The real price ranges by scope
A Sprint starts at €6,000 excl. VAT. It covers one well-defined module (a quoting tool, a client portal, a production tracker), delivered in 4 to 6 weeks and usable from the day it goes live. It is the right format for a first scope: short enough to be judged on results, complete enough to be used every day.
A Program starts at €15,000 excl. VAT. It builds a complete system: several processes, several roles, connections to the tools already in place. Signature programs, from €50,000 excl. VAT, cover the most ambitious systems, rolled out across several teams or several sites.
In between sit fixed-scope products: the Cockpit Starter, for example, installs a dashboard connected to your existing tools for €3,000 excl. VAT. These fixed-price formats work well when the need is already clearly bounded and speed is what matters most.
What drives the price up
The first factor is the number of processes covered. A tool that handles quotes costs less than one that handles quotes, production and invoicing. Every process adds business rules, edge cases and tests. The number of screens matters little: one more screen is quick to build once the logic exists.
The second factor is integration. Connecting to your accounting system, your CRM or your payroll tool means studying each system, its access methods and the quality of its data. Migrating years of history (clients, quotes, documents) is a project of its own, to be priced from the start.
The third factor is the number of users and roles. Ten people with identical rights is simple. Four profiles with different rights, a validation chain and client access is another level of requirement, and one to reserve for processes that genuinely call for it.
What brings it down
A tight scope, first. The first milestone should only cover what will be used every week; the rest waits until real usage justifies it. We turn down forty-page specification documents: they inflate the price for features nobody will ever open.
Keeping off-the-shelf tools where they do the job well, next. Do not rebuild email or accounting. Custom software should only carry what sets you apart, connected to the rest. Every standard function kept out of scope is one line fewer on the quote.
Finally, one person who decides. A project where every trade-off waits for a meeting costs more than the same project with a named decision-maker. Clean data at the start helps too, and the diagnostic fee is deducted from the project if you continue.
The 3-year cost, subscriptions included
The build price is only the first line. Add the running costs: hosting, monitoring, fixes and small evolutions. With us, that is the Care plan, from €250 excl. VAT per month. A tool that evolves continuously belongs in Growth, from €1,500 excl. VAT per month.
Compare that total with the subscription scenario: price per seat, multiplied by team size and by 36 months, plus the modules added along the way, plus the time spent re-entering data between tools. That last item never shows up in the accounts, and it is often the heaviest.
Over 3 years, the two curves almost always cross. And at the end, the structural difference remains: the custom tool is yours, code, data and access included, while the subscription stops the day you stop paying.
How to decide in an hour
List your five most important processes. For each one, 2 questions: is it standard or differentiating, and how many re-entries does it go through today? Standard processes stay on off-the-shelf software. Differentiating processes full of friction are the candidates for custom.
Then run the candidates through the public calculator on this site: cumulative cost of both options over 5 years, editable assumptions, no email required. An hour is enough to replace impressions with numbers and to rank the candidates by what they actually cost you.
If doubt remains, the Express Diagnostic settles it: €500, one working session, and a written, priced scope within 48 hours, deducted if you continue. You decide with numbers, without committing to anything further.