How much does it cost
to build a SaaS?
development hours, cost, and timeline.
Select Features
Stripe integration, subscription plans, billing portal, webhooks, invoices
Drizzle/Prisma schema, migrations, seed data, relations, indexes
Resend/Postmark setup, templates for welcome, reset, notifications
Stats overview, user management, CRUD tables, charts, activity log
Hero, pricing, features, testimonials, footer, responsive design
Design system, component library, responsive layouts, dark mode
MDX/CMS setup, categories, SEO, RSS feed, OG image generation
Chat UI, streaming responses, embeddings, RAG pipeline, prompt mgmt
REST endpoints, middleware, rate limiting, API keys, error handling
Meta tags, sitemap, JSON-LD, PostHog/Vercel Analytics setup
CSRF, XSS, CSP headers, input validation, audit logging
Docker, CI/CD pipeline, monitoring, error tracking, staging env
Unit tests, integration tests, E2E with Playwright, CI integration
API docs, user guides, developer setup docs
Hours include implementation, code review, bug fixes, and iteration. A 15% project management overhead is added for planning and coordination.
How we calculate these estimates
Manual estimates assume a mid-level developer using modern libraries (BetterAuth, Drizzle, Stripe SDK, Resend, etc.) — not building from raw primitives. Hours include setup, configuration, customization, testing, edge cases, and debugging.
AI-assisted estimates factor in tools like Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and Claude Code. AI speeds up boilerplate, CRUD, tests, and docs significantly but helps less with debugging integrations, security auditing, and architecture decisions.
Hourly rate defaults by region but is fully adjustable. Region presets reflect median freelancer/contractor rates as of 2025. A junior in South Asia can charge as low as $10–15/hr, while a senior US engineer or agency can exceed $200/hr.
Team size affects calendar time, not total hours. The same 300 hours of work takes ~10 weeks solo but ~2 weeks with a team of 5. Cost stays the same — you're paying for the same total work.
Project management overhead (15%) accounts for planning, communication, code reviews, and coordination — even solo developers spend time organizing work.
These estimates do not include ongoing costs like hosting ($20–200/mo), domains, third-party services (Stripe fees, email providers, monitoring), or long-term maintenance.