How Much Does It Cost To Create A Software?

Miscellaneous

At Hexis, the main service we offer is creating custom software. In this blog post, we’ll be covering the factors that have an influence on the cost of software creation. Producing a custom software, and achieving all client’s desires, is complex. Because of that, custom software solutions cost more.

What Is Software?

In order to know what does it take to produce software, firstly, we need to define it.

Officially, software is the set of instructions or programs that tell a computer what to do. It is independent of hardware and makes computers programmable, according to IBM Research.

IBM Research also divides software into 3 basic categories:

System software like operating systems.
Programming software that are almost self explanatory. They serve as tools to create other software.
Application software (applications or apps), which are the ones helping users perform certain tasks.

Application software are the ones Hexis is creating and are what we will be talking about in this article.

The Cost of Creating Software

To begin talking about the cost of software creation, we must first understand that there are numerous types of application software, too. To paint a picture – both Yugo and Rolls Royce are cars in their essence.

However, cost of creating the two is not nearly the same, nor is the price when one wants to buy it.

This leads us to the basic, and maybe the most important, factor to software creation – people. Application software that Hexis creates is done exclusively by people. So is most of today’s apps, too.

(With Artificial Intelligence we still have not come that far!)

Factors That Influence the Cost of Software Creation

Many variables come into this pot of factors influencing the cost of creating software. First and foremost, there is the cost of labor. However, it can vary significantly and depends upon:

1. Profession

UI, UX and web design, frontend, backend or mobile app development, etc.

Not one professional in these fields costs the same and all of them may be included in the creation of one application. Furthermore, one must not forget that there are other professions included in the software creation other than the ones listed above – for example project manager. Someone must manage all the people included in the process and make sure everything runs smoothly.

2. Supply of labor for certain technologies

Best example for this is the supply of software developers who can work in Fortran programming language. Not many people can work using the Fortran, and most importantly, even less people know how to use the Fortran the right way and write the best codes.

Hence, laws of the economy tell us – lower the supply = higher the price.

3. Experience

What is understood to everyone in our industry, is that the experience means everything. With experience we learn, grow, and most importantly, make mistakes by which we learn not to repeat them. So, a professional with 1 or 2 years of experience will not, and does not, cost the same as one who has 7 to 10 years of experience.

With our experience of almost 20 years, we have created numerous software over the years. You can check out some of our work

4. Location

We are back to the laws of the economy that clearly distinguish the labor cost across the globe. If it weren’t like that, our phone and clothes would not all be produces in China or Vietnam. This also applies to the labor cost of professions in the IT industry. For example, average software developer salary in the USA in 2020 is $106,816, while in France it is $40,558, according to Indeed. One must notice the substantial difference in labor cost just in the two countries mentioned.

If we take WordPress and similar free (or less expensive) alternatives to websites/web apps out of the picture and talk only about custom made software, then we can continue talking about other costs included in application software creation. Not as significant as labor cost are the infrastructural costs like server, domain, etc.

Additional Costs

Overhead

Overhead is something so often forgotten. To break it down let’s start by concluding that all the people working on the application creation need a different application to be able to do so. Those are often software licences that must be paid, in most cases monthly.

Also, all the people working on the application need an office space or any space with a table, a computer to work on, a chair to sit on, electricity, water, toilet, etc. That changed for some companies due to the Covid19 pandemic. Companies were forced to ask their employees to work from home, and by doing so they have reduced overhead costs. Employees in Hexis work mostly form the office, with the possibility to be remote most of the time. Not having an office at all is not an option for us.

Creating a quality custom software is a process that requires a lot of experience, and most importantly people with experience.

Looking for a team to develop your software?

In this post we explained which factors contribute to our pricing, but in case you still have some questions, or if you want us to create your software, please do contact us!