India Software Development Cost Calculator
What an Indian agency charges to build software for a US client in 2026, by role and sprint, with the time-zone overhead counted.
Updated · By Niraj Kumar · 4 sources
https://checkpre.com/ai/software-development-cost-india
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
Email and social login, password reset; SSO or MFA is complex.
Profile pages, preferences and account deletion.
Who can see and do what; complex means custom policies.
Organisations, invitations and data isolated per customer.
Manage users, content and settings without a developer.
Listings, variants, cart, checkout and orders.
Stripe or similar: plans, invoices, webhooks and refunds.
Full-text search and facets; complex means a search engine.
Transactional email, push and in-app alerts.
Uploads to object storage, previews and image resizing.
Messaging over WebSockets, read receipts and history.
Maps, geocoding, distance search or live tracking.
Charts, exports and scheduled reports for users.
Chat assistants, summaries or retrieval over your data.
Translated interface, locale formats and RTL support.
Works without a connection and syncs changes later.
Design and quality
Team
Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and the NCR; nine to ten hours ahead of US Eastern.
More developers shorten the calendar, not the hours.
A reserve for scope that changes once work starts. 15 to 20% is usual; more for a vague brief.
- Total effort
- 2,383 hours
- 1,001 hours of development
- Timeline
- 14 weeks
- 7 sprints of 2 weeks, up to 20 weeks if the scope grows
- Blended rate
- $32 an hour
- Across every role on the team
- Maintenance after launch
- $14,000 a year
- About 18% of the build: updates, fixes and small improvements
- Lowest-cost region
- Philippines & Vietnam
- $73,500, $3,400 less
- 1Front-end development$16,500
- 2Back end, platform and integrations$14,000
- 3Project management$14,000
- 4Contingency reserve$10,000
- 5UI/UX design$8,700
- 6QA and testing$5,500
- 7Hardening and launch$3,100
- 8DevOps and CI/CD$2,900
- 9Discovery (sprint 0)$2,200
| Sprint | Focus | Hours | Cost | Running total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sprint 0 | Discovery, backlog, architecture and first designs | 219 | $7,100 | $7,100 |
| Sprint 1 | Project setup, Sign-up and login and 2 more | 365 | $12,000 | $19,000 |
| Sprint 2 | Roles and permissions, Teams and multi-tenancy, Admin panel / CMS | 336 | $11,000 | $30,000 |
| Sprint 3 | Admin panel / CMS, Payments and subscriptions, Search and filtering | 336 | $11,000 | $40,500 |
| Sprint 4 | Search and filtering, Email and push notifications and 2 more | 336 | $11,000 | $51,500 |
| Sprint 5 | Reports and dashboards, Integrations | 336 | $11,000 | $62,500 |
| Sprint 6 | Hardening, acceptance testing and launch | 146 | $4,700 | $67,000 |
| Role | Hours | Rate | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project manager / BA | 431 | $35/h | $15,000 |
| UI/UX designer | 302 | $30/h | $9,100 |
| Senior developer | 488 | $42/h | $20,500 |
| Mid-level developer | 601 | $28/h | $17,000 |
| QA engineer | 250 | $22/h | $5,500 |
| Total | 2,072 | $32/h | $67,000 |
- 1Philippines & Vietnamoffshore$73,500
- 2Indiaoffshore$77,000
- 3Eastern Europeoffshore$106,000
- 4Latin Americanearshore$119,000
- 5Canadaonshore$220,000
- 6Western Europeoffshore$226,000
- 7Australiaoffshore$249,000
- 8United Kingdomoffshore$250,000
- 9United Statesonshore$278,000
How is software development cost estimated?
Mid-market agencies in India bill a blended $32 an hour across developers, design, QA and project management. A SaaS product with teams, billing and reporting comes to about $77,000. That is 72% less than a US agency, after adding the 12% extra coordination a US client should expect.
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)⌉ + hardeningThis page uses the same method as the Software Development Cost Estimator, which explains each term and assumption in full.
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. Priced at mid-market rates in India and United States, 15% contingency included.
- 1India: 2,383 hours at a blended $32 an hour = $77,000
- 2United States: 2,152 hours at a blended $129 an hour = $278,000
- 3Coordination overhead: 12% of hours in India, 0% in United States
A team in India costs $201,000 less, 72% below a US agency, for the same hours.
Frequently asked questions
What do Indian software agencies charge per hour?
Mid-market agencies bill about $28 an hour for a mid-level developer and $40 to $45 for a senior, $30 for design and $22 for QA, a blended $30 to $35 across a team. Well-known product engineering firms charge $50 to $80; freelancer collectives can be under $20. The estimate adds 12% project management for the nine-and-a-half-hour gap to US Eastern time.
How do I make an offshore team in India work well?
Write things down: a clear backlog with acceptance criteria, a demo at the end of every sprint and a short daily overlap, usually the Indian evening and the US morning. Ask for named senior developers in the contract, not just a headcount, and keep architecture and product decisions with someone who is available in your time zone.
Sources
- Accelerance, 2026 Global Software Development Rates & Trends · checked
- Accelerance, 2026 outsourcing rate trends in Asia, Europe and Latin America · checked
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2025 · checked
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Software Developers, QA Analysts and Testers · checked
Related calculators
- Software Development Cost EstimatorEstimate what an agency will charge to build your app, by feature, sprint and role: design, development, QA and project management, priced in nine regions.
- Offshore vs Onshore Software Development CostThe same project priced with a US agency and an offshore team, hour for hour, with the extra coordination that offshore work takes.
- Nearshore vs Offshore Software Development CostLatin America against India on the same scope: rates, coordination overhead and the time-zone trade-off, priced side by side.
- India Freelance Salary CalculatorTurn a US-dollar rate into take-home pay in rupees under section 44ADA or actual profit, on the FY 2026-27 new regime, and the salary that matches.