On cost vs value: is custom software development worth it?
This post is a quick overview of an Abto Software blog article.
While requiring considerable time-to-market and investment, personalized applications provide important, business-specific functionality, flexibility, scalability, and performance.
More and more organizations are choosing custom development over ready-to-use, commercial applications. But with the time-to-market and investment bespoke development might require, it’s important to consider the advantages and disadvantages before choosing a strategy.
The cost of custom software development
Project scope
The scope usually includes the most important requisites: project objectives, deliverables, activities, and more. The broader the scope, the bigger the required upfront investment.
The factors to consider:
- Project size
- Project requirements
- Complex functionality
- System integration
- Team composition and expertise
- Ongoing support and maintenance
Software complexity
The complexity usually depends on several critical characteristics: user interface, client expectations, and more. The harder the coding, the greater the expenses.
The factors to evaluate:
- More effort — complex projects will require more time and cost to implement advanced functionality
- Detailed planning — complex projects also require extensive planning, architecture design, and analysis
- Specialized expertise
- Bug fixing
- Detailed coordination
- Risk management
Technology stack
A factor that’s affecting your budget — the chosen technology stack (frameworks, libraries, databases, tools). Frontend & backend technologies, cloud services, version control, operating systems, and other related factors will impact your investment quite heavily.
Team composition
Another factor that’s shaping your expenses — team composition (arrangement, functions, availability, roles). Geographical location, team expertise, industry-specific knowledge and experience, project management — these factors will influence your investment and future project success.
The outsourcing of custom software development
Geographical location
One contributor to your project’s budget if you choose outsourcing — the contractor’s geographical location. This involves economic landscape, industry-specific standards, tax policies, government regulations, and many other factors.
The cost of custom software development in 2024 across regions:
- United States — 100–149 USD per hour
- Canada — 50–99 USD per hour
- United Kingdom — 100–149 USD per hour
- Australia — 100–149 USD per hour
- Poland — 50–99 USD per hour
- Ukraine — 25–49 USD per hour
- Spain — 25–49 USD per hour
- India — 10–25 USD per hour
Team composition
Another determinant to your project’s expenditure if going with outsourcing — the required team composition. Remember specific project objectives, on-demand expertise & stack, team dynamics, needed competencies, and the provider’s rates.
The salary of on-demand software specialists in the United States:
- Project manager — 57,138–138,658 USD per year
- Product manager — 76,053–190,068 USD per year
- BA specialist — 55,010–130,307 USD per year
- QA specialist — 32,288–112,464 USD per year
- .NET developer — 76,769–195,065 USD per year
- C# developer — 76,769–195,065 USD per year
- Senior software engineer — 101,415–217,104 USD per year
- Senior data scientist — 103,604–214,869 USD per year
Is bespoke software development the strategy for you?
When choosing custom-designed software, you leverage market differentiation & competitiveness, and more. But considering the time-to-market and initially required investment, as well as challenges toward integration, is it the strategy for you?
When weighing the advantages and disadvantages, business leaders should consider several factors:
- Business needs to address by choosing custom development
- Commercial alternatives to consider before approaching custom development
- Required costs — upfront costs, ongoing expenses (technical support and maintenance, updates, patches), and common hidden costs
- Expected return-on-investment — now, finally, the leaders can estimate potential return-on-investment
- Resource constraints — any organization should evaluate its capabilities and restraints
- Stakeholder involvement — every company should prioritize stakeholder involvement
Is custom software development worth it?
On-demand functionality to match your operations
The most important feature — custom software can provide on-demand functionality to match your operations. User interfaces and dashboards, specialized billing and invoicing, access controls, data analytics and reporting — bespoke software might benefit business leaders across industries.
Business productivity to take your processes to a higher level
Another quite important feature — custom-designed software can align with uncommon business workflows. That means better communication and collaboration, flexibility, scalability, and, naturally, greater efficiency — bespoke software won’t let you down.
Increased scalability
Commercial applications come with database limitations, monolithic architecture, and other common issues. Custom software, on the other hand, can incorporate modern-day features to accelerate system scalability — cloud integration, microservices architecture, and more.
Enhanced security
Off-the-shelf applications also cause system vulnerabilities — data breaches, malware, ransomware, and else. Bespoke software, on the other side, can integrate cutting-edge mechanisms to streamline system security.
Summing up
Abto Software, Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is your strategic partner to deliver enterprise-level products. Discovery phase, requirement documentation, design, engineering, quality assurance, product deployment — our engineers can cover every stage.
Our services:
- .NET development
- ASP.NET development
- Web app development
- Mobile app development
- Cloud services
- Full-cycle, custom software development
Why delay digital transformation?
Partner with trusted providers to implement personalized functionality and enjoy high-level performance.
