Software6 min read
What custom software actually costs in Kenya
What a custom system costs to build in Kenya, why the range is so wide, and how to tell whether you should be buying instead of building.
Software pricing is opaque in a way website pricing is not, and the reason is simple: two projects described in the same sentence can differ by a factor of ten. “An inventory system” might mean a stock list two people update, or it might mean multi-branch stock with reconciliation and supplier ordering.
So rather than a single number, here is the shape of the cost and what moves it.
| Scope | Cost | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Single-purpose tool | KES 150,000 - 400,000 | One job done properly: quoting, a booking form, a stock list with real search. |
| Internal system | KES 400,000 - 1,200,000 | Several connected jobs, multiple user roles, reporting. |
| Platform | KES 1,200,000+ | Customer-facing accounts, payments, integrations with other systems. |
What actually moves the number
- How many kinds of user there are. One role is straightforward. Admin, staff and customer is three sets of permissions, three sets of screens and three ways to get it wrong.
- Whether money moves through it. Payments bring reconciliation, failure states, refunds and an audit trail. It is rarely the integration that costs - it is everything around it.
- Whether it has to talk to something you already run. Connecting to an existing system is easy when that system has an API and slow when it does not.
- How much of your process is undocumented. If the rules live in one person's head, someone has to extract them before anything can be built. That is real work and it is usually underestimated.
Build or buy?
Buy off the shelf when the process is standard. Nobody should pay a developer to rebuild accounting software - QuickBooks exists and it is cheaper than your first sprint. Build custom when the way you work is the thing that makes you money, and bending it to fit a package would cost more than the package saves.
- 01Write down the process as it actually runs today, including the exceptions.
- 02Price the off-the-shelf options that cover most of it.
- 03Cost the workarounds honestly - staff time, double entry, errors.
- 04If the workarounds cost more per year than the build, build. If not, buy and move on.
How to keep the number from running away
- Get a fixed price against a written scope. Hourly billing on software is how budgets disappear.
- Ship the smallest version that is genuinely useful, then add. A system nobody uses because it is still six months from done has cost you everything and returned nothing.
- Agree what happens when scope changes, before it changes.
- Make sure you own the code and can move. Ask the question in writing, at quote stage.