Custom software and web app cost in India

How much does custom software cost in India?

Custom software is the widest category on any price list. It covers a spreadsheet replaced by a web app, a CRM shaped around your sales process, an ERP across warehouses, a data warehouse that makes the numbers agree, and AI that reads documents and acts in your tools. Prices follow scope, so the honest answer comes by type of system.

Our packages for each type, with the starting price, the first things each includes and the delivery time, read from the price list:

• Tech Strategy Consultation — from ₹3,000
• Workflow Automation Sprint — from ₹14,000
• Internal Tools & Portals — from ₹45,000
• AI Agent Workflows — from ₹85,000
• Custom CRM Setup — from ₹95,000
• ERP & Inventory Rollout — from ₹1,75,000
• Data Pipeline & Warehouse — from ₹1,75,000

What decides the price of custom software?

Two systems that look alike in a demo can differ widely in the work behind them. These are the questions that size a project, and the ones a supplier should ask you before quoting.

• Roles and screens. Each kind of user, such as sales, accounts, a manager or a customer, sees different screens with different permissions.
• The data model. How many kinds of record there are, how they relate, and the rules between them: approvals, discount limits, stock reservations.
• Connections. Every system it must read from or write to, such as Tally, WhatsApp, a payment gateway or a marketplace, is its own piece of work.
• Migration. Moving years of data out of spreadsheets or an old system, cleaned, with proof that nothing was lost. Data Migration & Quality starts at ₹15,000.
• Reporting. Which numbers each person needs, and how fresh they have to be.
• What must never go wrong. Audit trails, offline use, backups, access control and uptime all add design and testing time.

How does fixed-price delivery work?

A fixed price only works if the scope is written down first. Ours starts with a 15-minute scope call. Within 48 hours you receive a written proposal setting out what we will deliver, the price in rupees, the timeline, what we need from you and how you pay. If you later want something outside it, we write down what is asked, what it displaces and its effect on price and delivery, and agree that with you before anyone starts on it.

Large systems are delivered in phases. Our ERP rollout goes live one site at a time and includes 30 days of hypercare. On every build you see a working demo on day one, so you see progress before you see an invoice.

If you are not sure what to build, the Tech Strategy Consultation (₹3,000) gives you a build-versus-buy recommendation, a target architecture and a sequenced 12-month roadmap with a budget, before you commit to anything larger.

Build, buy, or both?

Off-the-shelf software is cheaper to start with and right for standard processes. Custom software earns its cost when the process is how you compete, when off-the-shelf tools force workarounds that cost staff time every day, or when per-user subscriptions keep rising as the team grows. Many businesses end up with both: a standard tool set up well, with custom connections around it. Our build-versus-buy framework walks through the decision.

Ownership is part of what you pay for. Once you have paid in full, we assign to you the rights we hold in the work made specifically for you; open-source and third-party components stay under their own licences. Ready-made products are different: buying one gives you the source code and the right to run it for your own business, while renting is a licence.

What will custom software cost to run?

Running costs are paid to other companies and are not in our package prices: cloud hosting, software licences and usage-based services, as our terms set out. Ask for them in writing alongside the build price.

• Hosting: a cloud bill that grows with users and data. Cloud Infrastructure Setup (₹25,000) builds it with monitoring, backups and a cost review, and the Cloud Cost & Reliability Tune-up starts at ₹15,000.
• Licences: where a system is built on a licensed platform, the licence is paid to that company.
• Automation engine: the Workflow Automation Sprint and our IndiaMART and Meta lead automations are built on n8n, whose Sustainable Use License lets a business use and modify it for its own internal business purposes without a licence fee ¹. You pay for the server it runs on.
• AI usage: AI features are billed by the model provider for every request; our AI chatbot cost guide works through an example.
• Support: Managed Support & Growth starts at ₹14,000, with response and resolution SLAs, security patching and a monthly roadmap and demo.

What do typical custom software budgets look like?

These examples add up the starting prices on our cards. They show how projects usually combine, not discounts.

• Strategy first, then one process automated: Tech Strategy Consultation, Workflow Automation Sprint — from ₹17,000 together
• Spreadsheet to web app, with Tally sync: Internal Tools & Portals, Tally Integration & Automation — from ₹57,000 together
• Custom CRM with WhatsApp lead capture: Custom CRM Setup, WhatsApp & Support Automation — from ₹1,07,000 together
• ERP rollout with a management dashboard: ERP & Inventory Rollout, Business Intelligence Dashboard — from ₹2,20,000 together

What should you ask before you sign?

These questions separate a fixed price you can rely on from an estimate that will grow. Ask them of every supplier, ourselves included.

• Is the scope written down screen by screen, including what is out of scope?
• Is the price fixed for that scope, and how are changes priced and agreed?
• When will you see working software, and how often after that?
• Who owns the code and the data at the end, and in what form do you receive them?
• Which other companies will bill you, and for what?
• What happens after go-live: hypercare, support and what they cost?

How we worked out these figures

Every MakinForU price on this page is read from our live price list when the page is built, so it always matches the package cards. Example budgets add those starting prices together; they are not bundle discounts.

The facts about how fixed prices, changes and ownership work come from our published terms. The n8n licence terms come from n8n’s own licence file, on the date shown. Hosting and licence costs depend on the provider and your usage, so we name them without a figure.

Sources

1. n8n licence file (Sustainable Use License), n8n repository, checked 7 Oct 2026