What determines the price of custom software

The price of any software work comes from two things: the work, and the unknown around it. The work can be estimated. The unknown — vague requirements, a legacy system nobody understands, a slow third party — makes the number bigger, because somebody has to cover it. What lowers a price is not negotiation, it is clarity.

What pushes the price up

Requirements that are not written down

“Like we do it now” is not a specification. What is not written gets estimated at its worst case.

A legacy system with no documentation

If nobody knows exactly what the old system does, part of the work is finding out — and that is time.

Third parties

A payment gateway, a courier, Meta. Their speed is not ours to control, and waiting costs.

“And also”

The things added mid-project. It is why anything not on the page is not in the price, and why that is said before we begin.

What brings it down

1. Write down what the work is today, step by step, even roughly. It is the single most useful document you can hand anyone.
2. Separate must from nice-to-have. Half of any first list is nice-to-have.
3. Start with the part that hurts. A price comes down when the scope does, not when the hourly rate does.
4. Give access to somebody who knows the old system. An hour with them saves days.

Why there is no figure on this page

Any figure published without understanding your work is one of two things: padded to cover the unknown, or low and revised later. Neither helps you. What we can say before we talk is everything above — and after one conversation, a written quote in the currency you choose.