Custom Software Development Costs in 2024: What to Expect and How to Save Money?

Custom software helps a business with personalized solutions that adapt to unique workflows seamlessly. They easily fit into the business requirements, offer better security, and boost user engagement. 

Tailored solutions require a significant one-time investment compared to budget-friendly, off-the-shelf software solutions. However, in the long run, can help you with cost savings and better ROI. 

At Nethues Technologies, a custom software development company in India, most of our clients asks about the required budget right in the first consultation. We understand the possible anxieties of clients when leading software development projects.

In this article, we attempt to give you a standard answer to all our clients asking “How much does software development costs?”

“Every Project is Unique & So Are the Budget

Let our consultant analyze your project to offer a guilt-free quote“

Average Cost of Software Development

There’s no direct answer to the developing cost of the software because various factors are at play. Most software development companies agree that the cost of creating software could lie between $50K to $500K. 

You can build less complex software for around $50K to $80K. Highly complex software solutions go beyond the budget of $100K. The chosen technology stack, the outsourcing nation, and various other factors play a pivotal role in the schedules, budgets, and deadlines of the IT project.

Some Interesting Software Development Statistics & Facts

• The global IT outsourcing market will land at 157 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2023, as per Statista.
• By the end of 2025, almost half of the global data will be preferably stored in the Cloud per the top SaaS trends.
• The global demand for software engineers or developers has doubled since 2020.
• Most companies have willingly increased their cloud spending since the pandemic, as per a survey by Gartner.
• Clojure, F#, Elixir, Erlang, Perl, and Ruby are the top-paying languages for software developers, as indicated by a survey of Stack Overflow.

3 Things You Must Know for Software Development Cost Estimation

It is essential to have a clear idea of some aspects like objectives, your target audience, and the type of software project. A clear understanding of these factors can help you with precise estimation.

Project Goals

Clear business goals that you want to integrate into the software project allow companies to provide an accurate project estimation. Whether you are creating solutions to automate processes, need a B2B/B2C portal, or simply launch a website- this offers deep insights into the software development cost breakdown.

Target Audience

Who will be using your software products or solutions? The answer to this question helps to determine the required features and scalability for the software. Furthermore, it also paves the way for better market research, identifying compatible technology trends, and more. 

Software Type

Another significant step in determining the cost and time of software development is the type of project. Some major types of software projects are:

• Custom Software: Creating new software solutions is relatively costlier than most other projects.
• Software Improvements: Making modifications to the existing software solutions helps to prepare the business with the latest technology trends & changing requirements.
• SaaS Solutions: Developing new software as a solution can help you reach a massive audience to market your ideas. 
• Software Integrations: You can add multiple plugins to the existing software to improve its functional features.
• Web Development: Developing websites, web apps, and PWAs are under the category of custom web solutions.

What are the Key Elements of Cost Estimation?

Project Size

The project size and cost are directly proportional to each other. The bigger the project is, the higher the cost goes. Complexities and various features necessary for developing the project also play a pivotal role in the software development project. 

Small-Sized Projects: They require developing simple software ideas or minor modifications to the existing solutions. Small-sized projects can cost anywhere between $10K to $50K.

Mid-Sized Projects: Developing web and mobile apps focussed on a few functional features and used by a limited number of people at a time falls under mid-sized projects. Major code revamp can also be understood as a mid-sized project and cost between $50K to $80K.

Enterprise and Large Level Projects: Building complex software ideas with higher security and performance are enterprise-level applications. They are highly resilient and can offer several functional features even when certain parts of the code fail. 

Design & UX

Creating seamless user interfaces plays a pivotal factor in the cost estimation of software solutions. If you are building a project aimed at automating workflows, you can leverage handy themes and templates for designing user interfaces. 

However, when building software ideas aimed at a specific target audience, you need intuitive user interfaces. Smooth integration of business logic into UI designs requires several hours of hard work from the UX team but pays off well in the long run.

Project Features

You can research similar apps and websites to analyze your software ideas. Enlisting all the essential software features can help you determine the most accurate development cost for the project. 

Chosen Technology Stack 

Different software projects are compatible with different programming and scripting languages. Custom software development cost goes higher with Python language as it can help you integrate emerging trends with ease. You can ensure smooth integration of AI and ML with Python libraries and frameworks. 

A PHP development team is suited to mid and large-scale projects. Furthermore, each project requires integrating various third-party solutions, libraries, frameworks, and more. 

Similarly, JavaScript technologies can help you build cost-effective, highly scalable solutions with Node.js for server-side programming and React/Angular for front-end development. At Nethues Technologies, we weigh the project requirements to choose the best technology stack.

The infographic below gives insights into the most popular database tech stack globally.

Source 

Impact of Emerging Technologies

Integrating artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality, chatbots, etc., increases the overall cost of developing software solutions. Leveraging ready-made solutions like handy libraries and third-party extensions can help you get equipped with these technologies without spending too much. 

Tips to Reduce the Software Development Cost of the Projects

Leverage Offshore Outsourcing

Outsourcing the software project to an offshore development company can ensure affordable solutions. The developer’s rate in an offshore country is only a fragment of the actual cost compared to the United States and the United Kingdom. Hiring software developers in India can start from just $20 per hour, less than half the standard charges across the United States.  49% of companies outsource IT tasks and software development projects to save money, which is one of the prime benefits of outsourcing. 

Develop Minimum Viable Product

An MVP can help you kickstart the project at a lower budget and is developed with only critical features to test the viability of the ideas in the software market. Developing prototypes or MVPs can help you save significant costs and give deep insights into the usability of software solutions. 

Deploy Agile

Source

A poorly chosen software development model can take a heavy toll on the cost. Going agile provides scope for parallel development cycles that eliminate the most bugs before they enter the production phase of the project. This ensures high-quality, bug-free code right from the start.

How to Choose the Right Custom Software Development Company for Your Budget in 2024?

The right software company has hands-on experience in implementing business ideas with seamless solutions. They can quickly identify the project feasibility and the best technology stack for building a flawless code. You must weigh the relevant experience of the chosen company and carefully look at their USPs to find the best. 

For example, whether they offer quick onboarding, project warranty, NDA, and higher transparency in the development process. At Nethues Technologies, we have delivered 2800 successful projects in the last two decades. We offer a strict non-disclosure agreement and 60 days of project warranty on all our projects. 

With a team of 250+ IT experts, we can provide the best match for high-quality software development. All our team members are well-versed in standard project management tools like Basecamp, Zoho, Jira, etc. 

You can use them for assigning tasks & tracking progress with ease. Let our expert consultants offer you a precise cost to develop software project. 

Author’s Bio

Himanshu Rehani - Sr. Software Developer

Holding the position of a software developer, Himanshu started off his career with Nethues five years back. Since then, he has put in every effort to learn and grow into a full-fledged developer.

Read more posts by Himanshu Rehani