Pricing

What custom software actually costs, and how my sliding scale works

By Georgios Katsikis, software engineer & licensed social worker (LMSW)

Almost nobody in custom software publishes prices. The usual reason is "every project is different", which is true, and also a convenient way to make you book a sales call before you learn anything. If you run a non-profit, you're accountable to a board and a budget, and you deserve a real number before you spend an hour of anyone's time. So here are mine.

Typical ranges

These are honest ranges for the kinds of projects I take on, before any sliding-scale adjustment.

  • Discovery & scoping · $1,500 to $3,000, flat. A short, fixed-price engagement. I learn your workflow, look at your spreadsheets and systems, and you get a written plan with a firm quote. If you take that plan to a different developer, it's still yours, that's the point of paying for it separately.
  • A focused build, roughly $6,000 to $18,000. One well-defined system, like turning your reporting spreadsheet into a validated dashboard, an intake form that writes to a real database, connecting two systems that don't talk. This is the tier most organizations actually need.
  • A platform, roughly $20,000 to $60,000. Multiple user roles, client-facing logins, compliance requirements, months of work. The Mercury analytics platform lives in this tier.
  • Care after launch, a modest monthly retainer. Hosting, security updates, small fixes, and a human who answers when something breaks. Sized to the system, agreed before launch, cancellable anytime.

Every quote I give is fixed-price against a written scope, not open-ended hourly billing. If I estimated wrong, that's my problem, not your budget's.

The sliding scale

I keep a sliding scale for non-profits, and only for non-profits. For-profit companies, healthcare included, pay the standard ranges above. Before I was an engineer I was a social worker in community organizations, and I know exactly what it's like to watch a mission-critical tool stay broken because the quote had a comma in it. The scale exists so the organizations that answer to communities instead of shareholders can afford software built right.

It works like this. The ranges above slide down based on your organization's budget and mission, a small human-services non-profit does not pay what a funded healthcare company pays for the same work. I'd rather build something real for an organization doing good work at a rate it can survive than walk away over a rate card. If the honest answer is that you can't afford custom software at all, I'll tell you that too, and point you at the off-the-shelf tool you should use instead, that conversation is free.

I'm also used to how non-profits actually pay. Grant cycles, fiscal-year boundaries, board approval in stages. Phased builds with phased payments are normal here, and a scoping document from the discovery phase is something you can attach to a grant application.

What actually drives the price

When a quote lands at the top or bottom of a range, it's almost always because of these.

  • Who logs in. A tool for your staff is cheap. Client-facing logins mean access control, password resets, and someone else's grandmother using it on a phone.
  • Sensitive data. If the system touches health information, HIPAA is architecture, not paperwork, encryption, audit trails, and the tests that prove them are real work and priced honestly.
  • Integrations. Every external system the software must talk to (your CRM, a payment processor, a state reporting portal) adds a seam, and seams are where the effort lives.
  • How messy the existing data is. Ten years of spreadsheets with hand-typed categories takes real time to clean. It's also usually worth it.

And one thing that lowers price is being willing to keep your current workflow. Meeting your spreadsheet where it is, validating and visualizing it instead of replacing it, is often the highest-leverage money you can spend.

What's always included

  • Automated tests on everything that matters, access rules, money math, data validation, so the system survives changes after I'm gone.
  • Documentation and a real handoff. You own the code, the accounts, and the data. No hostage situations.
  • Boring, mainstream technology that any competent developer can maintain in five years, you are never locked in to me.

Common questions

Why publish prices when nobody else does?

Because the people I want to work with have to budget in public, to boards, funders, and communities. Pricing opacity mostly benefits the seller.

Who qualifies for the sliding scale?

Registered non-profits and the community organizations doing that work, not for-profit companies, however mission-flavored. If you're a for-profit, you get the same honesty and the standard rates.

Do you work for free?

Rarely, and deliberately. An occasional small pro-bono build for an organization whose work I believe in. Ask, the worst case is an honest no and a cheaper plan.

Can we pay from a grant?

Yes. Discovery produces exactly the kind of scoped, itemized plan grant applications want, and I'll structure phases and invoices around your grant's timeline.

What if we're not sure we need custom software at all?

Then start with the honest guide to that exact question, a lot of organizations shouldn't buy custom, and it says so.

If a range above fits your budget, or you want to find out where the sliding scale would put you, tell me what you're working on. A first conversation and an honest "here's what it would cost" are always free.