"How much will it cost?" is the first question we hear, and the honest answer, "it depends on scope", helps nobody. This guide gives real ranges in rupees for the kinds of projects Indian businesses typically commission, explains what moves a quote up or down, and lists the recurring costs that rarely appear in the first proposal.
What actually drives the cost
Custom software is priced by effort, and effort is driven by a handful of things you can control.
- Screens and roles. A system with an owner, a cashier and an accountant, each seeing different things, costs more than one login that sees everything.
- Integrations. Tally sync, GST e-invoicing, a payment gateway, WhatsApp Business API, SMS, bank statements, barcode hardware. Each is a separate piece of work with its own testing.
- Reports and dashboards. Simple lists are cheap; configurable reports with filters, exports and charts are not.
- Devices. Web only is cheapest. Add a mobile app, thermal printers, weighing scales or tablets on a shop floor and the work grows.
- Data migration. Moving five years of Excel and Tally data into a new system, cleanly, is often underestimated.
- Clarity of requirements. Vague requirements cost more than any feature, because they are paid for twice: once to build the wrong thing and once to fix it.
- Who builds it. As a rough guide, freelancers in India charge around ₹500 to ₹1,500 an hour, companies in tier-2 cities like Nagpur or Gondia around ₹1,000 to ₹2,500, and metro agencies ₹2,000 to ₹5,000 or more. The same scope can therefore come back at three very different totals.
Indicative cost ranges by project type
These are rough guides from our own experience of quoting for Indian MSMEs, not fixed prices. Every figure depends on scope.
| Project type | Rough range | What is usually included |
|---|---|---|
| Business website | ₹40,000 to ₹1.5 lakh | 5 to 15 pages, contact and WhatsApp forms, basic SEO, mobile-friendly |
| Custom web application | ₹2 to 10 lakh | Multi-role login, core workflows, reports, one or two integrations |
| Mobile app with backend | ₹3 to 15 lakh | Android (often iOS too), API and database, admin panel, store publishing |
| MSME ERP | ₹3 to 12 lakh | Inventory, purchase, sales with GST, production or job cards, reports, Tally sync |
| Billing and POS with inventory | ₹2 to 8 lakh | Counter billing, barcode, UPI, stock, multi-store, WhatsApp reports |
| AI or automation add-on to an existing system | ₹1 to 5 lakh | A chatbot, document extraction, forecasting or a workflow bot on your existing data |
Two things to notice. First, the low end of each range assumes clear requirements and standard technology. Second, the ranges overlap because a simple ERP for one factory can cost less than a complex web application for a marketplace. The label matters less than the scope. For mobile in particular, we break the numbers down further in mobile app development cost in India.
Fixed price versus time and materials
| Model | Works well when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed price | Scope is clear, small to medium size, you want certainty | Every change becomes a negotiation; vendors pad for risk |
| Time and materials | Scope will evolve, you have an internal owner who can prioritise weekly | Needs trust and discipline; the meter runs while you decide |
| Discovery plus fixed phases | Most MSME projects | Requires paying for a short discovery before the build quote |
The model we recommend for most businesses
Pay for a short requirements phase first, typically one to three weeks. The output is a written scope, wireframes and a phased quote. Then build phase one on a fixed price. Later phases are quoted when phase one is live and everyone has learned something. This avoids both the padded fixed quote and the open-ended bill.
Hidden and recurring costs
The build price is not the total cost. Budget for these separately, and ask any vendor to list them.
- Hosting. For most MSME systems, roughly ₹1,000 to ₹10,000 a month depending on traffic and backups. Enterprise setups cost more.
- Domain and SSL. Small, but renew every year in your own name.
- SMS. Transactional SMS in India costs a few paise per message after DLT registration, which itself takes a couple of weeks.
- WhatsApp Business API. Charged per conversation by Meta, plus a fee from the provider you route through. Cheap per message, but it adds up at volume.
- Payment gateway. Typically around 1.5 to 2 percent per transaction plus GST, with UPI often lower or free depending on the provider and rules at the time.
- Third-party APIs. GST verification, e-invoice and e-way bill providers, maps, courier tracking. Each has a subscription or per-call charge.
- App store accounts. Google Play charges a one-time registration fee; Apple charges yearly.
- Maintenance. As a rough guide, 15 to 20 percent of the build cost per year for bug fixes, library updates, OS changes and small improvements.
- Training and data migration. Sometimes bundled, often not. Ask.
- Hardware. Printers, scanners, tablets, sensors. Never assume these are in the software quote.
A ₹5 lakh system can easily cost ₹1 to 1.5 lakh a year to run. That is normal, but it should be on the table before you sign.
How to reduce cost without cutting quality
- Cut scope, not quality. Launch with the three modules that remove the most manual work. Add the rest once people are using it.
- Choose boring technology. Common stacks are cheaper to build, easier to hire for and simpler to hand over.
- Reuse what exists. Do not rebuild payroll or accounting if a ready product does it well; integrate with it. Our custom ERP vs off-the-shelf piece covers when to buy and when to build.
- Give clean data and quick decisions. Weeks lost waiting for a product list or an approval are paid for somewhere.
- Accept standard interfaces. Custom visual design is worth paying for on a customer-facing app, rarely on an internal tool.
- Keep one decision-maker. Committees generate change requests.
- Do not pay for imagined futures. Build for the next two years, not the next ten. Software that is used gets extended; software that is over-designed gets abandoned.
Timelines, because time is money too
As a rough guide, a business website takes two to six weeks, a custom web application two to five months, a mobile app three to six months and an MSME ERP three to nine months rolled out in phases. Faster is possible with a clear scope and a client who answers questions the same day. Slower is common when either is missing.
Delay has a price even on a fixed quote. Every month the system is not live is a month of the manual work it was meant to remove, and a team that waits on you loses momentum and context. When we plan a project we ask the client to name the person who will answer questions and approve screens, and to keep half a day a week free for it. That single commitment shortens most projects more than any technical choice.
How we quote at SailRight
We do not give a price on the first call, because we do not yet know what you need. Our process starts with requirements: we learn how your business runs and what the software must do. From that we produce a scoped estimate by phase, with recurring costs listed separately and exclusions written down. If the first phase is small, the requirements work is short and inexpensive; if the project is large, it is the best money you will spend on it.
Where SailRight fits
We build custom web applications, ERPs and billing systems for MSMEs, and we quote from written requirements rather than guesses. If you want a scoped estimate for a project, see our custom software development service page or contact us with a short description of the problem you are trying to solve.
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