Additional Costs & Considerations
Beyond Development
When building software, development is just one part of the investment. Understanding the full picture helps you budget accurately and avoid surprises.
Important Note: Not all services listed below are required for every project. Many are "nice to have" features that improve reliability and user experience, but may not be essential for your MVP or initial launch. We'll help you prioritize based on your specific needs and budget.
What's Actually Required?
Essential (You'll need these)
- Hosting - Your application must be hosted somewhere
- Domain name - So users can find you
- SSL certificate - Usually free with hosting
Commonly Needed (Depends on your application)
- Database - If you're storing user data
- Email service - If sending notifications or transactional emails
- File storage - If users upload images/documents
- Payment processing - If taking payments
Nice to Have (Improve quality and reliability)
- Application monitoring - Catch issues before users complain
- Error tracking - Debug problems faster
- Analytics - Understand how users interact with your app
- CDN - Faster load times for global users
- Backups - Beyond what's included in hosting
Advanced (Usually not needed initially)
- Load balancers - For high-traffic applications
- Multiple regions - Global deployment
- Premium support - Enterprise SLAs
- Advanced security tools - Beyond basic SSL
Hosting & Infrastructure
Your application needs somewhere to live:
Cloud Hosting
£20 - £500+/month (Required)
- Small applications: £20-50/month (Vercel, Netlify, or basic cloud hosting)
- Medium applications: £50-200/month (AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure with moderate traffic)
- Large applications: £200-500+/month (High traffic, complex infrastructure, multiple environments)
Popular platforms:
- Vercel/Netlify: Free tier available, paid plans from £20/month
- AWS/Google Cloud/Azure: Pay-as-you-go, typically £50-300/month
- DigitalOcean/Linode: Fixed pricing from £10-100/month
Domain Names
£10-50/year (Required)
- Standard domains (.com, .co.uk): £10-15/year
- Premium or short domains: £50-1000s/year
- Multiple domains for staging/production environments
SSL Certificates
Free - £100/year (Required - usually free)
- Free with Let's Encrypt (included in most hosting)
- Premium certificates: £50-100/year (for e-commerce or enterprise)
Database Services
Managed Databases
£0 - £200+/month (Required if storing data)
- Small apps: Free tier or £10-20/month (MongoDB Atlas, Firebase, Supabase)
- Medium apps: £50-100/month (Dedicated instances)
- Large apps: £100-500+/month (High availability, replicas, backups)
Popular options:
- MongoDB Atlas: Free tier, paid from £9/month
- PostgreSQL (managed): From £15/month
- Firebase: Free tier, pay-as-you-go from £25/month
Third-Party Services & APIs
Email Services
£0 - £100/month (Required if sending emails)
- Transactional emails (SendGrid, Mailgun): Free tier, then £10-50/month
- Marketing emails (Mailchimp): From £10/month
- Custom domain email (Google Workspace): £5/user/month
SMS/Notifications
Pay per message (Only if using SMS)
- SMS: £0.04-0.10 per message
- Push notifications (OneSignal, Firebase): Often free or £10-50/month
- WhatsApp Business API: From £50/month
Payment Processing
Transaction fees (Only if taking payments)
- Stripe/PayPal: 1.5-2.9% + £0.20 per transaction
- Monthly fees: £0-25 depending on volume
- Currency conversion fees: 1-2%
Authentication Services
£0 - £100/month (Nice to have - can build custom)
- Auth0: Free tier up to 7,000 users, then from £23/month
- Firebase Auth: Free up to 50,000 users
- AWS Cognito: Pay-as-you-go, typically £10-50/month
File Storage
£5 - £100+/month (Required if users upload files)
- AWS S3: Pay-as-you-go, typically £5-50/month
- Cloudinary (image optimisation): Free tier, then from £89