To pay or not to pay for custom software

Life has changed a lot in the course of last years and today we are facing a new reality when everyone needs technologies.

People use technologies in their everyday life, startups are seeking to implement their unique ideas, stable businesses tend to improve the quality of work by introducing innovative software solutions.

Once you have decided to contact a software company with an idea to develop an application, you are probably going to face the situation, which is quite common: custom software is expensive! But we will try to explain why quality software cannot be cheap. High price is not plucked from the air, but is based on the set of reasons.

Software development is like building a house. You need a team of professionals, a good design, high-quality materials to make sure that your house is stable and going to serve you for a long time. And it is not a secret that building a house is a lasting process, which costs money.

The same occurs with software development: you need a team of professional developers, who use up-to-date equipment and advanced technologies; smart design and right architecture and as a result of this development process you will get a high-quality product which will be profitable and free of bugs and errors. To make it clearer we will consider each factor, which influences the cost of the development procedure.

1. Specific character of software

It is important to understand, that creating of custom software involves the development of your own project, with the features and functionality, adjusted for your personal needs. You always can add new features or upgrade existing functionality as you like, whereas with packaged software, you pay only for the ability to use the functions provided by the software but not the source code. So it is quite understandable that custom software is reasonably more expensive.

2. Development team.

Software developers are top-requested on the market of technologies nowadays and their work is hourly rated. It is a common thing that a project is often run not by one developer but by a group of developers, who master various skills. Besides developers, you will most likely cooperate with UI/UX designers, QA engineers and business analytics. These bunch of people will take care of your product and carry it up to the required level of perfection. Yes, dealing with a team of professionals is expensive but thus you can be sure that your product is really in safe hands.

3. Development procedure.

You need to keep in mind that development process is not chaotic. It is a well-organized set of steps, which are taken to give you a full and clear view of the future product.

Everything starts with an idea, which has to be brought to life. But prior to development it is essential to clarify all details, so that not to make unnecessary steps and take extra actions. In LinkUp Studio we call it a discovery phase, which is an important part of business analysis procedure. It allows to dig deeper into the project details and remove uncertainty and mismatch between project goal and its actual implementation. Thus we provide a project specification with a detailed description of each step. It is not for free, but it is reasonable to pay for certainty but no for valueless promises.

Developers need to have great expertise and clear planning to create the intended product. Deep research and planning can take time, but it allows to provide features, that are really needed.

4. Duration of project development.

It is clear that software development is not a one-day activity. It is a long process, which can last months and even years, depending on the size of your application. Moreover it is a complicated process, that requires involvement of various professionals. Everyone knows the famous saying “Time is money”. Lasting processes imply larger amounts of money, but on the other hand, the simplest way to do something fast and cheap is to do it without quality, so here is a question of your goals.

To sum it up, everyone would agree that the purpose of any customer is getting the intended result. And if you really want to have no problems with the final product, it is better to trust your application to the team of professionals, who will take money but put their soul in the product. You will have peace of mind, knowing that your application is in safe hands.