Custom software development cost in Canada: the ranges
These ranges come from published benchmarks by Canadian studios and agencies in 2026, rounded. Treat them as directional: every quote depends on the scope, and vendors publish their own numbers. All figures are in CAD, before GST/HST.
| What you are buying | Typical project price (CAD) | What it usually means | Vesk equivalent in tokens |
|---|---|---|---|
| A narrow tool or one integration | From about $15,000 | One workflow, one or two user types, little design work | 12 tokens (one integration): Starter, $1,270 CAD plus tax over 1 month |
| A small-business system (CRM, scheduling, portal) | $50,000 to $125,000 | Several screens and roles, a few integrations, reports | 58 tokens (2 flows, 4 screens, 1 integration and 1 report): Scale + Growth, $6,270 CAD plus tax over 2 months |
| A first version of a new app (MVP) from a Toronto studio | $80,000 to $130,000 | A customer-facing product built from scratch | 100 tokens (3 flows, 2 integrations, 8 screens and 1 report): 2 × Scale + Growth, $10,250 CAD plus tax over 3 months |
| A medium app with several user types | $130,000 to $220,000 | Web and mobile, admin tools, payments, notifications | 196 tokens (8 flows, 4 integrations, 10 screens and 3 reports): 4 × Scale + Growth + Starter, $19,480 CAD plus tax over 6 months |
| A full platform | $250,000 and up | Many integrations, high volume, strict compliance | No fixed size: we measure it after the kickoff and quote it in tokens, piece by piece |
After launch, plan on maintenance of roughly 12 to 20 percent of the build cost each year, plus hosting. The last column counts the 8 bonus tokens of the first month; try your own mix in the token estimator.
What moves the price
- Scope. The number of screens, user roles and rules is the biggest driver. A system that three staff use costs less than one that customers log into.
- Integrations. Every connection to QuickBooks, Shopify, a payment processor or your CRM is a separate piece of work with its own edge cases.
- Who builds it. Toronto agencies bill roughly $130 to $190 CAD an hour, and add 20 to 40 percent for project management and QA. Nearshore studios charge roughly $60 to $95 CAD an hour. Senior freelancers sit in a similar band on the platforms where they are listed.
- Design. A tool for your own staff needs clear screens. A customer-facing app needs real design, which takes time.
- Privacy and compliance. Health, financial or personal data adds review work and constraints.
- Speed. Compressing a timeline means more people at the same time, and it costs more.
The in-house route: what a developer costs
Hiring is the other way to get custom software built. According to Robert Half's 2027 Canada Salary Guide, a senior software developer in Toronto earns a mid-point base salary of about $157,000 CAD. With employer payroll contributions, benefits and equipment, that is roughly $172,000 a year, or $14,300 CAD a month. Recruiting through an agency usually adds 15 to 25 percent of first-year pay and two to four months of searching. If you can keep that person busy full time, an employee is a reasonable choice. If you need less than a full-time person, you pay for hours you do not use. We compare the routes in detail in freelancer, agency or team.
A worked example: booking and invoicing for a 12-person service business
Say you run a service company with 12 staff. You want customers to book online, staff to see a schedule with job details, invoices created in QuickBooks, card payments tied to each job, and one weekly revenue report.
As a project. Scope like this fits the small-business system range above, so expect a quote in the region of $50,000 to $125,000 CAD, with a start date after the discovery phase and a first working version months away. Change requests are billed on top.
With Vesk. We size it in tokens before starting. The customer booking flow and the staff scheduling view are two complete features (20 tokens). A customer list and history screen is 5. The QuickBooks integration and the payments integration are 12 each (24). The weekly report is 6. That is 55 tokens. The cheapest way to buy them on monthly plans is Scale + Starter: $5,250 CAD plus tax over 2 months, which already counts the 8 bonus tokens of the first month, with the first delivery in week 1 after the kickoff. Hosting is included.
This is an illustration of the arithmetic, not a quote. A system with dozens of screens, several user types or heavy compliance needs takes more tokens, and we size every task before it starts. The point is the shape of the cost: you pay as you build, you see what each month produced, and you can stop or change direction when the picture changes.
Why projects cost more than the quote
Fixed bids look safe, but the software is rarely understood fully on day one. When the scope shifts, a vendor billing for the project has every reason to push it into a change order. Add a developer who is paid for activity rather than outcomes and a spec nobody tested against real users, and projects growing past their quote is common. If you are in that situation now, our page on software project rescue explains how to recover what you can, starting with the first week after a developer disappears.
A monthly plan instead of a project quote
Vesk sells software development as a monthly plan, not a project. You choose Starter, Growth or Scale at 8, 20 or 40 tokens a month: $1,270, $2,290 or $3,980 CAD, all plus GST/HST. That is about $159, $115 and $100 CAD a token. Twelve months of Growth billed monthly costs $27,480 CAD plus tax; an annual plan costs the same per month and adds 2 extra months of tokens.
A token is a fixed unit of work, and every task has a set size quoted before it starts: a small change is 1 token, a bug is 3, a simple screen is 5, a report or dashboard is 6, a landing page is 8, a complete feature is 10 and an integration is 12. In a month, Starter buys a landing page or a report; Growth buys two complete features; Scale buys four, or three integrations. The kickoff, the monthly meeting with the senior lead, the weekly update, the platform and hosting of your app are included, and the code and accounts are in your name from day one.
You can cancel a monthly plan at any time, the first month is guaranteed with a full refund, and a bug is fixed until it works. To ship something faster, you can move up one or two plans for a single month and then back down. Read more in how a development subscription works.
When a project is the better tool: if a lender, board or insurer requires one fixed price for a defined deliverable, a project quote does that and a monthly plan does not.
Mistakes that make custom software cost more
- Choosing on hourly rate. The cheapest hour is not the cheapest result if the work is done twice.
- Starting with the whole system. Build the one piece that saves or earns the most, and add from there.
- Skipping ownership. Make sure the code, hosting and domain are in your name, or you will pay again to get them.
- Forgetting the running costs. Budget for hosting, fixes and updates every year.
- Building what you could buy. A paid tool that fits 90 percent of the job is often the right answer; see custom software versus off the shelf.
Where Vesk fits, and where it does not
Vesk fits owner-led businesses of roughly 5 to 30 people that want senior work without a full team. We are a poor fit if you need the lowest hourly rate, cannot make time for a monthly meeting, or want a fixed-price contract for a large platform. For app-specific numbers, see app development cost in Canada. The team is in Mexico City, the contract is Canadian through APRed, and prices are in CAD.
Sources
- Robert Half Canada: senior software developer salary, Toronto Mid-point base salary of $157,410 CAD a year for a senior software developer in Toronto, from the 2027 Canada Salary Guide data shown on the page today.