Transparent pricing. No surprise invoices.
Custom software, security work, and platform engineering at published price ranges. Three engagement models, eleven priced services, and a payment schedule you can plan around.
How much does custom software development cost in 2026?
Custom software development at QUANT LAB USA INC costs $4,000 to $200,000+ depending on engagement type. Median price ranges in 2026: web app pentest $4K to $25K, Stripe integration $8K to $40K, custom CRM build $20K to $120K, MITRE ATT&CK assessment $8K to $30K, algorithmic trading systems $30K to $150K+. Three engagement models: fixed-fee project ($15K-$200K+), monthly retainer ($8K-$30K/mo), one-shot audit ($4K-$25K).
Quick pricing reference
| Service | Median range | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Web app pentest | $4K – $25K | 1 to 3 weeks |
| Network pentest | $5K – $20K | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Active Directory pentest | $6K – $15K | 1 to 2 weeks |
| MITRE ATT&CK assessment | $8K – $30K | 2 to 4 weeks |
| Stripe integration | $8K – $40K | 2 to 6 weeks |
| Custom CRM build | $20K – $120K | 6 to 14 weeks |
| License server | $12K – $35K | 3 to 6 weeks |
| Subscription billing | $15K – $50K | 4 to 8 weeks |
| Cloud infrastructure | $5K – $60K | 2 to 8 weeks |
| Algorithmic trading systems | $30K – $150K+ | 8 to 20 weeks |
| Custom business software | $15K – $250K | Quote |
Why we publish what we charge
Most boutique dev shops and security firms refuse to publish rates. The standard play is to gate every number behind a discovery call, qualify the buyer, and then quote whatever the buyer seems able to pay. That model rewards firms with strong sales teams and punishes firms with strong engineering. We are an engineering shop, so we use the opposite play.
We publish ranges because the buyers we want to work with already know what custom software costs. A founder who has shipped a SaaS before, a CTO who has bought two pentests, a head of operations who has run a CRM migration — these buyers want to know roughly what a project will cost in the first 30 seconds of a page, not after three sales calls. Publishing the numbers up front filters out the buyers we are wrong for and gives us more time to do the work.
The ranges below are the actual ranges. The low end is a real project we have shipped at that price; the high end is a real project we have shipped at that price. Your number will fall inside the band based on scope, integrations, compliance requirements, and timeline.
Three engagement models
Project — fixed scope
$15K – $200K+
per engagement
Defined deliverables, phased milestones, fixed fee per phase. Best for new builds, replatforms, and discrete features where the scope is clear before kickoff.
- SOW with acceptance criteria
- 8 to 20 weeks typical
- Source code handoff included
Retainer — build + maintain
$8K – $30K
per month
Monthly hours committed for ongoing build, maintenance, and on-call work. Best for live products that need continuous feature work plus operational support.
- 4 to 12 month minimum
- Net-15 monthly invoicing
- Weekly standup + roadmap
Audit / Pentest — one-shot
$4K – $25K
per assessment
Time-boxed security review, code audit, methodology review, or threat model. Best for one-off compliance, due diligence, or pre-launch validation.
- 1 to 4 week engagements
- Executive + technical report
- Retest of fixes included
Service pricing
Three reference tiers per service. The low end is a real project we have shipped at that price; the high end is a real project we have shipped at that price. Your scope places you inside the band.
| Service | Entry | Mid | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom CRM Development | $20K MVP | $60K Full platform | $120K+ Enterprise |
| Stripe Integration | $8K Basic checkout | $20K Subscriptions + dunning | $40K+ Stripe Connect / marketplace |
| Web App Penetration Test | $4K Small app | $12K Medium | $25K+ Enterprise / SOC2 prep |
| Network Penetration Test | $5K Small environment | $12K Mid-size | $20K+ Multi-site / segmented |
| Active Directory Pentest | $6K Single domain | $10K Forest with trusts | $15K+ Hybrid AD / Entra |
| MITRE ATT&CK Assessment | $8K Single tactic review | $18K Full matrix maturity | $30K+ Multi-environment + purple team |
| Algorithmic Trading Systems | $30K Single-strategy execution | $75K Multi-strategy + risk engine | $150K+ Full platform + market data + ops |
| License Server | $12K Key issuance + activation | $22K Seat management + Stripe sync | $35K+ Floating licenses / offline / audit |
| Custom Business Software | Quote Tooling / internal | Quote Multi-module ops platform | Quote ERP replacement / large scope |
| Subscription Billing | $15K Basic plans + invoicing | $30K Tiered / usage-based | $50K+ Enterprise contracts / SOC2 trail |
| Cloud Infrastructure | $5K Audit / cost review | $20K Greenfield build | $60K+ Multi-region / migration |
All prices in USD. Multi-service bundles (CRM + Stripe + pentest, for example) typically receive a 10 to 15 percent package discount versus separate engagements.
What is included at each price level
Entry tier
- Single environment build or audit
- One primary integration
- Standard SLAs (next-business-day response)
- Executive summary + technical report
- 30-day post-launch warranty
- Source code handoff
Mid tier
- Multi-environment or multi-module scope
- Three to five integrations
- Same-day response on critical issues
- Retest of all findings included
- 60-day post-launch warranty
- Staff training + runbooks
- Data migration from prior system
Enterprise tier
- Multi-region or hybrid architecture
- Unlimited integrations within scope
- Priority on-call + dedicated Slack channel
- Quarterly retests for first year
- 90-day post-launch warranty
- Compliance-grade documentation (SOC2 / HIPAA / PCI ready)
- Executive briefings + board-level reporting
- Optional retainer with priority capacity
What we do not charge for
A few things stay free because they are part of how we qualify mutually-fit work, not part of the deliverable.
Payment terms
At SOW signing. Reserves the slot in our delivery calendar and funds the discovery and architecture phases.
At the agreed midpoint milestone — typically after the v1 build is functional in staging and reviewable.
After production deployment, documentation handoff, and acceptance against SOW criteria.
Retainers: Net-15 invoicing on the first of each month. First month is prorated if mid-month start.
Audits / pentests: 50% to schedule, 50% on report delivery.
Accepted methods: Wire (preferred for over $25K), ACH, Stripe (credit card up to $50K). Checks accepted for net-30 retainers.
Late terms: 1.5% per month past Net-15 on retainer invoices. No interest on project milestone invoices within 15 days.
The case for published prices
Hidden pricing is a symptom of a sales process built around extracting maximum value from each buyer rather than running a sustainable engineering shop. When every quote is custom-priced based on a discovery call, the firm spends its margin on sales calls instead of on engineering. The buyer pays for that overhead one way or another.
Published ranges create three useful constraints. First, they force us to be honest with ourselves about what we can deliver inside a band — if a project keeps creeping past the high end of a range, the scope was wrong before we started, and we own that. Second, they save buyers six to ten hours of agency calls that otherwise produce the same number. Third, they qualify mutually-fit work: if you bounce off the price, neither of us wasted the call; if you stay, we already share a frame of reference for the conversation that follows.
Transparency is not a virtue signal. It is the operating mode that fits how we want to work — engineering-led, lean, founder-accountable. The prices above are the prices. The work above is the work.
Estimate your project
Four free calculators model the cost of the most common engagements before you book a call.
CRM ROI Calculator
Estimate the dollar value of replacing HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive with a custom CRM.
Stripe Integration Cost
Project the cost of a custom Stripe build vs an off-the-shelf billing platform.
Pentest Cost Calculator
Get a price range for web app, network, AD, or MITRE assessments by scope.
Build vs Buy Calculator
Compare 3-year total cost of building custom vs subscribing to SaaS.
FAQs
Does the price include hosting?
No. Hosting (Vercel, AWS, Fly.io, your own infrastructure) is billed directly to you so there is no margin on infrastructure costs. We help size, provision, and harden the environment as part of the build, but the cloud bill is yours from day one. Expect $30 to $400 per month for most production deployments depending on traffic and data volume.
What about scope creep?
Every project includes two rounds of SOW iteration before kickoff so the scope is real, not aspirational. After kickoff, change requests get a one-page change order with hours and cost before any code is written. Small in-scope course corrections (under 4 hours) are absorbed; anything larger is quoted and approved in writing before work resumes.
Do you do rush jobs?
Sometimes. Compressed timelines (a 12-week build into 6 weeks, an unannounced compliance pentest before a contract closes) carry a 20 to 40 percent rush premium and depend on current capacity. We will tell you on the discovery call whether the date is feasible before you commit.
Do you take equity for early-stage work?
Rarely, and never as primary compensation. We will consider partial equity (up to 25 percent of fee) for founders who are post-revenue, have a clear cap table, and can pay the cash portion on a defined schedule. Pre-product or pre-revenue companies pay cash.
What is the minimum retainer length?
Four months. Anything shorter is better structured as a fixed-scope project. Retainers run 4 to 12 months at $8K to $30K per month depending on hours committed and on-call expectations.
Do you sign NDAs and MSAs?
Yes to both. We prefer to use a mutual NDA before any technical discussion of your stack or data, and an MSA + SOW structure for any engagement over $25K. We can review your paper or work from ours.
What if the pentest finds nothing?
Then you have evidence of that, signed and dated, for your auditors. We deliver the report regardless. We have never run a real assessment that produced zero findings, but if it happened the deliverable would still be useful for SOC2 and customer security reviews.
Can we split a project into smaller phases to spread cost?
Yes. Most builds over $40K are already phased into a usable v1 followed by add-on phases. You can pause between phases, take the code in-house, or shift to a retainer for ongoing work. We do not penalize phase breaks.
Do prices include third-party software licenses?
No. Stripe fees, Twilio usage, AWS/Vercel hosting, monitoring tools (Sentry, Datadog), and any commercial libraries are billed directly to your account. We will list expected monthly costs in the SOW so there are no surprises after launch.
What is your refund policy if the project does not work out?
Each phase is invoiced against deliverables. If a phase fails acceptance criteria spelled out in the SOW, you do not pay for that phase. We have not had to invoke this clause, but it is in every contract because it is the right way to write the deal.
Reference work at these prices
Three case studies inside the bands above. Same patterns, different scopes.
Background reading
Long-form guides that walk through the math behind these numbers.
- The Custom CRM Development Guide — when to leave HubSpot, what custom buys you, total cost over three years.
- Penetration Test Cost — 2026 — what drives pentest pricing and how to scope an assessment.
- Build vs Buy Software — 2026 — when SaaS subscriptions cost more than a custom build.
Ready for an actual quote?
Call William Beltz directly at (770) 652-1282 or book a 30-minute scope call. We will land on a number you can budget against by the end of the call.
Prefer to email? Contact form.