You've searched for FileMaker development costs, and every result either dodges the question or names a suspiciously round number. We're going to do something slightly different: explain honestly what drives the cost, why sensible developers give estimates rather than fixed quotes, and how to protect yourself either way. No specific figures — not out of coyness, but because a figure given before understanding your project is a guess dressed as a fact, and we don't sell those.
What we can tell you is why two projects that sound identical on the phone can differ in cost by five times — and how to spot which one yours is.
The four things that actually drive cost
1. Scope — but measured in decisions, not screens. "A system to manage our jobs" might be six screens or sixty, and the count matters less than the decisions behind each one. Does a job have one site visit or many? Can an invoice cover several jobs? What happens when a customer cancels half an order? Every one of those questions becomes design, build, and testing time. The businesses that get the best value are the ones who can describe their process concretely — and part of our job in the free consultation is asking the questions that surface the hidden two-thirds of the iceberg.
2. Integrations. A self-contained system is one kind of project. A system that talks to Xero, your website, Mailchimp, or a payroll provider is another. Each integration adds work that's largely invisible in the finished product: authentication, error handling, retry logic, and testing against the other system's quirks — of which every API has several, documented nowhere. Integrations are usually the highest-value part of a system (they're what kills the retyping), but they're a genuine cost driver and anyone who prices them casually hasn't built many. It's a large part of what we do — see API integrations.
3. Data migration. Getting years of history out of old spreadsheets or a previous system and into the new one. The migration itself is mechanical; the cost is in the state of the data. Duplicates, inconsistent spellings, dates in three formats, the customer list where the phone number column sometimes contains directions to the site. Cleaning that up is real work, and it's work you only discover the size of once you look. It's also worth every penny, because migrating rubbish gives you a beautiful new system full of rubbish.
4. Polish and edge cases. The first 80% of a system comes quickly and demos beautifully. The last 20% — the validation that stops bad data, the behaviour when two people edit the same record, the report that has to be right because it goes to your accountant — is slower, and it's the difference between a demo and a tool your staff trust. Skimping here is where cheap projects go to die.
Why we give estimates, not fixed quotes
A fixed quote sounds safer for you. In practice, it changes the developer's incentives in ways that cost you more:
- A fixed quote must include a contingency for everything unknown — so you pay for risks that may never materialise.
- Once the quote is signed, every discovery becomes an argument. You'll hear "that's out of scope" a lot, because for the developer, it has to be — the alternative is working free.
- Worst of all, fixed quotes punish learning. Halfway through every project, everyone understands the business better than they did at the start. A fixed-quote project can't act on that without a renegotiation; the cheapest path is to build the thing everyone now knows is slightly wrong.
An estimate, honestly maintained, keeps the incentives pointed the right way: we tell you what we expect it to cost, we tell you promptly when reality diverges, and you decide what's worth doing with full information.
How monthly billing de-risks it
The obvious worry about estimates: "so it could just cost anything?" This is where the billing model does the protecting. We invoice monthly, for work actually completed, and you can stop at any time — no minimum term, no lock-in. That structure has teeth:
- You see progress before you pay for more of it. If month one doesn't impress you, there is no month two. Our incentive to be good is renewed twelve times a year.
- You control the pace. Budgets have seasons; the project can accelerate, pause, and resume.
- You can build in stages. Most clients start with the module that hurts most, get it live and earning its keep, then fund the next stage — partly out of the savings from the first.
- You own what you've paid for. The system is yours, files and all. If we were ever hit by the same bus (we do try to travel separately), your software doesn't die with us — any competent FileMaker developer could pick it up.
Full details are on our how we charge page.
Questions to ask any developer — including us
Take this list to every developer you talk to. The answers are more revealing than any price:
- "Can I speak to a client who's been with you for years?" Long relationships are the tell. We've been building FileMaker systems since 1998; some clients have been with us for most of that.
- "Who owns the software, and can another developer take it over?" The only good answers are "you" and "yes." Anything else is a lock-in dressed as a service.
- "What happens when the estimate turns out to be wrong?" Everyone's estimates are sometimes wrong. You're listening for whether they tell you early — and who decides what happens next. (It should be you.)
- "What did the last project you'd call a failure teach you?" Anyone who claims they haven't had one is either brand new or lying, and you don't want either.
- "What's included after go-live?" A system needs a settling-in period and someone to call. Vague answers here mean surprise invoices later — see our FileMaker support page for how we handle it.
The honest summary
FileMaker development costs what your project's scope, integrations, data, and required polish add up to — and anyone who names a figure before understanding those four things is guessing. What you can control is the structure: staged delivery, monthly billing for completed work, ownership of the result, and the freedom to stop. Get those right and the cost question becomes much less frightening, because you're never more than a month deep in a mistake.
The initial consultation is free, and it ends with an honest estimate — including, sometimes, "you don't need us yet."
Call 0330 113 0958 or email info@flaresoftware.co.uk.