GBCORP BLOG · IT SERVICES
Custom App Development: When to Build and What It Should Cost
Most businesses that ask for a custom app do not need one, and the few that do are often sold a configured one. This is how GBCORP tells the two apart, and what a custom build costs when it is the right answer.
Custom app development is building an app around one business’s own process rather than configuring an app that already exists. GBCORP does both, which is why its advice starts with the question of which one a business needs. When the answer is custom, the work runs as a scoping week followed by releases at a fixed price each, on the shared core that powers GBCORP’s white-label range, with the code, the cloud project and the store accounts in the client’s name.
Custom or configured
| Situation | GBCORP’s advice | Time and price |
|---|---|---|
| The process is common: ordering, booking, loyalty, portal | Configure a white-label app | Days, flat monthly plan |
| The process is the business’s own advantage | Build custom on the shared core | Eight to twelve weeks, fixed price per release |
| Common process plus one unusual rule | Configure, then add the rule as a release | Days plus two weeks |
The scoping week
Workshops with the people who run the process today. Screens drawn and revised in the room. A written scope that names what the first release does and, as importantly, what it does not. A fixed quotation with dates. The scoping week is priced on its own, and its documents are the client’s whether or not GBCORP builds the app, which is the cheapest way to test any developer.
What the first release contains
Sign-in, the core process from start to finish, the console for the people who run it, and the one report that shows whether the app is working. Not the settings screen, not the second language, not the integration with the accounting system; those are releases two and three, each priced before it starts. A first release that tries to do everything ships late and proves nothing.
Fixed price, fortnightly builds
Every release has a price and a date before work begins. A test build reaches the client’s phone every two weeks. Changes are priced as changes rather than absorbed into a growing invoice. If a release runs late, the price does not move; that is the point of fixing it.
Checklist before commissioning a custom app
- The process the app will run, written in ten lines.
- The one number the app should move.
- Who decides, and how fast they answer a test build.
- Accounts in the business’s name, or a note for GBCORP to open them.
- Data that must be imported from the current tools.
- A support plan after launch, with response times.
The numbers to expect
Scoping in one week. A first release in eight to twelve weeks at a fixed price. Releases every two weeks after that. Support at a known monthly figure. Customised or more complex functionality is quoted separately before any work starts.
A worked example
An equipment-rental business quotes by phone, tracks assets on a whiteboard and invoices from a spreadsheet. Nothing off the shelf fits the way it prices, which depends on duration, distance and the crew required. The scoping week produces twenty screens and a scope for a first release: a quote calculator, a booking calendar per asset, a crew roster and one report. Ten weeks later, the first release is in use by the dispatch team; release two adds the customer app; release three connects the accounting system. Each was priced before it started, and the company owns all of it.
What custom does not mean
It does not mean writing sign-in, payments, notifications and a console from scratch; those come from the shared core and are maintained there. It does not mean an open-ended engagement; every release is priced and dated. It does not mean the business is on its own after launch; a support plan covers monitoring, patches and store updates. Custom means the parts that make the business different are built for it, and nothing else is.
Warning signs in a custom quotation
A price in days rather than per release. No scoping week, or one folded into the build for free. Accounts to be opened in the developer’s name for convenience. A first release that lists every feature the business mentioned. No support plan, or one with no response times. Each is fixable before signing and expensive afterwards.
Testing before the build
The scoping week ends with clickable screens the client’s staff try on a phone before any code is written. A screen that confuses them is redrawn for the cost of an hour rather than a sprint. The written scope is signed with those screens attached, so the first release is measured against something everyone has seen.
Integrations, in order
The systems the app must read from or write to are listed in the scoping week with their access paths. The first release reads; later releases write. Systems without an API are integrated through exports and imports until a better path exists. Each integration is a priced release, so the client chooses the order by value.
After launch
A support plan with monitoring, patches, operating-system and store updates, hours for small changes and response times by severity. A quarterly review of the number the app was built to move. Releases continue every fortnight for as long as the client has changes worth paying for, and stop cleanly when it does not.
Questions we hear first
Why not build from scratch?
Sign-in, payments, notifications, consoles and store compliance are the same in every app; the shared core supplies them, and the custom work goes where the business is different.
Do we own the code?
Yes: a repository the business controls, documented with every release, plus the cloud project and store accounts in its name.
Can we start with a white-label app and go custom later?
Yes, on the same core, without a rebuild; many clients do.
What if we only need one unusual feature?
Configure the rest and build the feature as a release; it is the cheapest route by far.
Where to start
The GBCORP Custom App Development product is the priced starting point; the GBCORP custom app development hub and the software development hub set out the method. For a business owner’s view, read a custom app for my business explained.
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