What AI and custom software cost a Swiss SME.
Swiss agencies publish prices of CHF 25,000 to 90,000 for a first version of a custom application. After that you pay running costs and maintenance every year. A project is worth its price if it brings in three times that price in its first year.
What agencies and freelancers charge
For web design and web development, a survey of published prices puts Swiss agencies at CHF 120 to 250 an hour and freelancers at CHF 110 to 180.
For whole projects, one Swiss agency budgets CHF 40,000 to 90,000 for a first version with one or two user roles, and CHF 90,000 to 220,000 for a business application with several roles and connections to existing systems. Another says custom web applications start at about CHF 25,000. A third says most apps cost CHF 30,000 to 70,000 and take three to six months.
What determines the price
Where a project falls in these ranges depends on five things.
- How many systems the work has to connect to, and whether they have an interface
- How clean the data and documents are
- How many roles and permissions there are
- What a mistake would cost, because that decides how many checks are needed
- Whether payments, signatures or personal data are involved
Running costs
After launch you keep paying three costs. Have the providers bill them to your company's own accounts, so you see what each one costs.
- Model usage: the provider bills every AI request by volume
- Hosting and the database
- Licences for the assistants and other tools your team uses
Maintenance
Swiss agencies put the yearly cost of an app after launch at 5 to 10% of the build cost, hosting included, and the maintenance of a web application at 15 to 25% of the initial budget a year.
Before you sign, ask who maintains the software after launch and what that costs a year.
When a project is worth its price
Estimate what the project saves or earns in its first year, in hours and francs. If that is less than three times the price, do not build it. Often a tool your team already has is enough.
First example: a team writes ten proposals a month, and each takes three hours. An automation drafts them from the call notes, and checking a draft takes half an hour. The team saves 25 hours a month, 300 a year. At an internal cost of CHF 90 an hour that is CHF 27,000, so the project may cost up to CHF 9,000.
Second example: a monthly report takes two hours to put together. Automating it saves 24 hours a year, about CHF 2,200 at the same hourly cost. A third of that is about CHF 700, less than a day of work, so it is not worth building. An AI assistant your team already has can do most of it.
What I charge
I charge CHF 2,500 for an AI assessment. Projects start at CHF 5,000, and most cost CHF 10,000 to 50,000, where the agencies above publish CHF 25,000 to 90,000 for a first version. Each project has a fixed price, at most a third of what it brings in during its first year.
I scope the project, build it with AI agents and run it myself. I have done the same for my own two products, InkDraft and ThesisCheck, including accounts, payments and e-signature.
Questions
Fixed price or hourly rate?
With a fixed price you know the cost before you decide, and if the work takes longer, the provider pays for the extra hours. With an hourly rate you pay for them. I work at a fixed price.
Is there public funding?
Innosuisse's innovation cheque covers up to CHF 15,000 for a preliminary study, for organisations with fewer than 250 full-time positions. The cheque pays a Swiss research partner, so it does not cover my work or an agency's. Innosuisse's innovation mentoring is free for the company.