GuidesHow to2 min
How to budget for custom software
Price the job, not a platform. Site vs workflow vs product, five-year cost, and what a $750 Spark is actually for.
Budgets go wrong when they start with a stack. “We need a platform” is how numbers become fiction. Start with the hours you already spend coping — overtime, a junior on DMs, seats in three tools, scrap. Then pick the smallest thing that returns those hours.
SINLE publishes the bands on purpose. Spark is $750: a written yes or no you keep. Pilot is $3,500 for a small site you own, not a system. Invent is $10–25k for one core job. Pod is $3,000 a month after Invent if it has to live. Compare those to five years of the workaround, not to a $99 template.
Nothing is charged before a written scope. If someone wants the full amount before the page exists, walk away. The sequence below is how you build a number you can defend in a finance meeting.
A number you can defend
Write two columns. Left: what the workaround costs for five years — overtime, a junior on DMs, seats, scrap. Right: Spark $750 to hear the no, Pilot $3,500 for a small site you own, Invent $10–25k for one core job, Pod $3,000 a month if it has to live. Custom has to beat the left column, not a $99 template.
Leave the Spark line even if you expect a yes. The fee is how you buy a written decline. If we take the work, it goes toward Invent. If we do not, you still have the note.
The sequence
Do these in order. Skip a line and you are back to a workshop.
- 01
Name one workflow
Budgeting “a platform” is how numbers become fiction. Budget the job that hurts this quarter.
- 02
- 03
Add the year after launch
Hosting, a person who can change it, Pod-class care if it has to live. Ignoring year two is how “cheap” becomes a hostage.
- 04
Price the cope you already pay
Overtime, a junior on DMs, seats in three tools, scrap. Custom has to beat that — not beat a $99/month landing page.
- 05
Leave a Spark-sized line for the no
$750 to hear what we would build and what we would not. If we take the work, that fee goes toward Invent. If we decline, you keep the note.
- 06
Do not fund a second job in the same envelope
A second brand, a second language, an agent “while we’re in there.” That is a second budget.
Keep these
- Compare five-year cost of the workaround to the build — not the build to a template.
- Nothing is charged before a written scope.
Do this before you spend
- 01Price one workflow, not “a platform.”
- 02Add year-two cost: hosting, a person who can change it, or Pod.
- 03Put $750 in the budget for a written no before you fund the build.
Send the workflow and the hours it already costs. We will tell you which band it is — or that you should not build it.
Questions
- How much does custom software cost?
- Spark is $750 for a written yes/no. Pilot is $3,500 for a small site you own. Invent is $10–25k for one core job. Pod is $3,000 a month after Invent if it has to live. Price follows the job.
Next how-to
- How to choose custom vs off-the-shelfA decision test: buy when the job is common, build when the workaround is the company, sequence a migration so you are not betting the week.
- How to scope an MVPMinimum means one core workflow in a real user’s hands. It does not mean half of everything. A 90-day shape you can actually calendar.
- How to read a statement of workThe lines that have to exist: what ships, what is out, when the card runs, who owns the repo, and how you cancel. If they are missing, it is a pitch.
Next
Price the job before you price the stack.
Spark is $750 for a written yes or no. Pilot, Invent, and Pod are on the pricing page. Nothing is charged before a signed scope.