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In Canada a focused internal tool typically costs CAD $15,000 to $40,000, a customer-facing web application $40,000 to $120,000, and a SaaS product you can charge for $100,000 to $250,000 before the first paying customer. Integrations, user roles and undecided requirements move the number; the count of screens does not.
Updated · 4 min read
An internal tool replaces a spreadsheet or a manual process for a known set of people: an inventory tracker, a job board for a warehouse, a dashboard that pulls three systems into one view. Few roles, no public exposure, forgiving users. CAD $15,000 to $40,000 is the typical range for something a team can rely on.
A customer-facing web application adds accounts, authentication, payments, transactional email, an admin side, and the support load that comes with strangers using it. CAD $40,000 to $120,000 covers most of what small businesses commission.
A SaaS product adds multi-tenancy, billing plans, onboarding, uptime expectations and a security conversation with every serious buyer. CAD $100,000 to $250,000 gets a product to its first paying customers; the number keeps going after that because the customers keep asking.
Integrations, first. Every external system the software talks to brings its own API, its own data quality and its own failure modes, and each one is weeks rather than days. Roles and permissions, second: each role is a distinct set of screens and rules, and a five-role system is not five times a one-role system but it is not one times either.
Then the expensive one: decisions that are still open when the build starts. Changing a requirement after it is built costs more than deciding it late, every time. Data migration from the spreadsheet or the old system, compliance obligations around payments, health or personal information, and any need for real-time or offline behavior each add a layer. Design is rarely the driver, which surprises people.
A typical split on a fixed-scope build: 10 to 15 percent on discovery and design, 55 to 65 percent on the build itself, 15 to 20 percent on testing, hardening and launch, and the remainder on management and communication.
The unglamorous share is larger than most buyers expect. Authentication, password reset, admin screens, error handling, exports, audit logs and email templates are a third of most applications and appear in no demo. A quote that looks cheap has usually left them out, and they arrive later as change requests.
Software is not finished at launch; it is finished when it is retired. Dependencies need updating, security patches need applying, the hosting bill is monthly, and the feature list grows the week real users touch it.
The usual rule of thumb is 15 to 20 percent of the build cost per year in maintenance for an application that is not actively growing, more for one that is. Hosting for small-business scale is typically tens to a few hundred dollars a month. Budget for all of it on day one, as a line item or as an ongoing arrangement, because unmaintained software is the most expensive kind.
Write one page before you talk to anyone: who uses it, what they do today, the five things it has to do, the systems it touches, and what done looks like. Send the same page to every vendor.
Then ask each one for a phased scope with a first version that ships in weeks, a fixed price for the defined phase, code ownership in writing, the maintenance arrangement, and what they would cut if the budget were 30 percent lower. The last answer tells you whether they understood the problem.
That is how we quote: scoped after a call, fixed-fee for the defined phase in CAD, ongoing work on a monthly arrangement, and everything we build belongs to you.
Yes, by shrinking scope rather than quality. A first version that replaces one painful process often lands under $20,000, and the rest follows once it is earning its keep. What does not work is paying less for the same scope; the difference comes back as rework.
For a prototype or a single-team workflow, often yes, and a good developer will say so. The limits show up at integrations, permissions, volume, and the day the vendor changes its pricing. Custom earns its cost when the tool is part of how the business makes money.
An internal tool usually ships in 4 to 8 weeks, a web application in 2 to 4 months, and a SaaS MVP reaches its first customers in 4 to 6 months. The most common delay is decision speed on the client side, not engineering.
A CAD $120,000 developer costs roughly $155,000 a year once payroll costs, recruiting, equipment, and ramp-up are counted, and buys about 160 usable hours a month whether you use them or not. Here is the honest comparison against a $5,000 monthly retainer, including the cases where hiring wins.
Custom softwareMost business apps should be built once in React Native and shipped to both stores, and a surprising number should not be apps at all. Native wins when the app leans on the camera, sensors or heavy graphics; a well-built web app wins when nobody will install anything. Here is the decision in the order it should be made.
Custom softwareThe automations that pay back fastest are the ones where someone today reads something and retypes it somewhere else: product data, supplier documents, support replies and weekly reports. A well-chosen first automation costs CAD $10,000 to $30,000 to build and removes a recurring task within weeks. A chatbot on the homepage is usually the wrong place to start.
Nockta builds ecommerce, custom software, and Amazon operations for businesses across Ontario and Quebec. See where we work or the full service list.