What an enterprise app costs to build

Software a large organization uses to run part of its business. It’s used by thousands of people in different jobs, it has to connect to systems the company already runs, and it has to pass whatever security and accessibility rules the company sets before anyone’s allowed to use it.

The app priced here is for a grocery chain with 150 stores and about 8,000 employees. Every morning, store staff work through opening checklists on the store’s phones: cooler temperatures, a photo of the produce display, the safety walk. Store managers sign off on them. District managers see every store in their district and pull reports. Corporate sends out tasks and sets up the checklists from a web portal, and the staff list comes from Workday.

$78,000 – $111,000 for the store app, built for every store and passing both reviews. This is the price at each step.

A pilot in two stores

$60,000 – $86,000 over 16–23 weeks. The whole app, every feature and all four kinds of user, for about 120 people, before either review.

The same app for all 150 stores

$62,000 – $89,000 over 16–23 weeks. $2,500 more, most of it server work.

Plus the security review

$71,000 – $101,000. $10,500 more.

Accessibility conformance instead

$69,000 – $98,000 on its own, $8,000 more than the app without either review.

Both reviews

$78,000 – $111,000 over 17–25 weeks, $19,000 more than the app without them.

A little. Going from 120 people to 8,000 adds $2,500 to the store app, most of it server work for more data and more traffic, and the rest the testing and management that grow with it. The screens are the same screens. Training staff and supporting 150 stores after launch aren’t in that figure.

So a two-store pilot costs nearly as much as the full rollout, because it’s the full app. What the pilot buys is finding out the cooler checklist has three steps nobody wrote down, in two stores instead of 150.

$10,500 on the store app. The estimator prices it with one setting, labeled “SOC 2 / enterprise security review,” and that’s the label you’ll see on the result. Your security team’s review isn’t a SOC 2 audit, which is a CPA’s report on a company that sells a service to others. The setting pays for sign-in through company accounts, an audit trail of who changed what, written documentation, and the back and forth of the team’s questionnaire.

In the estimator it adds 14% to every line of the build. What SOC 2 adds to a build has the rest, for companies that sell software and do need the audit.

Getting the security team’s list of requirements before design starts saves building something twice.

$8,000 on the store app, if company policy says its software has to meet an accessibility standard such as WCAG. It means every screen works with a screen reader, with larger text and without color as the only signal, and that it gets tested that way.

With the security review on top, the two together come to $19,000. They’re cheapest when they’re in the plan from the start. Adding either one to an app that’s already built means going back through every screen.

The four kinds of user. Put all four kinds of user on the same screens and the store app comes down $16,000, the same pattern any business system shows.

• 01

  Four kinds of user, each on their own screens: $16,000

• 02

  Checklists that keep working in the walk-in cooler and sync later: $13,000

• 03

  The corporate office’s web portal: $12,000

• 04

  Reports for district managers: $3,500

• 05

  Signing in: $3,000

• 06

  Staff lists from Workday: $2,000

• 07

  Photos on a checklist: $1,500

• 08

  Looking up old checklists: $1,500

• 09

  Notifications when corporate sends a task: $1,000

Each of those includes its share of the two reviews. Keeping checklists working with no signal and syncing them afterward is $13,000, which the offline mode guide explains, and the corporate portal is $12,000.

17–25 weeks for the store app with both reviews, against 16–23 weeks without them. That’s the build, from kickoff to release. The security team’s questionnaires and setting up phones in 150 stores aren’t counted in it.

In a big company, what moves that date is usually inside the company: how fast the security team answers, who signs off on the checklists, and when IT can set up the store phones. Naming one person who can make decisions for the project saves weeks.

Buy, if a product already does the job the way your stores work. Software for store checklists and tasks already exists, so get its price for 150 stores and set it against the build. Build or buy has the seat math for checking it.

Building makes sense when the product means changing how 8,000 people work, or when it can’t connect to what you already run. Then you own the app, and nobody raises the price on you at renewal, though keeping it running costs money every year (upkeep).