Software cost estimator for real builds.
Size a custom application honestly: pick a project band, tick the modules and integrations you need, set the complexity, and see an indicative range with the effort split, timeline and exclusions. Built for dashboards, portals, CRM, ERP and SaaS — not treated as a website.
Your estimated project cost
₹1,22,500–₹3,68,750
Indicative timeline 6–12 weeks — modules and advanced complexity extend it, confirmed after a requirements review.
How this estimate is built
- Business application — ₹80,000–₹2,50,000
- Admin dashboard — ₹10,000–₹25,000
- Authentication and roles — ₹8,000–₹20,000
- Complexity Moderate ×1.25 applied to ₹98,000–₹2,95,000
Indicative effort split
- · Discovery and requirements — 10%
- · UI/UX and technical design — 15%
- · Development — 45%
- · QA and testing — 20%
- · Deployment and handover — 10%
These percentages describe how effort is typically distributed, not separately chargeable fees.
Not included / may cost extra
- · Cloud infrastructure, hosting and scaling costs.
- · Paid API usage, third-party subscriptions and premium plugins.
- · External licences and licensed data.
- · Ongoing maintenance beyond the agreed scope.
- · Payment gateway transaction fees.
- · GST — extra, where applicable.
Assumptions
- · The upper figure is a planning band, not a guaranteed maximum for complex enterprise work.
- · No delivery date is promised until requirements and dependencies are confirmed.
- · Proposed milestones: 50% advance, 30% at an agreed milestone, 20% before final handover — subject to the final proposal.
- · This is an indicative estimate, not a fixed quotation.
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Three inputs, one transparent range
Band sets the floor
The shape of the system — MVP, business application or enterprise platform — decides the starting range. A multi-tenant platform never starts at brochure-site prices, whatever the modules say.
Modules add real work
Each module is priced as a range and shown as its own line item, so you can see what authentication or reporting actually costs. Where a bigger module already contains a smaller one, the smaller is not charged again.
Complexity scales it
The same feature name hides very different builds. A transparent multiplier captures business rules, roles, data handling, security and external systems — and it is shown on screen, not applied silently.
The cost is rarely in the first version
Most software budget surprises are not caused by development being slow. They come from work that was never named: roles and permissions nobody described until month two, a migration from a spreadsheet that turned out to be inconsistent, an integration whose API documentation was wrong, or reporting that needed data the system was never recording. Each is small individually and expensive collectively, which is why this estimator asks about integrations, data import and complexity separately instead of folding them into “development”.
The effort split shown with your result — roughly 10% discovery, 15% design, 45% build, 20% QA and 10% deployment — is why we push back on “just build it and we will see”. A project that skips discovery does not remove that 10%; it moves it into the build phase at three times the cost, usually as rework.
Cloud and licence costs are excluded on purpose. Server hosting, paid APIs, SMS or WhatsApp message credits, map usage, theme licences and gateway fees are billed by their providers and scale with your usage, not with our effort. Folding them into a development quote would make the number look bigger than the work and hide what you will actually pay each month.
And the upper figure is a planning band, not a ceiling. For genuinely complex enterprise platforms we will tell you the band does not apply and produce a detailed estimate after a requirements review — because pretending a range is a guarantee helps nobody.
Software cost questions
How much does custom software cost in India?
A focused internal tool or simple dashboard typically starts around ₹25,000–₹50,000. Multi-module business applications commonly land between ₹80,000 and ₹2,50,000. Complex SaaS, ERP or marketplace platforms run from ₹2,50,000 upward, and large multi-tenant systems can exceed that band substantially.
Why is this not priced per developer-day?
Because a day rate tells you what our time costs, not what your project costs, and it invites padding. These estimates are built from fixed delivery bands and module ranges, so you can see exactly which feature moves which number before anyone writes code.
What is the difference between the band and the modules?
The band is the shape of the system — an MVP, a business application or an enterprise platform. Modules are the parts inside it: authentication, dashboards, payments, reporting, integrations, mobile apps. The band sets the floor; the modules add the specific work you asked for.
Why does complexity change the price if the modules are the same?
Because “reports and analytics” for three users with one data source is not the same build as role-based reporting across five systems with reconciliation rules. Complexity captures the business rules, permissions, data volume and external systems that make the same feature name cost more.
Are cloud hosting and API costs included?
No, and they never are in these estimates. Cloud infrastructure, paid API usage, third-party subscriptions, licensed data and premium plugins are billed by their providers and are excluded. Ongoing maintenance beyond the agreed scope is quoted separately.
Can I get a fixed price from this tool?
No — it gives an indicative planning range. A fixed price needs a written scope: the actual workflows, roles, integrations, data volumes and acceptance criteria. That is exactly what we produce after the first requirements call.
Last updated October 2026 · Indicative planning bands, not fixed quotations. Book a discovery call
Turn the range into a scope
One requirements call and you get a written scope, module list, milestone plan and a firm price — no day-rate guesswork.
A Zumper tool, built for Indian businesses
This free Software Cost Estimator is built and maintained by Zumper, the digital growth agency behind zumper.in. We build SEO-ready websites, tools and campaigns for businesses across India — from Lucknow and Delhi NCR to Mumbai, Bengaluru and pan-India.
It is part of the same free toolset we use on client work. If you want the output turned into a plan, a page or a campaign, the team that built it is one link away.
The short version
Free, no signup
Every tool on zumper.in is usable without an account.
Runs on zumper.in
The same domain, the same team and the same standards as our client work.
Pan-India support
Lucknow-based, working with businesses across India.
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