Guide
What a customer portal costs to build
A client portal for an accounting firm, where clients sign in, upload their documents, message their accountant and pay invoices by card, prices at $45,000 – $64,000 over 15–21 weeks. The staff side behind it is the biggest single piece, at $12,000.
- $45,000 – $64,000
- The accounting firm’s client portal, in the browser
- $12,000
- The staff side, the most expensive piece of it
- $6,000
- Card payments and file uploads, together
Written by
WhatWillMyAppCost
We build the estimator this site runs on, and we design and build custom mobile and web software for a living. Every figure below is the estimator’s own output, except the published vendor prices, which are read off each company’s own page and dated.
Your customers email you attachments, call to ask where things stand, and pay you by check. You want a place they can sign in and handle all of it themselves, and you’re trying to work out whether that’s a $5,000 job or a $50,000 one.
Below is what goes into a customer portal, what one costs, what each piece of it is worth, what changes when it holds health records, and when you shouldn’t build one at all. It’s all priced on one accounting firm’s client portal.
What is a customer portal?
A web app your customers sign in to, in the browser, where each one sees only their own account. The firm priced here has about 400 clients. Each one signs in, uploads tax documents when the firm asks, reads messages from their accountant, downloads the finished return and pays the invoice by card.
Behind it is a second set of screens for staff: who’s uploaded what, which returns are waiting on a client, who owes money, and a place to answer messages. Clients never see that side.
How much does it cost to build a customer portal?
$45,000 – $64,000 over 15–21 weeks for the accounting firm’s, in the browser. The firm has its logo and colors, and no screens designed. Take each piece out one at a time and here’s what each is worth.
The staff side, where accountants file documents and see who owes what: $12,000
Secure messages between clients and their accountant: $7,000
Paying an invoice by card: $4,000
Clients and staff seeing different things: $3,500
Signing in: $2,500
Clients uploading their documents: $1,500
They don’t sum to the price, for the reason the CRM guide gives.
Secure messages are $7,000 on the firm’s portal, more than card payments and uploads together. If clients are happy on email, messages are the piece to leave for later.
Why is the staff side the most expensive piece of a portal?
Because it’s a second application, and on the firm’s portal it’s $12,000 of the price.
- What the client sees
- Their documents, their messages and their invoices. A handful of screens.
- What staff see
- Every client at once: what’s been uploaded, which returns are waiting on the client, who owes money, and the messages to answer.
Leave it out and the portal comes down to $35,000 – $50,000. Staff still sign in with their own permissions, but there’s no separate set of screens for working across every client at once. The estimator’s smaller first version sits between the two: a small staff screen, messages left for later, $32,000 – $45,000 over 13–19 weeks.
What do messages add to a customer portal?
$7,000 on the firm’s portal, the second-biggest piece. Once real people use them, messages need read and unread, attachments, delivery, and an email when a new one arrives. They also keep the back-and-forth about a return out of email.
Email still works. If your clients are happy to keep using it, leaving messages out of the portal is the biggest saving you can make without touching the staff side, and you can add them in a later round once people are signing in.
What does a patient portal cost?
The same portal built to hold health records under HIPAA prices at $53,000 – $75,000 over 16–22 weeks, $9,500 more than the accounting firm’s. Patients sign in, upload forms, message the practice and pay their bill, and staff work from their own side.
It isn’t connected to the practice’s EHR, so what patients see is what staff put there. What a HIPAA-compliant app costs covers what HIPAA adds to a build and why. If your practice’s EHR already has a patient portal, that’s worth checking first.
How long does it take to build a customer portal?
15–21 weeks for the accounting firm’s, from kickoff to clients signing in. Getting 400 clients onto it is a job of its own: deciding who gets invited first, and what happens to documents already sitting in email.
Does your existing software already include a client portal?
Buy, if the tax or practice software your firm already pays for includes a client portal. Try it before pricing a custom one. The portal priced here doesn’t connect to your tax software, so staff would put each finished return in by hand, and connecting it to one system adds about $2,000.
Build when you’ve tried the bundled one and it doesn’t fit how your firm works. Build or buy has the arithmetic for when a subscription stops being cheaper.
A client portal with sign-in, uploads, messages, card payments and a staff side costs $45,000 – $64,000 and takes 15–21 weeks. The staff side is $12,000 of it and messages $7,000, while payments and uploads together are $6,000.
Built to HIPAA for a medical practice, the same portal is $53,000 – $75,000.
FAQ
Questions about building a customer portal
How much does a client portal cost to build?
An accounting firm’s client portal, with sign-in, document uploads, secure messages, card payments and a staff side, prices at $45,000 – $64,000 over 15–21 weeks. Without a separate staff side it’s $35,000 – $50,000.
What features should a customer portal have?
Sign-in, so each customer sees only their own account. Then whatever they currently email or phone you about: documents, messages, invoices, status. And a staff side, so your people can see every customer at once and work through what’s waiting.
Can I build a customer portal without coding?
A no-code portal tool can cover collecting forms and sharing files. Try one before pricing a build, and check whether it handles your staff’s side the way your firm works. The custom portal on this page is $45,000 – $64,000.
What does a patient portal cost to build?
About $53,000 – $75,000 for a portal where patients sign in, upload forms, message the practice and pay their bill, built to HIPAA. That’s $9,500 more than the same portal without health records in it.
Is a customer portal a website or an app?
Usually a web app. It runs in the browser like a website, but each customer signs in and sees their own account, so there’s a server behind it that has to be built too.
How do I make a customer portal secure?
Each client signs in and sees only their own account, and documents and messages stay in the portal. Two choices cover a lot of the rest. Sign-in runs on a managed provider that handles passwords, resets and sessions, and card payments go through a payment processor so the portal never touches a card number. Health records bring HIPAA on top.
Can I start with a smaller customer portal?
Yes. The estimator’s smaller first version keeps a small staff screen in place of the full staff side and leaves messages for later: $32,000 – $45,000 over 13–19 weeks, against $45,000 – $64,000 for all of it.