Bespoke software development in London, fixed price, and you own the code from day one.
Augustova is a bespoke and custom software development company in London for small and mid-sized UK businesses. Projects cost £8,000 to £30,000, fixed against a written scope, take two to six weeks to a working system, and the code and accounts are in your name from day one. Built in London by a team that runs two software products of its own, with no offshore hand-off.
Google Cloud certified
Anthropic certifiedFixed prices, agreed in writing before anything is built
Who this is for, and when to buy off the shelf instead
Three situations bring businesses to us. A spreadsheet that several people now depend on and that breaks when one of them is away. Three products that each do part of the job, with someone rekeying between them. And a process that is genuinely how you compete, which no product will ever fit.
Most businesses should buy software rather than build it, and we will say so. If a product already does eighty per cent of what you need and the remaining twenty is preference rather than principle, buy it. Custom pays back when bending the product costs you the advantage, when you would otherwise pay for three tools and a person to join them, or when licence cost across your headcount exceeds ownership within two or three years.
What we build
A startup MVP in London: what it should include and what it should cost
An MVP is the one product where the buyer knows the word before they know the price, and where the market has settled on a shape: one core workflow a paying user will actually use, sign-up and accounts, a way to take money, an admin view for the founder, and enough instrumentation to learn from the first hundred users. Everything else is a second phase. The failure mode is the opposite: six months and a feature list, launched to nobody.
We price a startup MVP at £10,000 to £20,000, fixed against a written scope, and take four to six weeks to a launch that real users can pay for. That sits where the London market sits. Magora, a London studio since 2010, publishes "Startup MVP: from £10,000" and "MVP in 6 to 8 weeks". Coderacle, also London, publishes a £15,000 fixed-price production SaaS MVP with a median of eight weeks to launch. The difference is not the number. It is that we have launched two SaaS products of our own, Gorizzume and Onrolo, and run them every day, so the architecture your MVP is built on is the one we would choose for ourselves, with cost instrumentation and billing metering in from the first commit rather than retrofitted at scale.
What is not in an MVP matters as much. We will not build a native iOS and Android app into a first release unless the product cannot exist without it; a responsive web app reaches the same users for a third of the cost and can be wrapped later. We will not build a second user type, a marketplace, or an integration marketplace into a first release either. Those are the things founders are quoted £40,000 for, and they are the reason most MVPs miss the money they were meant to raise.
| London studio | Published MVP price | Time to launch | Code and accounts | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Augustova | £10,000 to £20,000, fixed against a written scope | Four to six weeks | In your name from day one, with the provider accounts | Built on the stack we run our own two SaaS products on; billing metering and cost ceilings included |
| Magora | From £10,000 | Six to eight weeks | IP transfers on payment | London-based since 2010; larger team, wider range of work |
| Coderacle | £15,000 fixed | Eight to twelve weeks, eight-week median | Code in your GitHub from day one | Dedicated PM, senior developer and designer per build |
Competitor figures read on their own pages on 14 September 2026; prices exclude VAT where stated. Both are credible choices; we list them because a founder should compare.
What custom software costs in the UK
Published UK guides for 2026 put a focused tool at roughly £2,000 to £10,000, a standard multi-user business application at £15,000 to £30,000, and complex platforms at £35,000 and up, with agency rate cards from about £45 to £90 an hour for UK teams and £25 to £50 for offshore teams with a UK front. Several of the larger London firms will not take a project under £25,000 to £50,000 and prefer monthly retainers to fixed fees.
Ours sit inside those bands and are fixed before anything is built. The range is wide because scope is wide: one user type is simple, three user types with different permissions is more than three times the work, and integration is usually the biggest single line.
| What you are buying | Typical UK market | Augustova, fixed |
|---|---|---|
| Single process automated | £2,000 to £10,000 | £4,000 to £10,000 |
| Multi-user business application | £15,000 to £30,000 | £10,000 to £20,000 |
| Platform with mobile apps | £35,000+ | £20,000 to £30,000+, per phase |
| Hourly rate | £45 to £90 UK, £25 to £50 offshore | We do not sell hours |
| Minimum project | £25,000 to £50,000 at larger firms | None |
Market figures are published UK ranges gathered in September 2026; the guide linked below explains what moves a quote within them.
Fixed price, not day rate
A day rate pays the supplier for being slow and penalises them for being fast, and it moves all the estimating risk onto you, the party least able to judge it. Fixed price forces the scope conversation before money is committed, and that conversation is what decides whether a project succeeds.
The catch is that fixed price only works with a written list of what is not included, and some buyers find that document uncomfortable. It is protecting you more than it protects us. Larger work is quoted per phase, so the budget cannot drift halfway through.
How long it takes, and why
Two to six weeks depending on surface area. That surprises people, and the reason is worth understanding: most delays are not engineering delays, they are decisions waiting on somebody. We agree the scope and the acceptance criteria in writing, show working software within the first few days, keep one named contact on each side, and start integration first because it is the long pole.
Week one: scope, acceptance criteria and a working prototype on your real data. Weeks two to four: integration with your systems, then the rest of the build with a demo every week. The last week: testing against real inputs including the messy ones, go-live, handover, training.
What you own, and what happens if we disappear
The code, the repositories and the provider accounts are in your name from day one, not on final payment. At go-live you receive documentation, credentials, a runbook and a recorded walkthrough, plus a training session for the people who will use it daily. Support is a separate, clearly priced monthly arrangement agreed in the same document as the build.
The test we hold ourselves to: if we disappeared tomorrow, another developer should be able to pick the work up without speaking to us. That is also the honest answer to the reasonable question of whether a small supplier is a risk.
Compared with the alternatives
London has four kinds of software supplier. The right one depends on the size of the project and how much you need to own at the end.
| Freelancer | Offshore with a London office | Enterprise consultancy | Augustova | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum project | None | Often £10,000+ | £25,000 to £50,000 | None |
| Price model | Day rate | Hourly, £25 to £50 | Retainer or T&M | Fixed, £8,000 to £30,000 |
| Who writes the code | One person | A team you do not meet | A rotating team | The founders, in London |
| Who owns it, and when | Usually you, at the end | Varies; check the contract | You, on final payment | You, from day one |
| What you get at handover | Code | Code and a ticket queue | Documents | Code, accounts, runbook, walkthrough, training |
| Runs its own products | Rarely | No | No | Two, in production |
How we build
Modern, boring, well-supported technology: TypeScript and Next.js on the web, Postgres for data, native iOS and Android where a real app is needed, and hosted infrastructure you can move away from. We use AI tooling to build faster and we validate everything with engineers, tests and real data; a generated codebase that nobody understands is a liability we will not hand you.
Every build gets cost instrumentation, error monitoring and an audit trail from the first week, because those are the things that are impossible to retrofit and the things that decide whether the software is still running in year three.
What we have built, and what it changed
Onrolo, a recruitment operations platform in daily use across a national recruitment network on web, iOS and Android: 90 or more hours of manual CV screening removed per office every month, eight in ten applicants reaching a booked appointment, minutes from application to first contact instead of days.
Gorizzume, an AI career platform tracking more than 120,000 licensed sponsors refreshed every day, live for individual users and licensed to institutions by seat, across web, mobile and a browser extension.
An AI receptionist for The UK Driving School that answers calls while instructors are mid-lesson, books against their real availability and hands complaints and refunds to a person. And Augustova GTM, a private CRM and go-to-market platform covering sourcing, AI research, compliant calling, email, proposals and invoicing in one record.
Client work, delivered on the date: a full day of spreadsheet reporting reduced to a click for a major international broadcaster, and a five-year housing demand model for a London borough council. Both described with the clients' permission and without their names.
Industries we build for
Every sector page below is written from the operational problem that sector actually has, with what we build for it and what it costs.
Who you would be working with
Leads requirements, data strategy and analysis across client engagements, and heads the career products line.
Designs and builds the platforms end to end, from data architecture to mobile release, and owns everything in production.
Brings the operator view to every build and leads client delivery across the recruitment network.
Office 1856, 60 Tottenham Court Road
Fitzrovia, London W1T 2EW
020 3432 4554
Company number 17216706. ICO registration ZC152144. In person across Greater London, remote across the UK, on the same terms.
Common questions
How much does custom software development cost in the UK?
Published 2026 guides put a focused tool at £2,000 to £10,000, a multi-user business application at £15,000 to £30,000 and complex platforms at £35,000 and up. Augustova quotes £4,000 to £10,000, £10,000 to £20,000 and £20,000 to £30,000 or more for the same three tiers, fixed against a written scope.
How much does it cost to build an MVP in London?
London studios that publish prices put a startup MVP at £10,000 to £15,000 and up: Magora from £10,000, Coderacle £15,000 fixed. Augustova builds a startup MVP for £10,000 to £20,000, fixed against a written scope, covering one core workflow, accounts, payments, an admin view and analytics. Native mobile apps, a second user type and marketplace features are quoted as later phases.
How long does an MVP take to build?
Four to six weeks to a launch that users can pay for, with working software shown in the first week and a demo every week after. Published London timelines are six to eight weeks (Magora) and eight to twelve (Coderacle). The time goes on the one workflow and the payments; it grows when a second user type or a native app is added, which is why we keep those out of a first release.
How much does it cost to hire a software developer in the UK, and is a fixed price better?
UK agency rates run about £45 to £90 an hour, offshore teams £25 to £50, freelancers £400 to £800 a day. An hourly or day rate transfers the estimating risk to you; a fixed price against a written scope puts it on the supplier, which is where it belongs.
What is the difference between custom and bespoke software?
Nothing. Bespoke is the British word, custom the American; both mean software built around how your business works rather than a product you adapt to. UK buyers search for both, so we use both.
Is it cheaper to buy off-the-shelf software?
Usually, and we will say so. Build when the process is how you compete, when you would otherwise pay for three products and rekey between them, or when licence cost across your headcount exceeds ownership within two or three years.
How long does custom software take to build?
Two to six weeks depending on surface area, with working software visible in the first few days. Most overruns in this industry are decisions waiting on somebody, so we agree scope and acceptance criteria in writing before starting.
Who owns the code and the accounts?
You do, from day one: the repositories, the provider accounts and the credentials are in your name, and at go-live you receive documentation, a runbook and a recorded walkthrough so another developer could pick it up without us.
What is your minimum project size?
There is not one. A single process automated properly starts at £4,000. Larger firms in London often will not look at anything under £25,000; that gap is where most of our clients come from.
Do you use offshore developers?
No. The founders design and build in London. We use AI tooling to build faster and validate everything with engineers, tests and your real data.
Can you build a mobile app as well as the web system?
Yes, native iOS and Android, submitted to the stores. We have shipped both for our own recruitment platform. Store submission is its own small project and is scoped as one.
Can you integrate with our existing systems?
Yes, and integration starts first because it is usually the largest line and the one that decides whether anyone uses the software. CRM, accounts, calendar, email and the industry systems you cannot replace.
What happens after go-live, and what does support cost?
Support is a separate, clearly priced monthly arrangement agreed in the same document as the build, not negotiated after go-live when you have less leverage. You can also take the runbook and support it yourself or elsewhere.
Can I build my own software with no-code tools instead?
For a simple internal tool with tidy data and one user type, often yes, and we will tell you so. No-code struggles with complex logic, high volume, messy inputs and anything that must not fail quietly, and its per-operation pricing can surprise you in a busy month.
Tell us what your team does by hand
Describe what happens today and roughly when you need it changed. A founder reads every message and replies personally, usually within one working day, with a fixed price or an honest reason not to build it.