each region's coordination overhead added for a US client.
  1. 1Philippines & Vietnamoffshore$73,500
  2. 2Indiaoffshore$77,000
  3. 3Eastern Europeoffshore$106,000
  4. 4Latin Americanearshore$119,000
  5. 5Canadaonshore$220,000
  6. 6Western Europeoffshore$226,000
  7. 7Australiaoffshore$249,000
  8. 8United Kingdomoffshore$250,000
  9. 9United Statesonshore$278,000

How is software development cost estimated?

Add up the hours each feature takes at its complexity, plus screens, integrations and setup. Add design, QA, DevOps, discovery and project management, then price each role's hours at the agency's regional rate and add contingency. Dividing development hours by the team's capacity per sprint gives the timeline.

Each feature carries a benchmark of front-end and back-end hours for a standard build, scaled by the complexity you pick and by how productive the stack is. Screens and integrations add their own hours. Design, QA, DevOps, discovery and project management are added the way agencies staff them, and every hour is priced at the rate for the role doing it in the chosen region. Sprints follow from how many developer hours the team can deliver in each one.

build = Σ features (hours × complexity × stack) + screens × 10 h + integrations × 32 h + 40 h setup total = discovery + design + build + 10% hardening + QA % + DevOps + PM (12% + time-zone overhead) cost = Σ role hours × regional rate × agency tier; likely = cost × (1 + contingency) sprints = 1 + ⌈build ÷ (developers × 40 h × weeks × 0.8)⌉ + hardening
sprint
A fixed block of one to four weeks in which the team builds and demos a set of stories
sprint 0
Discovery: workshops, backlog, architecture and the first designs, before any build
focus factor
The share of a developer's week spent building, after ceremonies and reviews (80%)
hardening
The final sprint or two spent fixing bugs, acceptance testing and launching
contingency
A budget reserve for scope that changes once work starts
blended rate
Total cost divided by total hours, across every role on the team

Worked example

A B2B SaaS product on Next.js: 25 screens, team accounts, roles, Stripe subscriptions, an admin panel, notifications and a reporting dashboard, three integrations, custom UI/UX and standard QA. Built by a US agency (mid-market rates), 3 developers in 2-week sprints, with 15% contingency.

  1. 1Discovery (sprint 0): 60 hours, $8,300
  2. 2UI/UX design: 290 hours, $35,000
  3. 3Front-end development: 492 hours, $68,500
  4. 4Back end, platform and integrations: 418 hours, $58,000
  5. 5Hardening and launch: 91 hours, $12,500
  6. 6QA and testing: 250 hours, $22,500
  7. 7DevOps and CI/CD: 70 hours, $11,000
  8. 8Project management: 201 hours, $26,000
  9. 9Contingency reserve: 281 hours, $36,500
  10. 10Blended rate: $129 an hour across the team
  11. 11Schedule: 7 sprints, 14 weeks

About $278,000, within a range of $218,000 to $362,000, and 14 weeks from kickoff to launch.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to build custom software in 2026?

It depends mostly on scope and on where the team is. A focused MVP with a few core features runs from about $29,000 (Philippines & Vietnam) to $110,000 (United States); a full SaaS product with teams, billing and reporting from about $73,500 (Philippines & Vietnam) to $278,000 (United States). Pick a project type above to start from a realistic scope, then turn features on or off.

Is offshore development really cheaper?

Per hour, yes: a mid-market agency in United States bills a blended $129 or so an hour against about $31 in Philippines & Vietnam, 4.2 times as much, at rates checked September 29, 2026. The saving on a whole project is a little smaller, because time-zone gaps add project management and communication hours, which the estimate adds for each region. See offshore vs onshore for a side-by-side.

How many sprints does a typical app take?

With three developers in two-week sprints, a small MVP takes four to six sprints including discovery and launch, and a full SaaS or mobile product six to nine. Adding developers shortens the calendar but not the hours, and past five or six developers on one codebase the gain shrinks, because coordination grows faster than output.

Why do agency quotes for the same app vary so much?

Because each agency assumes a different scope. One prices the features as listed, another adds design, QA and project management, a third adds contingency for scope that is still vague. Rates also differ by three to five times between regions. Ask every agency for hours by feature and role, then compare them line by line with the breakdown here.

Fixed price or time and materials?

Fixed price moves the risk of overrun to the agency, which charges for it: expect a 15 to 30% premium and change requests for anything outside the written scope. Time and materials, billed by the sprint, costs less when the scope will change as you learn, which is most new products. A common middle road is a fixed-price discovery sprint, then time and materials with a budget cap.

How much does it cost to maintain an app after launch?

Plan on 15 to 20% of the build cost a year for hosting support, security updates, dependency and OS upgrades, bug fixes and small improvements. The estimate shows 18%. New features are on top of that, and are best estimated the same way as the first release.

How much does a mobile app cost to build with a team in India?

For the scope on this page, about $65,000, with a range of $51,000 to $84,500 at mid-market rates: 2,010 hours at a blended $32 an hour, delivered in about 12 weeks by 3 developers. Change the features and team above for your own scope.

Sources

Related calculators

More in AI, Cloud & Developer