Question 1

How much does custom software development cost with a UK agency in 2026?

Accepted Answer

UK pricing splits by project type. A lean MVP or proof-of-concept runs £15,000-40,000. A production-ready MVP lands at £40,000-90,000. Multi-tenant SaaS products sit between £90,000 and £200,000. Enterprise platforms with SSO, audit logs, and compliance start at £150,000 and climb past £400,000. Large enterprise builds with multiple teams and complex integrations run from £250,000 into seven figures. Senior engineers bill £550-750 per day direct, £640-1,200 per day through an agency.

Question 2

How long does a custom software build take from discovery to launch?

Accepted Answer

A simple MVP is usually 12 weeks. A medium custom product is 4-8 months. Complex enterprise software runs 9-18 months or more. The phases are roughly the same regardless of size: discovery and requirements (2-6 weeks), architecture and UX design (3-8 weeks), MVP build (8-16 weeks), iteration and hardening (4-12 weeks), and focused QA before launch (2-6 weeks). Most UK agencies run on a 2-week sprint cadence and replan after each sprint.

Question 3

What is the difference between Software Development and Web Development?

Accepted Answer

Web Development covers marketing websites, content sites, and lighter web apps, typically on WordPress, React, or a headless CMS, with budgets from £2,000 to around £150,000. Software Development covers bespoke business systems, SaaS products, internal platforms, and enterprise integrations. The codebase is larger, the architecture is custom, and the lifecycle continues after launch. Some agencies do both. Most serious software shops treat them as separate disciplines with separate teams.

Question 4

Should I take a fixed-price contract or time-and-materials?

Accepted Answer

Fixed-price works only when the scope has been through proper discovery and is genuinely stable, which is rare. For anything ambiguous, exploratory, or product-led, time-and-materials with a named squad is the safer model. It aligns incentives on quality rather than cutting corners to hit a quote. Retained squads, billed monthly per seat, are a useful middle ground for ongoing product work after the initial build. Fixed-price on unclear scope almost always ends in change orders.

Question 5

How has AI-assisted coding changed software development pricing in 2026?

Accepted Answer

Tools like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Claude Code are now embedded in roughly 85% of professional workflows. The productivity gains are real on greenfield code, tests, and documentation, and are starting to compress timelines and team sizes on simpler builds. Day rates have not collapsed because senior judgement, architecture, and review still gate quality. Expect agencies to be transparent about how AI tools sit in their workflow, their review policy, and where IP lands on AI-assisted output.

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