Cost calculator
What custom software actually costs in 2026 — built by a senior engineer, not a sales rep. Adjust four inputs, see the range against US/EU agency benchmarks instantly.
Estimate
Four questions, instant range. Priced as a senior solo engineer — Western quality, Bangladesh cost base — against live 2026 US/EU agency benchmarks. Updates as you choose.
Your estimate
LiveYou save vs US/EU agency
Quick build
$6k–13.8k
~4 weeks · Solo, spec-driven
Production
Recommended$12k–27.5k
~8 weeks · Solo senior engineer
Quick: You bring the spec, I ship. Defined scope, defined deliverable.
Production: Founding-engineer mode. Architecture, scope evolution, prod ops, code review pairs.
Cost drivers
Pre-fills the brief form on /hire.
Ranges, not quotes. Final scope and price are agreed after a 20-minute call — no upfront discovery fee.
Methodology
Transparent inputs, deterministic output. No hidden multipliers, no lead-gen tricks. Built so you can sanity-check the math against any agency proposal you receive.
Quick build = you bring the spec, I ship it. Defined scope, defined deliverable, no architecture invention. Full production = founding-engineer mode — architecture, scope evolution, prod ops, code review. Same person, different engagement shape.
Base ranges from public 2026 agency pricing data (Clutch / GoodFirms-style rate cards, SaaS and marketplace cost surveys) for fixed-scope projects in the US, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Australia. MVPs $30k–70k. Mid-sized SaaS $80k–200k. Marketplaces $55k–220k. That's the anchor you'd pay elsewhere.
Simple = mostly CRUD with standard auth (0.7×). Moderate = custom business logic, role-based access, third-party integrations (1.0×). Complex = multi-tenant, real-time, 3D, or AI core to the product (1.5×).
Each non-trivial feature adds 5–35% on top of the base. Auth +5%, payments +10%, admin dashboard +12%, AI +15%, real-time +18%, multi-tenant +20%, 3D/Unreal +35%. Mobile-responsive is assumed (no extra).
Rush (4–6 weeks for an MVP) costs +30% and compresses the schedule — you're paying for prioritization. Flexible (12–16 weeks) is −10% — a predictable slot for me, a lower price for you.
The agency anchor carries a coordination overhead — PM, account management, margin — that compounds with scope: roughly +7% per complexity step and +2.5% per feature, capped at +35%. A solo senior strips that out entirely, which is why the savings % widens on bigger, messier builds instead of sitting at a flat number. The solo tiers price the work itself, never the overhead.
Cost of living, not skill level. I bill roughly $45–60/hr to Western clients where a comparable Western senior charges $100–150/hr — rent, food, and operating costs in Bangladesh are 4–6× lower, not the craft. Quick build is ~20% of the agency number, full production ~40%. I've shipped production used by ImmoScout24, Mileway, and Formwerk. The 'offshore = junior' assumption is a 2010s artifact.
FAQ
Quick build is spec-driven — you bring the wireframes, feature list, and stack choice; I ship it. Defined scope, defined deliverable, ~half the timeline of a production build. Full production is founding-engineer mode — I'm in on architecture decisions, scope evolution, prod ops, multi-tenant edge cases, and ongoing code review. Same engineer, different engagement shape. Quick fits when the design is locked; Production fits when the product is still being shaped.
A typical SaaS MVP from a US/EU agency runs $30,000–$70,000 for a fixed scope of 8–12 weeks (2026 agency pricing data puts the median around $28k and complex builds well past $100k). With me, Quick build lands at $6,000–$14,000 (spec-driven, ~4 weeks), Full production at $12,000–$28,000 (founding-engineer mode, 8–12 weeks). The calculator above lets you adjust complexity, features, and timeline to get a tighter range.
Mid-sized B2B SaaS — multi-tenant, role-based auth, payments, admin dashboard — typically lands at $80,000–$200,000 from a Western agency in 2026. With me: $14,000–$35,000 Quick or $28,000–$70,000 Full production. Each major feature compounds — multi-tenancy adds ~20%, real-time ~18%, AI ~15%, and a steeper agency coordination overhead is exactly what the solo model strips out.
Full production: a focused MVP 8–12 weeks, production-ready SaaS 16–24 weeks, internal tool 4–6 weeks, marketplace 18–30 weeks. Quick build is roughly half that — spec-driven scope without architecture exploration is faster. Rush timelines cost +30% (and compress the schedule), flexible timelines −10%.
Cost of living, not skill level. A senior engineer based in Bangladesh bills roughly $45–60/hr to Western clients where a comparable Western senior charges $100–150/hr and a US/EU agency bills $150/hr+ once PM, account management, and margin are layered on. Same Next.js, same TypeScript, same architecture rigor — rent, food, and operating costs are simply 4–6× lower. Quality lives in the engineer, not the geography. I've shipped production systems used by ImmoScout24, Mileway, and Formwerk. The 'offshore = junior' assumption is a 2010s artifact.
Fixed-price (what this calculator shows) works when scope is well-defined upfront — most Quick builds and many Full production engagements. You pay the agreed amount regardless of how long it actually takes. Time-and-materials (hourly or weekly retainer) works for ongoing work, unclear scope, or fractional engineering — I bill for hours used. Most projects start fixed and shift to retainer once we're past launch.
Three inputs, in order of impact: (1) project type — MVP vs SaaS vs marketplace sets the base range, (2) complexity — how much custom business logic vs CRUD, (3) feature set — auth, payments, multi-tenant, AI, real-time each compound additively. Timeline is the lever — rush or flexible adjusts price by ±30%. After a 20-minute call we lock the exact number; the calculator gets you within 20% before we talk.
Contact
Open to Senior, Staff, and Founding Engineer roles — and select freelance engagements. Reply within 24 hours, CET timezone.