Software development companies in London, compared: thirteen firms and MVP studios, their own prices, and who each suits.

Augustova is a software studio in London, and it is one of the thirteen firms on this page. We wrote it because buyers comparing bespoke software quotes have very little to compare them against: most software companies do not publish prices, and many of the price guides that rank in Google are a firm’s estimate of the wider market rather than what it charges itself.

So this page has a strict rule. A firm is included only if its own website publishes its own price for its own work, or a clearly scoped fixed package. Market estimates in blogs do not count, and where a firm publishes both we use only its own figure. Every figure was read on the firm’s own page on 19 October 2026. We call a firm London-based only where its own site says so; the others are UK firms that work with London clients.

Bespoke software houses: business systems, internal tools, portals and platforms. Prices are each firm’s own, excluding VAT where the firm says so; most do not say. "Best for" is our summary of what each firm says about itself, not a ranking.

Read on 19 October 2026 from each firm’s own pages, linked in the method section. Firms change their prices; check the linked page before relying on a figure.

Studios that build a founder’s first product, usually web, sometimes mobile, to a fixed scope. The MVP is one core workflow that users will pay for, with sign-up and payments, built so it can grow rather than be thrown away.

Coderacle’s published address is in the same building as our own office; we have no connection with it. Excludes VAT where stated.

From the UK AI Price Index, which records each firm’s own published figures. Each firm counts once per tier, at the midpoint of its published range or at its "from" price. A "from" price is a floor, so treat the medians as the middle of what firms advertise, not what a finished project usually costs.

Excludes VAT where stated. Augustova is included where it publishes a price. Full rows and sources are in the price index and its CSV.

Very few software companies publish what they charge. Of the dozens of London and UK firms we looked at, thirteen published their own prices; many more publish a "typical UK cost" guide that describes the market rather than their own work. We left those market figures out, because a firm’s estimate of what others charge is not a price you can buy at.

Discovery is now the norm and it is priced. Magora (from £3,000), CodeLeap (from £4,000), Rocking Tech (£4,500) and Softgen (from £4,950) publish a paid discovery or scoping phase, and most of the fixed-price firms fix the price only after it. Elastic Mint’s variant is worth copying: the fixed quote from its paid scoping is yours, valid for six months, so you can take it to another firm.

Fixed price dominates, with exceptions you should know about. Twelve of the thirteen offer a fixed price, usually after discovery. SWF Consultancy works on time and materials; Elastic Mint uses a day rate when the specification is unclear, Magora offers time and materials as an alternative, and CodeLeap a rolling monthly arrangement. Only three of the thirteen state whether their prices include VAT (Softomate and Augustova exclude it; Rocking Tech says plus VAT).

Code ownership is stated more often than it used to be, but the timing varies. Coderacle and Augustova put the code in your accounts from day one; Magora, CodeLeap and Jabu Designs transfer it on payment; Softomate at sign-off. The difference matters if a project stalls halfway.

Grouped by what each firm says it does and who it serves.

Six questions separate these firms faster than any ranking.

Published timelines follow the size of the job. Discovery takes one to three weeks. An MVP takes four weeks at Foundry 5, four to six at Augustova, four to eight at Softgen, six to eight at Magora and eight to twelve at Coderacle. A starter mobile app takes ten to twelve weeks at Softomate; a mid-sized one fourteen to sixteen. A business application usually takes two to four months (CodeLeap says about three months is typical), and a platform three to six months or more. What usually slips is not the coding but decisions: the scope changing during the build, and access to the systems it has to connect to.

Put three things in the contract. First, intellectual property: the code, designs and documentation assigned to you, and the repository and hosting accounts in your name, with the date it happens. Second, the exit: what you receive if you end the relationship halfway, and in what state. Third, data: if the supplier will handle personal data in the build or in support, a data processing agreement under UK GDPR, a list of sub-processors and where the data is hosted.

Watch for code that sits on the supplier’s own platform or framework under a licence rather than an assignment; it can be fine, but you should know before you sign.

The build is not the last bill. Where firms publish maintenance, it runs from £299 a month (Softomate’s care for an app) to £1,000 a month and up (Magora), with CodeLeap from £400. Hosting for a typical business application is usually tens to low hundreds of pounds a month, and an AI feature adds usage that scales with your users. Budget for both before you sign the build, and ask what happens if you stop the maintenance plan.

Augustova’s MVP price, £8,000 to £15,000 fixed, starts lower than any other MVP price on this page; the next is Magora from £10,000. Of the thirteen firms, only Coderacle and Augustova state that the code sits in your own accounts from day one, rather than passing to you on payment or at sign-off. We are one of the thirteen, so this entry is kept apart from the comparison and uses the same terms. Augustova builds business software, SaaS products with web and mobile apps, and MVPs at 60 Tottenham Court Road, London, for UK small and mid-sized businesses and founders, and runs two products of its own, Onrolo and GoRizzume. Every price is published, fixed per phase and excludes VAT.

We are the wrong choice for large enterprise systems, regulated products that need a specialist team, or work that is mainly .NET maintenance. A free 30-minute consultation ends in a fixed quote, a paid scoping phase, or a recommendation to one of the firms above.

From our own pricing page, excluding VAT.

Firms were found through the Google results for "software development company London", "custom software development London", "bespoke software development London" and "MVP development company UK", through the Clutch, GoodFirms and Sortlist London categories where they were readable, and through firms already cited in our software and MVP cost guides. A firm qualified only if its own site published its own price for its own work. Every figure was read on 19 October 2026.

Excluded from the price columns, and why: Square Root Solutions, Make IT Simple, Dotsquares, TotalSoft and Fulminous Software publish "typical UK cost" ranges that describe the market rather than their own prices, and Red Eagle Tech’s blog does the same (we use its own service page instead). Considered and left out: firms with no published price, firms whose stated London address sat beside delivery from another country with no UK team described, and sites whose own pages contradicted each other on the headline price. SWF Consultancy’s enterprise tier is shown as £30,000 to £80,000 and up at the top of its page and £50,000 to £150,000 and up in its FAQ, so we have not used it.

Augustova is on this page. To limit the bias we used the same columns and sources for every firm, wrote "best for" from each firm’s own description, put our own entry in a separate section, ranked nobody, and named firms whose entry prices are below ours. Corrections are welcome by email.