You ask three software houses in Bangkok for a quote on the same job and get ฿80,000, ฿400,000 and "it depends". None of them is necessarily lying, because the quotes are often pricing different things. This guide explains what drives software development cost in Bangkok, gives you real starting prices to anchor against, and lists the costs that never appear in the quote.
The short answer: real starting prices
Here are the starting prices DigitalRova publishes for business projects. Each is the smallest real version of that package. Your proposal sets the final fixed price in writing.
| Package | Starting price | Typical time | Typically suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automation starter | from ฿39,000 | 2 to 3 weeks | One manual process, such as a LINE order becoming a dispatch job |
| AI assistant | from ฿89,000 | 3 to 5 weeks | The same questions answered on LINE, WhatsApp and a website |
| Internal tool | from ฿180,000 | 6 to 10 weeks | Bookings, jobs or stock tracked across spreadsheets and chat |
| Mobile app | from ฿290,000 | 10 to 14 weeks | A real iOS and Android app for staff or customers |
| SaaS product | from ฿450,000 | 3 to 6 months | A multi-tenant web product you sell to others |
Monthly care plans, which cover hosting, monitoring, updates and a block of build time, start from ฿4,900 for Essential, ฿12,900 for Growth and ฿29,900 for Partner. They are optional. The current figures are always on our pricing page.
What sits behind each band
A price band is a bundle of decisions. Knowing what is inside each one tells you whether a quote is reasonable.
Automation starter. One workflow, mapped and automated, connected to tools you already use, tested before handover and documented, with one round of fixes after launch. It is small because it does not include screens, accounts or a database of its own. If your workflow needs those, it becomes an internal tool.
AI assistant. One assistant, one price book and three channels. The work is mostly in the price book, the hand-over rules and the shared inbox, and 30 days of tuning follows launch. Model usage is a running cost, not part of the build.
Internal tool. A working tool covering the process you scoped, with staff accounts and permissions, data migrated from your current spreadsheets, a training session and the source code at the end. This is where user roles and migration start to drive price.
Mobile app. A native iOS and Android app from one React Native codebase, a backend and admin panel to manage content, and publishing under your own developer accounts. Thirty days of bug fixes follow launch.
SaaS product. Sign-up, billing, an admin panel for managing customers and plans, and documented hosting. You are building something to sell, so it has to be more robust than something your own team uses.
The five things that move the price
1. Scope
More screens, more rules, more edge cases, more time. The most common mistake is describing the system in one sentence ("an app for bookings") and expecting a number. A booking tool for one branch with one price list is a different job from the same tool for six branches with per-branch rules.
2. Integrations
Every system you connect (LINE, a payment flow, an accounting package, a marketplace) is its own piece of work, and each one can change its rules later. Connecting two well-documented systems is routine. Connecting to something with no API, where data has to be exported and imported by file, takes longer and costs more. Our integrations service starts from the same ฿39,000 as the automation starter because many integrations are small.
3. Number of user roles
An app with one kind of user is simpler than one with owners, managers, staff, customers and suppliers, each of whom sees different things. Roles multiply the screens, the testing and the number of ways something can go wrong.
4. Data migration
Moving three years of customers and orders out of messy spreadsheets is often the most underestimated line. Duplicates, missing phone numbers, dates typed four different ways and customer names in both Thai and English all have to be cleaned. If the data is tidy, migration is cheap. If it is not, it is a project of its own.
5. Who owns it at the end
Some suppliers keep the code and rent you the system. That can look cheaper up front and costs more the day you want to leave. Ask directly: will the source code, the accounts and the documentation be in my name at the end? We hand all of it over, so another developer can pick it up if you ever want that.
Fixed scope versus hourly
Both models are legitimate. They solve different problems.
Fixed scope. You agree what will be built, what will not, and one price, in writing, before work starts. Changes outside the scope are quoted separately. This is how we work: a free scoping call, then a written proposal with a fixed price, a timeline and the out-of-scope list. Payment is by milestone, with a deposit to start and further payments tied to agreed milestones, by bank transfer, PromptPay or card.
Hourly. You pay for time. It suits exploratory work, such as testing an idea or fixing a system with unknown problems, where nobody can say in advance how much work there is. The risk is that the total is open-ended, so ask for a cap or a weekly review.
A rule of thumb: if you can describe the finished thing on one page, ask for a fixed price. If you cannot yet, pay for a short, paid discovery first, then fix the price.
A worked example: pricing a small booking tool
Take an illustrative case, not a client: a Bangkok serviced-apartment operator wants to stop managing bookings in a shared spreadsheet and LINE chats. Here is how a quote like this gets built, in steps.
- List the processes. Take a booking, assign a cleaner, record completion, issue an invoice.
- List the roles. Coordinator, cleaner, owner. Three roles.
- List the integrations. LINE notifications and the accounting package. Two.
- Size the migration. Two years of bookings in one spreadsheet, fairly clean.
- Check the ownership terms. Code and accounts handed over.
- Compare with a band. Three roles, two integrations and a migration put it in the internal tool band, which starts from ฿180,000, rather than the automation starter.
If the operator only needed the LINE order to appear on a board, with no accounts or migration, it would be nearer the automation starter. The difference is not the technology. It is the scope.
Why the cheapest quote can cost the most
A low number at the start usually hides one of three things. The scope is thin, so every real requirement arrives later as a change request. The ownership is thin, so the code stays with the supplier and you pay a monthly fee to keep using what you paid for. Or the support is thin, so the person who built it is unreachable when LINE changes something or a payment flow breaks in month eight.
None of this means the lowest quote is wrong. It means you should compare what you own, what is covered and who answers the phone, not only the headline number. A quote that is higher but includes source code, documentation and a named owner may be the cheaper decision over three years, especially for a system your team will depend on every day.
The costs that are never in the quote
A build price covers the building. Running the thing costs extra, and a good proposal lists these separately at cost.
- Hosting and infrastructure. Servers, databases and storage, billed monthly by the provider.
- AI model usage. An assistant that calls a language model pays per use.
- Plan fees for services you connect. For example, LINE Official Account plans, whose limits and fees are set by LINE and change over time.
- Devices. Tablets for staff, or sensors and hubs for smart-home work.
- App-store fees. Apple and Google charge developer accounts, set by them.
- Domain names, email and accounting software. Usually already paid by you.
- Ongoing support. After the short bug-fix window, someone needs to keep it updated. That can be you, another developer or a care plan.
Also ask whether a quote is shown before or after VAT, and check how it should be treated with your own accountant. We do not give tax advice.
How to compare quotes
Ask each supplier the same six questions, in writing:
- What exactly is in scope, and what is out?
- Is the price fixed, and what triggers a change in price?
- Who owns the code, the accounts and the data at the end?
- What third-party costs will I pay, and how much roughly per month?
- Who is the named person responsible, and who fixes it in a year?
- What do I get at handover: documentation, a walkthrough, access?
A quote that answers all six is a quote you can compare. A quote that cannot is a guess.
Where to start
If you are still deciding between building and buying, our guide to custom software versus off-the-shelf helps you decide first. When you are ready to price a specific job, book a free scoping call and we will give you a written, fixed-price proposal with the out-of-scope list included.