How expensive is software development?

What do you think software development costs?

A fictional calculation gives helpful indications

This calculation serves as an example and as a comparison to our product prices.

Price calculator

Select a product

Price for this product at the time this form was produced

€

Would you be willing to develop this product yourself?

Yes

What is your expertise with FileMaker (1-9)

Include testing and improving during development (requires time & costs)

Yes

Should it be an established product with a reliable track record? (requires time & costs)

Yes

Estimated number of hours to build a similar tool from scratch

hours

What is your hourly rate?

€

Your development costs

€

This is what to think about

Total development time: hours.
Total development costs: € .

This is roughly what the development of the selected product would cost you, either in time or money.

Is AI the solution?
Let's assume AI would reduce the time and costs. You are an AI-wizard and invested heavily to acquire the knowledge needed. Let's also assume that with AI you would only need 10% of the here mentioned time and costs. Would it be cheaper and easier to go that route instead of purchasing a well-tested tool?

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What to learn from this?

This calculator does not give any actual insight. The estimates are not “for real” and it is no offer. This form is hinting at aspects of pricing, which are sometimes lost in consideration.

This form is about insights. It is entirely fictional, but the results highlight the value of any software development against a backdrop of complexity and experience. Software development is expensive. So is the actual business experience behind the functionality and workflows. The more experienced you are as a developer and the more practical knowledge you add from a business perspective for the solution at hand, the simpler it gets to come to a good result and probably the higher the hourly rate should be.

However, it also clarifies that there is no such thing as a free lunch. To actually pay for a service will create that service for you. You do not just “pay a price”, but “obtain a real value”. To buy a license from an existing product might give you more value at a better price than any free product can give. Now you can choose to create a solution yourself or to hire a developer to do the work, even to obtain a license from another supplier. Value, at the end, is always a combination of factors. Our products give you extreme value and allow you to cut costs considerably, as you have seen for yourself now.

How do I estimate the total time?

This calculation is built on man hours. Here is a basic estimate for time:

Realistic: 5 hours per day of focussed work and 20 such days per month as average.
20 days per month at 5 hours a day = 100 hours = 1 month.
12 months = 1200 hours = 1 year.

Consider that more expertise usually leads to fewer hours and better results, but also to a higher cost per hour.

What can I save?

Weigh the costs of external development against doing the work yourself and/or using a starter file to skip months of development time. And ask these honest questions:

Do I need full access to a file or solution, or only to its data?
Do I want to rely on external software platforms (SAAS)?
Do I need to keep my data secure and private on my own servers?
Do I need offline access?

Good questions help define what kind of solution you need and why.

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