Custom software in Australia costs whatever the scope of the job demands, so the honest answer is a range. At Arclight, a single automation that handles one job across one or two systems starts from about $1,000 and can be running in about a week. The largest builds, a hub that connects every department with dashboards, automations and AI agents, can run to $50,000 or more over up to about six months.
Most work sits between those two. A hub that connects a few systems, such as Shopify, your accounting system and your freight platform, is priced on its scope. What moves a job up or down that range is how many systems it touches, how many business rules it applies, and how messy the data it starts with is. The rest of this guide explains each of those, when off-the-shelf software is the better choice, and how to tell whether a build is worth paying for at all.
The price guide
| Build | What it is | Price | Timeframe |
|---|---|---|---|
| A single automation | One job across one or two systems, such as adding tracking numbers to invoices or importing a supplier price list | From about $1,000 | About a week |
| A hub for a few systems | Two or three systems sharing orders, stock and invoices, with checks between them | Priced on scope | A few weeks to a few months |
| A hub across the whole business | Every department connected, with management dashboards, automations and AI agents | Up to $50,000 or more | Up to about six months |
The price is agreed before work starts, from a written scope. It’s the same guide shown on our pricing section.
What makes a build bigger
Two businesses can describe the same problem in the same words and need very different builds. These are the things that change the size.
The number of systems
Each system the software reads from or writes to has its own way of connecting, its own limits and its own odd behaviour. Moving tracking numbers from ShipStation to QuickBooks Online is one connection. Running six Shopify stores, 26 supplier feeds, ShipStation and one QuickBooks company from one hub, as we do for Raw Blend, is many connections that all have to agree with each other.
The number of rules
Rules are the decisions your staff make without thinking: which account a sale goes to, when a price change needs approval, what counts as a stalled job. Every rule has to be found, written down and tested. A blinds and shutters manufacturer we built for had its cut-sheet maths locked inside an old quoting program, and the rules had to be rebuilt from 25,300 past openings before the new system could take over.
Data migration and how clean the old data is
Moving records out of an old system costs more when the data is inconsistent. Duplicate customers, free-text fields used for three different things and years of manual edits all have to be sorted before they’re loaded. Clean exports keep this part small. Messy ones can turn into a large share of the job.
Users and roles
Software used by one office person is simpler than software used by reps, factory staff, installers and outside retailers, each seeing different things. Every role adds sign-in, permissions and screens to build and test.
AI agents
AI helps with loose inputs like emails, documents and transcripts. It also adds work: review steps so a person approves what the AI drafts, checks that private details don’t reach the model, and ongoing upkeep. Plenty of jobs need no AI at all, and leaving it out keeps the price down.
Custom software vs off the shelf
Off-the-shelf software is cheaper to start. You sign up, pay a subscription and you’re running. A vendor maintains it, fixes it and adds features. If your process looks like most businesses’ processes, that’s the right choice, and it usually stays the right choice.
Custom software costs more up front. In return, it fits how your business actually works, and you own it: the code, the credentials and the deployment stay with you, and there’s no per-seat fee that grows with your team.
Pick off the shelf when:
- a product already does the job and your team can adjust to it without workarounds
- the task is small, rare or likely to change shape soon
- you need something working this week and the budget is tight
Pick custom when:
- staff spend hours each week re-typing between systems the off-the-shelf tools don’t connect
- your rules are specific enough that every product needs a spreadsheet beside it
- you’ve already paid for subscriptions that didn’t fit and are paying people to fill the gaps
Often the answer is both. Keep Xero, MYOB or Shopify, and build the part that joins them.
Work out what the task costs you now
A build is worth paying for only if it saves more than it costs. If the saving won’t justify the price, we say so before you spend anything. You can do the first pass of that sum yourself.
- Pick the task. Be specific, such as copying tracking numbers onto invoices or rebuilding the weekly sales report.
- Time it for a normal week. Add up the hours across everyone who touches it, including checking and fixing mistakes.
- Work out the loaded hourly cost for those people: wages plus super, leave, payroll tax and other on-costs, divided by the hours they work.
- Multiply hours a week by the loaded hourly cost, then by the weeks you work in a year.
That figure is what the task costs you each year, every year. Compare it against the price of a build. Add anything harder to count, such as invoices sent late or orders that never reached the books. If the yearly cost is small next to the quote, keep doing it by hand or buy a cheap tool.
How to compare quotes
Quotes for custom software vary a lot, and a lower number isn’t always a cheaper job. Ask each builder the same questions:
- What exactly is in scope? A written list of what the software will do, which systems it connects to and what’s left out.
- Who owns the code? If you can’t take the code and the credentials to another developer, you’re renting.
- Is there a platform fee? Some builds run on a no-code tool or a vendor platform with its own monthly charge that rises with use.
- Who writes and supports it? The person you talk to, or someone you’ll never meet.
- How will you know it works? Ask how it’s tested and what happens when it meets a case it can’t handle.
- What does it cost to run? Hosting, maintenance and changes later, set out up front.
Payment terms and ongoing costs
Jobs under $10,000 are a 30% or 50% deposit to start and the remainder on completion. Builds over $10,000 have nothing due up front and no lump sum at the start or the end. They’re split into stages sized to the job, and you pay for each stage after you’ve seen it working and approved it.
After delivery, expect a few ongoing costs:
- Hosting. Software that runs on a schedule or serves a dashboard needs somewhere to run. That can be a hosted service or, for some jobs, a computer you already have.
- Maintenance for AI agents. Builds with AI agents carry a monthly maintenance fee to keep the agents running. Builds without them don’t.
- Changes later. New stores, new suppliers or a new rule are scoped and priced as their own pieces of work.
You own the code either way, so you’re never locked into one person for changes.
A practical next step
Pick the one task that annoys your team most and time it for a week. Write down which systems it touches and who does it. With those three facts, any builder can tell you whether it’s a single automation, part of a hub, or a job for an off-the-shelf tool, and you can judge the quote against what the task costs you now.