What an internal business tool costs

Published UK pricing for staff portals, admin dashboards and custom CRMs, plus the hours-saved calculation that decides whether it is worth building.

The App14 team1 min read

The short answer

Published UK pricing puts a staff portal or admin system at £8,000 to £25,000 and a standard bespoke business build at £15,000 to £30,000. The number that decides whether to build is not the price, it is the hours the manual process currently consumes.

What the market charges

SystemPublished UK range
Simple internal toolFrom about £10,000
Staff portal or admin system£8,000 to £25,000
Admin dashboard and reporting£8,000 to £20,000
Custom CRM, mid-tier£8,000 to £25,000
Standard bespoke business build£15,000 to £30,000
Standard business system£30,000 to £80,000
Enterprise platform£500,000+
From the UK App Development Cost Report 2026.

A mid-tier build in those sources typically means multi-user access, role-based permissions, a custom database, reporting, two or three integrations, and GDPR-compliant data handling.

Starter App

Launch fast

£3,999£2,999

For small and medium businesses ready to launch their first app.

  • iOS & Android app
  • User login & accounts
  • Push notifications
  • Admin dashboard
  • 14 day delivery
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Advanced App

Built to scale

£6,999£5,999

For advanced apps with complex and heavier customer usage.

  • All starter app features
  • Complex app logic
  • AI and blockchain features
  • Security audits
  • 14 day delivery
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The calculation that actually decides it

Not the price. The hours.

ExampleYours
Hours a week on the manual process4___
Hours a year208___
Fully loaded hourly cost£25___
Annual cost of doing it by hand£5,200___
Plus errors, rework, and the cost of not knowing?___
Fully loaded means salary plus employer costs, typically 25 to 30% above the headline wage.

Most businesses have three or four of these and have never added them up.

Do not forget year two

Published maintenance figures run 15 to 25% of build cost annually, and sources recommend adding 20 to 30% to any build quote to get the true year-one cost. That applies whoever builds it.

More on maintenance costs.

When not to build

Common questions

How much does an internal business tool cost in the UK?

Published pricing puts a simple internal tool from about £10,000, a staff portal or admin system at £8,000 to £25,000, and a standard bespoke business build at £15,000 to £30,000. Our fixed-price sprint is £2,999 or £5,999.

How do I justify the cost internally?

Count the hours. Hours a week times 52 times the fully loaded hourly cost of whoever does the work. Compare that annual figure to a one-off build you own. The comparison usually decides itself.

Is a custom CRM cheaper than paying per seat?

Over one year, rarely. Over three years with a growing team, frequently, because per-seat pricing scales with headcount while a build does not. Compare over three years, not one month.

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About the author

The App14 team · Design and engineering, Appetite Studio

App14 is the 14-day app sprint run by Appetite Studio, a London-registered design and engineering studio. We design, build, and ship production iOS and Android apps in two weeks, at a published fixed price. Everything we write here comes out of work we have actually delivered: the prices are our real prices, the timelines are our real timelines, and the limits are the ones we genuinely hold to.

Our articles are drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by the App14 team before publication. The prices, timelines, delivery record, and client outcomes described are our own.

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