Synergy team
"How much does it cost to build a product" has no answer without a description of the product — it is like asking what a building costs. But the ranges follow a logic: the price is set by the number of scenarios, roles and external systems, not by the number of screens.
The short answer
| What we build | Cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| MVP — testing a hypothesis | €1,500–4,000 | 6–10 weeks |
| Full product | €4,000–12,000 | 3–6 months |
| Platform | from €12,000 | from 6 months |
| Support after launch | from €75 per month | ongoing |
The boundaries are approximate: a product with two roles and one integration can cost less than a "simple" service with calculations and external systems.
What affects the quote most
The number of roles
One role means one interface. Three roles — customer, employee, administrator — means three sets of screens, three permission models and three times as many test scenarios.
External systems
Each integration is a project inside the project: documentation, a test environment, error handling, behaviour when the service is down. Payment systems, accounting software, telephony, state registries — each adds weeks.
Calculations and business logic
A catalogue with filters is predictable work. Calculating a payment schedule, volume discounts or cost price is where the price is driven not by code but by the number of rules and exceptions.
Data and load
A hundred records and a million require different architectures. If growth is planned, it is designed in at the start: rebuilding the foundation costs more.
Reliability requirements
Backups, action logging, access separation, behaviour when an external service fails. For financial and medical products these are not optional.
What the budget consists of
| Stage | Share of budget | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Analysis and design | 15–20% | processes, roles, scenarios, specification |
| Interface design | 15–20% | screens, states, responsiveness |
| Development | 45–55% | features and integrations |
| Testing | 10–15% | scenarios, load, defects |
| Launch and training | 5% | deployment, documentation |
The analysis stage looks like an expense, but it determines the other 80% of the budget. A product designed over two weeks is almost always cheaper than one where coding started immediately.
Why start with an MVP
A full product is built on assumptions about how it will be used. Some of those assumptions are always wrong. An MVP tests them against real users for less money — what an MVP is and why you need one.
In practice: of the features that seem essential at the start, only a minority end up genuinely used. Building the rest is paid-for but unwanted weeks.
What inflates the cost
- **No fixed scope.** Without a specification every idea looks like a small tweak — how a specification is written.
- **Requirements change during development.** Redoing something already designed costs more than designing it again from scratch.
- **No decision-maker on the client side.** Decisions come slowly and development idles.
- **Integrations left until the end.** External services almost always hold surprises, and it is better to meet them early.
An example from Synergy practice
Client: a leasing company that needed a system for intake, terms calculation and deal control.
What we did: first mapped the processes and roles, then designed the data structure and interfaces, then built the system and connected it to the website.
Why not off-the-shelf: lending calculations and access separation for financial data could not be expressed through the standard fields of ready systems.
Result: leads, calculations and analytics live in one system, and reports assemble automatically.
See the Top Leasing & Credit case →
Frequently asked questions
Can you quote from a one-page description?
Only a range. An exact quote appears after design: before that nobody knows how many scenarios and exceptions the product contains.
Which is cheaper: a custom product or a ready SaaS?
At the start, SaaS. Over time it comes down to the subscription and how standard your processes are. Calculate the three-year cost of ownership.
What does product support cost?
From €75 per month for basic maintenance — a breakdown of the packages. Feature development is quoted separately.
Who owns the source code?
The client, if the contract says so. Without source code and documentation, continuing with another team is practically impossible.
Can payment be split by stage?
Yes, that is normal practice: analysis, design, development, launch. Both sides then see the result of each stage.
Conclusion
IT product cost is driven by the number of scenarios and external connections, not by the number of screens. The most reliable way to reduce the budget is to shrink the first version rather than to look for a cheaper contractor.
Synergy starts with analysis and design: during a free initial audit we unpack the idea, show what belongs in the first version, and name realistic timelines and budget.
We will check your website for free
We show the growth points before any work starts — no obligations
Get a free audit
