How much does a custom web app cost?
A simple custom web application (one role, basic auth, one or two integrations) typically costs $25,000 to $75,000. A typical custom SaaS or business platform with multi-role workflows lands $75,000 to $300,000. An enterprise-grade multitenant platform with substantive integration depth and compliance posture runs $300,000 to $1,000,000+. Fixed-price quotes follow from a written specification ($3,000 to $10,000 paid deliverable). Hourly billing for engagements without a specification runs $150 to $250 per hour for senior principals.
The longer answer
Custom web application pricing is driven by four factors more than any others: scope complexity, integration count, multi-tenancy / scale requirements, and the buyer's compliance posture. The variance within each band reflects those four; the band itself reflects the overall ambition of the build.
Simple custom web app ($25k-$75k)
One user role, basic authentication, one or two integrations with backend or third-party APIs. Examples: an internal staff tool, a simple customer self-service portal, a basic CMS for a content site that needs more than templated WordPress. Build time: 6-12 weeks. Stack: Laravel 13 + Livewire 4 + Pest 4 is the dominant choice in this band.
Custom SaaS or business platform ($75k-$300k)
Multi-role workflows, several backend integrations, substantive business logic, basic multi-tenancy, audit logging, role-based access control. Examples: a B2B SaaS product for a focused vertical, an internal operations platform for a mid-market business, a partner-portal for a distribution business. Build time: 4-9 months in two-week sprints with working demos on staging. This is the dominant band for new commercial business-software builds.
Enterprise multitenant platform ($300k-$1M+)
Deep integration into existing systems, mature multi-tenancy, regulatory compliance posture (HIPAA, SOC 2, NAIC), substantial design / UX budget, real-time features, advanced analytics surfaces. Examples: an industry-specific SaaS platform serving 100+ buyer organizations, a financial-services internal platform with regulatory audit posture, a multi-region healthcare platform. Build time: 9-24 months.
What drives variance within bands
Integration count. Each backend or third-party integration adds 1-3 weeks of engineering. A platform with 8-12 integrations costs meaningfully more than a platform with 2.
Multi-tenancy. Building real multi-tenancy from the start adds 4-12 weeks of architecture work. Retrofitting it onto a single-tenant codebase later is 2-4x more expensive.
Compliance posture. HIPAA, SOC 2, FedRAMP, or industry-specific compliance (NAIC for insurance, PCI for payments) adds 15-40% to the engagement cost because the audit-trail, access-control, secret-management, and observability work is substantially deeper.
Design polish. A bespoke design + UX system adds $25k-$200k depending on complexity. Most internal tools skip this; most consumer-facing SaaS does not.
What is not in the price
Hosting and infrastructure (typically $50-$5,000/month at launch depending on scale); third-party SaaS subscriptions (payment processor, email, CRM, analytics); ongoing maintenance and feature work post-launch. Plan budget separately. Run costs scale with usage; build cost is one-time.
Common follow-up questions
Can I get a fixed price before specification?
No, not honestly. Until the specification exists, anyone quoting a fixed price is guessing or padding. The specification is a paid deliverable ($3,000-$10,000) that produces the basis for a fixed-price build quote.
What is the cheapest reasonable web app engagement?
A bug-fix or modernization engagement at 10-20 hours runs $2,000-$5,000 at hourly billing. A small build with a written specification starts around $20,000-$25,000. Below that, you are buying a template configuration, not a custom application.
How do hosting costs scale?
At launch, $50-$500/month for most small business apps. At moderate scale (1,000-10,000 active users), $500-$2,500/month. At larger scale, the hosting bill grows roughly linearly with traffic and data volume. Plan to refactor for scale before the bill becomes painful, not after.
If this answer is useful and you have a real engagement in mind, the contact form routes directly to the principal — James Henderson is the single engineer who scopes, writes, and supports every engagement end-to-end.