Bespoke software is priced more like building work than a standard product. Two projects that sound identical in a sentence can differ substantially once the workflows, integrations and risks are understood, which is why an honest estimate starts with the requirements.
What actually moves the price
How many things it has to talk to
A self-contained system is comparatively predictable. Each integration adds the connection itself and the handling required when the other side is slow, unavailable or has changed, which makes integrations a common source of unexpected scope.
How many types of user there are
Each additional type of user can introduce different data, actions and permissions, increasing both the build and the testing. Permission models are one place where an apparently small requirement can create substantial work.
Whether money or personal data is involved
Payments and sensitive data raise the standard required of everything around them: security, audit, error handling, recovery. This is not optional work and it is not where to economise.
How settled the requirements are
Requirements maturity is one of the variables clients have most control over. A project where the organisation has agreed what it needs is easier to estimate than one where that agreement still has to happen during development.
What already exists
Taking over an existing system can be cheaper than starting again, or substantially more expensive if it is undocumented and fragile. This is worth assessing before it is priced.
Why quotes vary so much
A quote that is substantially lower than the others may be pricing a different piece of work. Ask what testing, documentation, accessibility, security review, deployment and post-launch support are included before comparing the headline figures.
Another difference is who will do the work and how much experienced oversight is included. Ask whether the people who scoped the project will build it, how reviews work and who will be responsible after launch.
What you are paying for beyond the build
The code is only one part of the cost of dependable software. The work also includes deciding what to build, securing it, making it accessible, testing it, deploying it safely, monitoring it and documenting it so somebody else can continue.
A quote that covers only implementation may defer the remaining costs until later, when the client still has to pay for them or accept the resulting risk.
Ongoing maintenance costs
Budget for maintenance from the start. Software that is live needs dependency updates, monitoring, occasional fixes and the small improvements that keep it useful. Treating that as an unexpected cost is how systems end up neglected.
Branch offers three monthly support plans, all excluding VAT:
- Sapling: £750 per month, including up to 4 hours of developer time
- Roots: £1,500 per month, including up to 10 hours of developer time
- Canopy: £2,500 per month, including up to 25 hours of developer time
Every plan includes monitoring, updates and regular planning. The response time and level of ongoing development increase with each plan; the full comparison is on our software maintenance and support page.
What Branch charges
We quote a fixed cost once we understand what the software has to do. Pinning down the scope before you commit makes the price easier to evaluate and gives both sides a clear basis for handling changes.
As a guide to the shape of it, excluding VAT:
- A focused MVP typically starts from £2,000
- A custom booking system starts from around £8,000
- Larger systems we have scoped run to £30,000 and beyond
These figures indicate where each type of project might start, with wide gaps because functionality determines the eventual cost. A booking system handling timed entry, memberships, annual passes and payments across two venues is a different proposition from one taking reservations for a single site, even though both get described as a booking system in the first meeting.
Whatever the figure, it includes the work needed to make the software dependable, so those costs are accounted for from the start.