Software development costs between $3,000 and $750,000+ in 2026, and the range you should actually budget depends almost entirely on project type: a single API integration starts around $3,000, an AI/LLM feature or custom CRM at $10,000, a mobile app at $10,000, custom business software at $25,000, and an ERP implementation at $35,000 — with enterprise versions of each running into the mid six figures. The same specification can be quoted at 3–5x different prices depending on team location and seniority, which is why the fastest way to sanity-check any quote is to know the typical range for your project type before you talk to vendors.
This hub puts every range side by side, then links to the full breakdown for each category.
Software Development Cost Comparison by Project Type
| Project Type | Typical Range | Timeline | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom software | $25,000–$500,000+ | 2–18+ months | Internal tools, customer portals, replacing SaaS sprawl |
| ERP implementation | $35,000–$150,000 (SMB) / $150,000–$750,000+ (mid-market) | 3–6 months (SMB) / 8–18 months | Multi-department operations, inventory, financials |
| Custom CRM | $10,000–$500,000+ | 3–9 months | Non-standard sales processes, teams past ~40–60 seats |
| Mobile app | $10,000–$500,000+ (most projects $40,000–$120,000) | 8 weeks–9 months | Consumer products, field teams, companion apps |
| AI / LLM integration | $10,000–$80,000+ | 2–14 weeks | Assistants, document Q&A, workflow automation |
| API integration | $3,000–$15,000 per connection / $25,000–$100,000+ full layer | 2–6 weeks per connection | Connecting the systems you already run |
Every figure comes from the detailed guides below, which break each range down by tier, feature, and team location.
Custom Software Development: $25,000–$500,000+
Custom software splits into three tiers. A simple internal tool or MVP lands at $25,000–$60,000 over 2–4 months, a mid-complexity product with integrations and role-based access at $60,000–$180,000 over 4–9 months, and an enterprise platform with compliance, AI features, and legacy integrations at $180,000–$500,000+ over 9–18 months or more. The three variables that move the number most are feature scope, team location, and integration count.
The build quote is typically only 60–75% of what you'll spend in the first two years: discovery, data migration, cloud infrastructure, third-party licensing, and 15–20% of the build cost per year in maintenance all sit outside most proposals. A realistic mental model is to take the quote, add 30%, then add 15–20% annually.
Read the full breakdown in our custom software development cost guide.
ERP Implementation: $35,000–$750,000+
ERP is priced in two buckets — licensing and implementation — and vendors only advertise the first. Small businesses typically spend $35,000–$150,000 on implementation services on top of $20,000–$100,000/year in licensing; mid-market companies spend $150,000–$750,000+. The most reliable rule of thumb: budget 1.5x–3x your annual license cost for implementation, with data migration and customization the two chronically underquoted phases.
If your fit-gap analysis shows you'd customize more than roughly a third of a packaged system, a focused custom build can land in the same $100,000–$400,000 range with no per-user licensing — and tuning an existing ERP is often the middle path worth pricing first.
See the phase-by-phase numbers in our ERP implementation cost breakdown.
Custom CRM: $10,000–$500,000+
A basic pipeline-and-contacts CRM for a small team runs $10,000–$50,000, a mid-market build with integrations and automation $50,000–$150,000, and an enterprise platform with AI features and multi-team workflows $150,000–$500,000+. The breakeven against per-seat SaaS tools like Salesforce or HubSpot typically arrives around 40–60 users, after which custom systems often pay for themselves within 18–24 months.
Feature choice drives the budget more than headcount: a workflow automation engine adds $12,000–$35,000, AI lead scoring $15,000–$50,000, and a companion mobile app $20,000–$60,000.
Get the feature-by-feature pricing in our custom CRM cost guide, with a deeper line-item view in the custom CRM development breakdown.
Mobile App Development: $10,000–$500,000+
A simple single-platform MVP runs $10,000–$30,000, the most common project — a mid-tier iOS + Android or web app with 5–10 features — lands between $40,000 and $120,000, and complex platforms with AI, payments, and admin dashboards run $120,000–$350,000. Enterprise SaaS applications with compliance, SSO, and audit logs exceed $250,000–$500,000. Timelines run from 8–12 weeks for a focused MVP to 4–9 months for a full product.
Who you hire moves the number as much as the spec: offshore teams deliver mid-tier scope for $18,000–$55,000, while US agencies bill $120–$250/hour blended.
Start with our guide to hiring a developer to build your app, and budget the team itself with our developer hiring cost breakdown and complete developer hiring guide.
AI and LLM Integration: $10,000–$80,000+
Most production LLM integrations land between $10,000 and $80,000. A direct API integration for summarization, drafting, or classification costs $5,000–$20,000 and ships in 2–6 weeks; a retrieval-augmented (RAG) assistant that answers from your own documents runs $20,000–$80,000 over 6–14 weeks; fine-tuning a model on your own examples costs $15,000–$60,000+, with data preparation usually the largest line item.
The projects that fail rarely fail on the model — they fail on architecture choice, data handling, and cost control, which is why a short scoping engagement pays for itself here more than anywhere else.
See the architecture-by-architecture numbers in our LLM integration guide, or start with AI consulting if you're still choosing a use case.
API and Systems Integration: $3,000–$100,000+
A single point-to-point integration between two modern systems costs $3,000–$15,000 and ships in 2–6 weeks. Bidirectional syncs with conflict resolution — CRM ↔ ERP customer records, for example — run $10,000–$30,000. A full middleware layer connecting 5–10 systems costs $40,000–$120,000 over 3–6 months, plus $500–$2,500/month in maintenance. Legacy systems with no real API sit at the top of every range.
Integration is frequently the highest-ROI item on this page: it's a fraction of the cost of replacing systems, and it buys 12–24 months of breathing room before bigger platform decisions.
Full pricing and build-vs-iPaaS tradeoffs are in our API integration services guide; if the work is data-heavy, see the ETL pipeline guide.
What Every Category Has in Common
Three cost rules hold across every project type on this page. First, team location is a 3–5x multiplier: US and Western European agencies bill $100–$220/hour, Eastern Europe and Latin America $40–$80/hour, and South and Southeast Asia $20–$50/hour — our guide to developer hiring costs breaks the rates down by role. Second, hidden costs add 25–40%: discovery, data migration, infrastructure, and maintenance rarely appear in the headline quote. Third, scope definition is the cheapest insurance available: a written specification — ideally a structured software RFP — is the difference between comparable bids and a 3x spread of guesses.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does software development cost in 2026?
Between $3,000 and $750,000+ depending on project type. Single API integrations start at $3,000, AI/LLM features and custom CRMs at $10,000, mobile apps at $10,000, custom business software at $25,000, and ERP implementations at $35,000. Enterprise versions of each category reach $500,000–$750,000 or more.
Why do quotes for the same project vary so much?
Vendors price different assumptions: the seniority of the actual builders, how much discovery is included, who handles QA and DevOps, and how change requests get billed. Team location alone moves the price 3–5x for identical scope. Normalize quotes by asking every vendor for the total 24-month cost of ownership, not the build price.
What's the cheapest way to get a working solution?
Usually integration, not construction. Connecting the systems you already own costs $3,000–$15,000 per connection versus $25,000+ for the smallest custom build. If you do build, cutting scope to the 3–4 workflows that carry the business — and shipping version 2 on top of a live product — beats building everything at once.
How much should I budget beyond the build quote?
Add roughly 30% to the quoted build price for discovery, data migration, infrastructure setup, and third-party licensing, then budget 15–20% of the build cost per year for maintenance. Software that isn't maintained decays; an unfunded version 1 becomes a liability rather than an asset.
Is custom software cheaper than SaaS subscriptions long-term?
Past roughly 30–50 seats, or licensing bills above $50,000–$80,000/year, custom builds typically break even in 18–36 months and then run at 15–20% of build cost annually. Below that threshold, configured SaaS usually wins on pure economics.
How do hourly rates translate into project totals?
Multiply realistic hours by the blended rate, then buffer. A 400-hour MVP runs $14,000–$70,000 depending on team location; a 2,000-hour product build runs $70,000–$350,000. Always add roughly 20% for scope change and 20–30% for QA and post-launch fixes.
Do AI features make projects dramatically more expensive?
Less than most buyers expect. Adding an LLM-powered feature to an existing product costs $5,000–$20,000 for direct API patterns, $20,000–$80,000 for document Q&A over your own data. What raises the price is messy data — cleanup and preparation are usually the biggest AI line items, not the model.
How do I get an accurate number for my specific project?
Write down the workflows the software must support, every system it must connect to, and any compliance requirements — then have 2–3 vendors scope against the same document. A paid discovery phase ($5,000–$15,000) produces a spec, architecture, and estimate you can hold any team accountable to, and routinely saves 10x its cost in avoided rework.
Ready to put a real number on your project? Get in touch for a scoped, fixed-range estimate — we'll price it against the same ranges you see on this page.