Most agencies start this answer with "it depends". True, but useless. So here are the numbers first, and where they come from after.

Ranges

An integration between two systems: from around ten thousand euros. Two packages with a decent API, a few kinds of data going back and forth, alerts when something does not come through. If one of the two has no API it costs more, because then we build the bridge to it.

A platform: twenty-five thousand to a few hundred thousand. A portal, a planning system, an internal platform used daily. The difference between those extremes is almost never the number of screens. It is the number of exceptions.

Maintenance: a fixed amount per month. That covers availability, monitoring, updates and backups we actually restore now and then. Anything you build on top goes at the hourly rate of your package. Without an agreement we still help, at a hundred and thirty euros an hour and in order of arrival.

Where the money goes

On an average project roughly half goes to building. The other half goes to things you cannot see and that decide whether the software lasts two years or five:

  • Working out how the process really runs. The cheapest phase, and the one with the most influence on the rest.
  • The exceptions. That one client with their own pricing, that order type booked differently.
  • Testing and error handling: what happens when an integration is down for a while.
  • Handover: documentation and access, so you are not stuck with us.

What pushes the price up

  • Exceptions. Every "except when" in your process is a separate branch in the software.
  • Systems without an API. Then we build the bridge, and that needs maintaining too.
  • Multiple parties who have to move. Waiting on a supplier costs no build time but plenty of calendar time, and sometimes money anyway.
  • Unclear decision-making. The most expensive one of all, and the cheapest to fix.

What brings the price down

  • Starting with the piece that returns the most and deciding the rest later.
  • Using off-the-shelf packages where you can. Not everything needs to be custom; accounting certainly does not.
  • Someone on your side who can make decisions without three meetings first.

How to work it back

The question is not what it costs but what it returns. If someone spends four hours a week retyping, that is over half a working week a month. Run that over two years and you have covered the range of an integration.

We would rather do that sum together than send a quote with a number at the bottom. Feel free to call: 010 318 0515.