Prothes Barai
Founder & Engineer, PSBM Labs
Custom web applications are priced very differently from a marketing website, and clients new to software development are often surprised by the range. This is a practical breakdown of what drives the number, based on projects we've scoped for businesses across Bangladesh.
Why "how much for a website" is the wrong question
A brochure website and a web application are not the same product. A web app has logins, roles, a database, business logic, and usually an admin panel — it behaves more like software than a page. Pricing follows that difference.
What actually drives the price
- Number of user roles — an admin-only tool is cheaper than a platform serving admins, staff, and customers with different permissions.
- Data complexity — how many entities does the system track, and how do they relate to each other?
- Reporting and dashboards — real-time analytics and exportable reports add meaningful backend work.
- Integrations — payment gateways, SMS, third-party APIs, or existing internal systems you need to connect to.
- Hosting and scale — a tool for 20 internal staff has very different infrastructure needs than one built for thousands of public users.
Rough ranges by project type
| Project type | Typical scope | Relative cost |
|---|---|---|
| Internal admin tool | Single role, CRUD screens, basic reports | Lowest |
| Client-facing portal | Auth, roles, notifications, dashboard | Medium |
| Multi-role SaaS platform | Billing, permissions, integrations, scaling | Medium-high |
| Enterprise system | Legacy integration, custom workflows, audit trails | Highest |
Where clients usually under-budget
The most common surprise isn't the initial build — it's what happens after launch. Hosting, ongoing bug fixes, and small feature requests are recurring costs, not one-time ones. It's worth budgeting for light monthly maintenance from day one rather than treating it as an afterthought.
How we quote
We scope every web application project against a written requirements document before quoting a fixed price. That protects the budget from scope creep and gives both sides a clear definition of "done" before a single line of code is written.