How much should software for a charity actually cost?

Why two quotes for the same thing can be £1,000 and £30,000

I have seen a charity quoted twenty-four thousand pounds for what was, underneath, a volunteer sign-up form. I have also built better ones for a few hundred. The gap is almost never about quality. It is about who you asked.

A large agency carries offices, account managers, a sales team and a target, and all of that is in the price before anyone writes a line of code. Someone working from a laptop does not carry that weight. Neither is automatically the right choice, but the cost of the two for the same result is not remotely the same.

The other reason quotes swing so far is that most people cannot yet describe exactly what they need. So the person quoting either pads the figure to cover the unknowns, or lowballs it and bills for 'extras' later. Both leave you worse off.

The question that comes before the price

Before you pay anyone to build anything, the honest question is whether you need something built at all.

A lot of what charities ask me to build already exists, often free or nearly free. A shared spreadsheet set up properly. A form tool. A cheap off-the-shelf CRM made for small charities. If one of those does the job, I will say so, and I would rather you put the money into your actual mission.

Custom software earns its cost only when the ready-made options genuinely do not fit, when you are losing real hours working around them, or when the workaround itself has become a risk. If that is you, a build can pay for itself quickly. If it is not, it is an expensive way to solve a problem you did not have.

Rough figures, if you do need something built

These are honest ballparks for a small UK charity, not fixed prices. Every job is different, but they should keep you from being wildly over or undersold.

• A single focused tool, like a proper sign-up form, a simple booking system, or one automation that saves a few hours a week: roughly £1,500 to £4,000.
• A small system you run day to day, like a lightweight CRM, a case or referral tracker, or a reporting dashboard: roughly £4,000 to £12,000.
• A larger, connected system with several moving parts: more than that, and worth scoping carefully before anyone commits.

If a quote for a simple tool has a comma and then several zeros, treat that as your cue to ask a lot of questions.

The cost most people forget: running it

The build is a one-off. Running the thing is forever, and it is where charities get quietly stung.

Ask what it costs to keep live each month before you sign anything: hosting, licences, any per-user fees, support. I build on free and low-cost tiers wherever they fit, so a small tool often costs a few pounds a month, or nothing, to run. Some suppliers build on platforms that bill hundreds a month whether you use them or not. That is a cost that eats your funding long after the invoice is paid.

What a fair quote actually looks like

A fair quote is specific. It says what you are getting, what it deliberately does not include, what it costs to run, and what happens when something needs changing later. It is a fixed price for an agreed scope, not an open meter.

You should also own what you paid for. If a supplier keeps the code, or locks you into a platform you can never leave, the low price today is a leash for tomorrow. Everything I build is documented and handed over, and you can take it elsewhere any time.

So, what should it cost?

For most small charities: less than an agency has quoted you, more than a template you could set up yourself in an afternoon, and a lot less to run than you fear. The only way to give you a real number is to look at the actual problem, which is exactly what a short call is for.