Focused first builds we've quoted recently were $10,000 and $15,000, both fixed price. The $15,000 one, a client portal for an accounting practice, also carries $130 a month for hosting and support. Larger systems with more users, integrations and data cost more. The price only means something next to two other numbers: what the task costs you now, and what renting a product to do it would cost.
What are you actually paying for?
A quote covers more than writing code. Ours pays for five things.
- Scoping. Mapping the process with the people who do it, then writing down what we'll build, what it connects to, the price and the date. Nothing is built until you agree that in writing.
- The build. The screens, the database and the connections to your other tools. You see working screens along the way, not only at the end.
- Testing. Checking it against real examples of your work before your team relies on it.
- Running costs. Hosting, AI usage and services like SMS. We pass these through at cost, with no markup.
- Looking after it. Defects in what we built are fixed free for 30 days after handover. After that, support is a monthly fee agreed with the build.
Focused builds we've quoted have run two to six weeks.
How do we price a build?
We price from what the problem costs your business each year, not from how many hours we expect to spend. The aim is for the first year's saving to be about ten times the build fee. If the numbers don't get there, we suggest a smaller build, or not building at all.
The price is fixed once scoping is done, and it's paid in milestones. If you add scope during the build, we price the addition before doing it. We're not registered for GST, so no GST is added to our fees. The full detail is on our pricing page.
What does the task cost you now?
This is the number that matters more than our quote. We set out the arithmetic in what your admin actually costs you: someone on a $95,000 salary spending an hour a day on one task costs you about $12,500 a year in wages alone. Add up the hours across everyone who touches the task and you have the size of the problem.
Then the hours tell you which kind of fix fits.
| Hours a week on the task | What we'd usually suggest |
|---|---|
| Under 5 (up to about $12,500 a year) | Live with it, or fix the workflow: a cleaner handoff, a better template, one fewer step. |
| 5 to 10 | Look for an off-the-shelf tool, or connect two systems you already pay for. |
| Over 10 ($25,000 a year and climbing) | A custom build starts to pay for itself in year one. |
This is also why our first builds are small. A problem worth $12,500 a year doesn't justify much of a build, and we'll tell you so.
Is renting software cheaper than building it?
Sometimes. Here's a purely hypothetical example, not drawn from any client.
Say a product costs $45 per user per month and you have 15 users. That's $8,100 in the first year. If the price rises 7 per cent a year, five years costs about $46,600. Now say a build that fits the same job costs $25,000, plus $250 a month to run and support. Five years costs $40,000.
| Five years, hypothetical | Rent | Build |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $8,100 | $28,000 |
| Years 2 to 5 | $38,500 | $12,000 |
| Total | about $46,600 | $40,000 |
On those numbers it's close. The deciding factors are the ones the table leaves out. Does the product do the job, or does your team still work around it in spreadsheets? What happens to the rent when you hire five more people? Can you get your data out? We go through those in build or buy.
What do Australian agencies say custom software costs?
Several Australian agencies publish ranges. They're a useful check if you read what each band includes.
- Hatchet, a Perth agency, puts most custom software between $30,000 and $600,000 in 2026. Its smallest band, $30,000 to $80,000 over 8 to 14 weeks, covers single-purpose web apps, internal tools and dashboards. It budgets maintenance at 15 to 20 per cent of the build cost each year.
- Expeed, based in Adelaide, quotes $15,000 to $40,000 for simple internal tools over 4 to 8 weeks, $40,000 to $150,000 for mid-complexity systems, and $150,000 to $500,000 or more for enterprise systems. It also puts maintenance at 15 to 20 per cent of the build cost a year.
- Cipher Projects gives fixed-price projects as $25,000 to $250,000 or more as of July 2026. Its $25,000 band is an internal tool or simple customer portal with three to six screens, built in 4 to 8 weeks.
Our first builds sit below those bands for two reasons. We keep a first build to one job. And we build on our own underlying platform, which we reuse across clients. That's also why you get a perpetual licence to the software rather than the software itself.
How does the ATO treat software costs?
The ATO treats renting and building differently, and the difference is mostly timing.
Subscriptions. The ATO's in-house software guidance says periodic payments to use software in your business are deductible in the year you incur them.
Software built for you. The same page defines in-house software as software you acquire, develop or have someone else develop for your business use, or the right to use that software. It is a depreciating asset. If you don't use the small business rules or a development pool, you claim it using the prime cost method over a five-year effective life.
Software development pools. Spending on software you'll use solely to earn income can go into a pool, including costs before it's ready to use. For spending from 1 July 2015, the pool is deducted at nil in year one, then 30, 30, 30 and 10 per cent. Once you choose a pool, later in-house software spending has to go into one too.
Small business concessions. The ATO confirms the $20,000 instant asset write-off is now permanent law from 1 July 2026 for businesses with aggregated turnover under $10 million. Eligible assets costing less than $20,000, first used or installed ready for use in the year, can be deducted in full, and the limit applies per asset. Assets of $20,000 or more can go into the small business pool, depreciated at 15 per cent in the first year and 30 per cent after that. A pool balance under $20,000 at the end of the year can be written off.
A focused build under $20,000 may therefore be deductible in the year it's ready to use. Whether it is depends on your turnover, when the software is installed and how your agreement is structured, which is a question for your accountant.
What pushes the price up?
These are the usual reasons:
- Integrations. Every system it connects to adds work, edge cases and testing.
- Data migration. Moving records out of spreadsheets or an old system means mapping, cleaning and checking them first.
- Users and permissions. Each type of user, and what each can see, adds screens and rules.
- Compliance. Audit trails, retention rules and approvals take careful building.
- AI features. Drafting or document extraction needs checking against real examples, plus a review step a person signs off.
How do you keep it affordable?
Start small. Pick the one task that costs your team the most time, fix it, and build on what works.
Ask who owns what. Under our terms you own your data, your configuration and everything the system produces. You get a perpetual licence to use the software in your business, and we keep the underlying platform. If we stop trading, you get the source code so someone else can maintain it. If you want to own the software itself, we can quote that before the build starts.
Ask about getting your data out. Any supplier should tell you how your records come back to you, and in what format.
Ask what happens if support ends. With us, your licence continues when support ends. Ending support ends our obligation to maintain the software, not your right to use it.
When shouldn't you build at all?
Most Australian businesses are small. The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman counts 2,741,087 actively trading small businesses at 30 June 2026, and businesses with fewer than 20 employees make up 97 per cent of all actively trading businesses. At that size most processes are standard. Bookkeeping, payroll, rostering and email marketing are solved problems, and a product will do them better and cheaper than a build.
Don't build if the task is under a few hours a week, if the process isn't settled yet, or if a product does the job once it's set up properly.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a small custom software build cost in Australia? Focused first builds we've quoted recently were $10,000 and $15,000 fixed, one with $130 a month for hosting and support. Australian agency guides put small internal tools from about $15,000 to $80,000, depending on what's included.
Is GST added to your prices? No. We're not registered for GST, so no GST is added to our fees. If that changes, we tell you before it applies.
What are the ongoing costs after launch? Hosting, AI usage and services like SMS are passed through at cost. Defects in what we built are fixed free for 30 days, then support is a monthly fee agreed with the build.
Can I claim custom software as a tax deduction? Usually, but not always in the year you pay. The ATO treats in-house software as a depreciating asset, with small business concessions such as the $20,000 instant asset write-off. Check your situation with your accountant.
Why price from the cost of the problem instead of hourly? Because it ties our fee to what the build is worth to you. If a task costs little, the build should cost little, or it shouldn't happen.
If you've worked out what a task costs you, book a free 30-minute chat. We'll tell you whether it's worth building something, and roughly what it would take.
This article is general information, not tax advice. Talk to your accountant about how these rules apply to your business.