Custom web application cost in Kenya
From KES 150,000
A custom web application in Kenya starts from KES 150,000 for a simple internal tool, rising well past KES 4,500,000 for a large multi-role platform, depending on how many user roles, workflows and integrations it needs. MVPs with real users and payments typically start from KES 850,000. No honest fixed price exists before discovery, the scope, not the technology, determines the number.
3 to 4 weeks
for a fixed-fee discovery
You get a written specification you own outright before committing to build.
Portable by design
take the spec anywhere
The specification is yours to build from with any developer, not just Haryes.
Phased delivery
reviewed on staging
Builds ship in reviewable increments you can watch, not one long silence.
The market at a glance
Four price levels exist in Kenya, from cheapest to most expensive. Here is what each one buys, and where Haryes sits.
Freelance / small team
From KES 100,000
Individual developers, simple CRUD applications.
Haryes prices hereSmall agency platform
From KES 450,000
Established local agencies building on Laravel, Next.js or Node.
Haryes prices hereDevelopment firm
From KES 1,200,000
Teams with dedicated QA, project management and DevOps.
Haryes prices hereEnterprise / offshore
From KES 4,500,000
Large local firms and international vendors.
Haryes Web Developers
From KES 150,000
From the Freelance / small team level up to the Development firm level, depending on scope, with a fixed quote before any work starts.
Why this page can’t give you one number
Every other page in our pricing hub carries fixed tier prices. This one does not, and the reason matters.
A website has a known shape. A custom application does not exist until someone defines what it must do. Two projects described identically in a first meeting, “a booking system”, “a portal for our agents”, can differ by a factor of five once you establish how many user roles there are, what happens when something goes wrong, what it connects to, and who needs to see which data.
Fixed price, first meeting
- Padded heavily to cover unknown risk
- Or billed for change orders later, at their rate
- Or about to build the wrong thing
- All three end up costing more than the quote
Discovery, then a scoped price
- Roles, workflows and integrations defined in writing first
- A costed estimate with a stated confidence range
- You own the specification, even if you build elsewhere
- The price you’re quoted is for the project you actually described
What Haryes charges
Step one, discovery and technical specification
KES 180,000. Fixed. Three to four weeks.
You can take that document to any developer. We are not the only people who can build from it, and we will not pretend otherwise. If you take it elsewhere, the KES 180,000 was still the cheapest part of your project. If you proceed with us, the discovery fee is credited against the build.
The discovery fee covers
- User roles and permissions
- Workflow definitions and data model
- Integration requirements and non-functional requirements
- Wireframes for each core screen
- A phased build plan and a costed estimate with a confidence range
Billed separately
- The build itself, priced against the finished spec
- Running costs once it’s live (hosting, monitoring, patching)
- Third-party API or licensing fees the spec identifies
- Scope added after discovery, quoted before work starts on it
Step two, build
| Project type | Indicative cost (KES) | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Internal tool, single role, 2–3 workflows, no external users | From 150,000 | 8–12 weeks |
| MVP, real users, core workflow, payments, admin | From 850,000 | 12–20 weeks |
| Production application, multiple roles, integrations, reporting, scale | From 1,800,000 | 5–9 months |
| Platform, multi-tenant, complex permissions, high availability | 4,500,000+ | 9 months+ |
Step three, run
From KES 90,000 per month. Custom software is never finished. It needs hosting, monitoring, security patching, dependency updates and a person who understands it. Budget 15 to 25 percent of build cost annually for the application’s working life. Businesses that skip this end up with a system nobody can safely change, which is how a KES 2,000,000 asset becomes a KES 2,000,000 liability.
What the Kenyan market charges
| Band | Typical price (KES) | Who’s in it |
|---|---|---|
| Freelance / small team | From 100,000 | Individual developers, simple CRUD applications |
| Small agency custom platform | From 450,000 | Established local agencies building on Laravel, Next.js or Node |
| Development firm | From 1,200,000 | Teams with dedicated QA, project management and DevOps |
| Enterprise / offshore | 4,500,000+ | Large local firms and international vendors |
For comparison, mobile applications in Kenya run from around KES 150,000 for a single-platform MVP to KES 2,000,000+ for enterprise-grade applications with real-time features and fintech-level security.
A useful sanity check. A mid-level Kenyan application developer costs a firm meaningfully more than their salary once you account for overhead, QA, project management and infrastructure. Work out roughly how many developer-months your project implies and compare that to the quote. A quote that implies three developer-months for a nine-month project is not a bargain, it is a misunderstanding of the scope, and you will pay for it later.
What actually drives the cost
Number of user roles. Every role is a permission matrix, a set of screens, and a test surface. Going from one role to four does not add 4×; it adds more, because the interactions between roles have to be defined and tested.
Workflow complexity and exception handling. The happy path is maybe 30% of the work. What happens when a payment fails halfway, a user abandons a form, two people edit the same record, or a document upload times out, that is the other 70%, and it is where cheap builds are hollow.
Integrations. Each external system is a project of its own: authentication, error handling, rate limits, sandbox-to-production differences, and the vendor’s documentation being wrong. M-Pesa via Daraja is the most common in Kenya and has well-known traps around callbacks, timeouts and reconciliation.
Data migration. Getting existing data out of spreadsheets, an old system or paper is routinely underestimated. It is rarely less than 10% of a project and sometimes 30%.
Compliance requirements. The Data Protection Act obligations, eTIMS-compatible invoicing, audit trails, and financial-grade access controls are all real engineering work, not settings.
Who uses it and how often. A tool for five staff can cut corners an application for 5,000 members cannot.
The questions to answer before you get any quote
If you can answer these, every quote you receive will be more accurate and more comparable:
Who uses this, and in how many distinct roles?
What is the single core workflow, start to finish?
What does it need to connect to?
Where does the existing data live and what condition is it in?
How many users at launch, and in year three?
What happens to the business if it’s down for a day?
What is the manual process costing you right now, in hours or shillings?
Question seven decides whether to build at all. If the manual process costs you KES 40,000 a month in wasted time, a KES 2,000,000 application pays back in four years, which may or may not be the right call. If it costs you KES 400,000 a month, the decision is obvious. We would rather run that arithmetic with you in discovery than build something that never earns its cost.
When you should not build custom software
We turn down work on these grounds regularly.
- Existing software does 80% of it. Adapting your process to an off-the-shelf tool is almost always cheaper than building your own. Custom is justified when the remaining 20% is your actual competitive advantage.
- The process is not stable. If how you work is still changing monthly, software will encode a process you are about to abandon. Stabilise first.
- Nobody internally owns it. Custom applications need a decision-maker on your side for the life of the system. Without one, the project drifts and the result belongs to nobody.
- The budget covers the build but not the running. A system you cannot afford to maintain is worse than no system, because you will depend on it.
Next steps
Pricing questions
How much does a custom web application cost in Kenya?
From KES 150,000, depending on scope. Simple internal tools start around KES 150,000, an MVP with real users and payments starts around KES 850,000, and a full production application with multiple roles and integrations runs from KES 1,800,000. The number depends on user roles, workflow complexity and integrations, not on the technology used.
Why won't you quote a fixed price upfront?
Because a fixed price before discovery is either padded or wrong. We charge KES 180,000 for a specification you own, then quote against it with a stated confidence range.
What if I take the specification elsewhere?
That is your right and we design it to be portable. It will make every quote you receive more accurate, including ones that beat ours.
How long does it take?
Eight weeks for a simple internal tool, five to nine months for a production application. Discovery adds three to four weeks before build starts.
Can I build it in phases?
Yes, and for most projects you should. A working core in twelve weeks that real users touch teaches you more than a complete system in nine months, and it de-risks the spend.
What ongoing costs should I expect?
From KES 90,000 per month. Budget from 15 percent of build cost annually for hosting, monitoring, security patching and dependency updates.
Who owns the code?
You do, on delivery, including the repository. Get this in writing from any vendor, it is the single most consequential clause in a software contract.
Should I build custom or use off-the-shelf software?
If existing software covers most of your need, use it. Custom is justified when the part it does not cover is the part that makes you money. We will tell you honestly in discovery which situation you are in.
Get a fixed quote for this.
Send your requirements. You'll get a scope and a number, with no back-and-forth.
Prefer to talk now?
Message us on WhatsApp or call. We reply within one working day.
No obligation. Fixed scope and price before any work starts.
