Pricing
Custom projects start at $6,000.
There are no tiers or packages, because there is no standard version of your company. What you get instead is a fixed price against a written scope, agreed before anyone writes code.
Commercial structure
- To begin
- 50%
- At launch
- 50%
- Ongoing
- From $200/month
On signature, against the agreed scope
When the system goes live
Hosting, maintenance and support
This is not a subscription. It is hosting, maintenance and support for a system you own the deliverables of — and you can see exactly what it covers below.
What moves the number
Price follows scope. Here is what scope is made of.
A single-department system with one integration sits near the bottom of the range. A build spanning sales, operations and accounting with data migration sits well above it.
Workflow complexity
How many distinct processes the system has to handle, and how much they differ from the norm.
Integrations
Each external system adds real work — auth, data mapping, webhooks, failure handling.
Data migration
Moving history out of existing tools cleanly, including the records that were never entered consistently.
User roles
Office, sales, crew leads, crews, customers. Each role is a different view and a different set of permissions.
Automation
Every automated sequence has conditions, exceptions and a stop rule. That logic is the work.
Custom business logic
Your pricing rules, scheduling constraints and approval chains — the reason you are here.
Mobile requirements
Whether the field workflow needs a responsive web interface or genuinely warrants a native app.
Reporting
Straightforward operational reporting is quick. Cross-system analytics with reconciled figures is not.
External provider work
Account setup, merchant approvals and third-party review cycles we do not control the timeline on.
You’ll know what we’re building, what it costs, and what is outside scope before development starts.
After launch
Hosting, maintenance and support.
From $200/month, depending on the size of the system and what it depends on. Deliberately not called a subscription — you are not renting access to your own software.
What the monthly covers
- Hosting and infrastructure
- Monitoring and backups
- Security patching and dependency updates
- Bug fixes on delivered functionality
- Integration upkeep when a service you depend on changes
- Support for your team when something looks wrong
- Small adjustments as the business changes
Quoted separately
- New features and additional workflows
- Additional integrations beyond the agreed scope
- Major redesigns or new modules
- Third-party service fees you pay directly
Nothing gets added to your bill without a quote you approved first. That is the whole point of writing scope down.
When something breaks, we investigate it, fix it, add protection against it happening again, and tell you exactly what happened.
That last part is the one most people have never been given. You should not have to guess whether a problem was understood or just made to go away, and you should not have to chase an answer from someone who has moved on to their next client. Software you cannot get support for is a liability no matter how good it was on launch day.
Questions
Straight answers about cost and ownership.
How much does custom software cost?
Most projects begin around $6,000. Larger systems are scoped based on complexity — number of workflows, integrations, user roles, data migration and how much custom business logic is involved. You get a fixed price for a defined scope before development starts, and anything added later is quoted separately.
Do you replace our current software?
Not necessarily, and usually not entirely. The best result is often integrating what already works and replacing only the parts that do not. Ripping out a working accounting system to sell a bigger project is a bad trade for you and a bad reference for us.
How long does a project take?
It depends on scope. A focused system — one department, a couple of integrations — typically runs several weeks. Larger builds spanning sales, operations and accounting run longer. You get a milestone schedule during scoping, not a number designed to win the deal.
Who owns the software?
Your company owns its business data and the custom deliverables built for you. Operava retains ownership of the reusable frameworks, libraries, infrastructure and pre-existing technology used to build the system. Exact terms are defined in the project agreement, and we go through them before you sign.
What happens after launch?
Hosting, maintenance, monitoring, bug fixes and support continue through a monthly support plan starting at $200/month. New features and expanded scope are quoted separately as you need them.
The number depends on your operation. Let's find out what it is.
Discovery is where scope comes from, and scope is where the price comes from. Nothing is quoted before we understand the work.
Custom builds start at $6,000. No obligation on the call.