I had the privilege of being Jenniferâs bossâand more importantly having her as my friend for almost 13 years. Not everyone has a way about them. You know that feeling you get that someone is something special, even when you first meet them. And as you get to know them, their way takes on new dimensions.
â Jennifer had a way.
Her way was the opposite of pretentious. She was beautifulâshe could have been pretentiousâbut she wasnât. She would rather go fishing or ride 4-wheelers than waste time or money on appearances. Not that she didn’t like to dress up and go out, that’s just not what mattered most in her life.
âHer way was being genuine.
Friendship should be easy. And with her, it was. She didnât have unrealistic expectations from others in a friendship. If you made a mistake and missed a birthday, she didnât mind. If she didnât get back to you for 10 minutes or two days, it didnât mean anything was wrongâit was just her way. Whether you talked every day or once a month, you could always pick up right where you left off. No awkwardness. No gaps. She could be friends with a software developer, an executive, or a mechanicâit didnât matter.
âEasy friendships were her way.
Strong relationships require honesty. And she never held back. If it came to mind, sheâd say it. She didnât worry about how it came outâjust that it came from a place of truth. Years ago, after giving an annual speech to the company I asked her what she thought. She said, âYou shouldnât read from your notes.â I said, âAnything else? (fishing for a compliment) But she was right. And Iâll remember her advice forever. Well JenniferâIâm reading this now because I want to get it right. For you.
âHonesty was her way.
Achievement takes hard work and dedication. Jennifer didnât come from the tech world, but she carved out a place in it anyway. She started at our front desk right out of college. A year in, she said she wanted to be a developer. Not many took her seriously. So she taught herself. Nights. Weekends. She found friends who helped her learn. And over time, she proved everyone wrong.
âHard work and never giving up were her way.
Loyalty is putting others first, and I saw Jennifer do that time and time again. She got offers from other companiesâshe never took them. She saw red flags in people, in relationshipsâbut she fought for them anyway.
âLoyalty was just her way.
Kindness is doing the little things that make life better for others. And in all the years I knew her, I never once heard her say an unkind word about anyone. She went out of her wayâagain and againâfor the people she loved.
âKindness was her way.
Faith is believing in something better. And as Jennifer got older, her faith grew stronger. She gave generously to her church. She shared her belief in Christ with everyone. She believed in a better futureâfor herself, her daughter, for everyone.
âFaith was her way.
If Jennifer had a fault, it was living too much in the moment. Some people plan every step. She didnât. She lived for the day, the hour, the minute. In the last five years, I saw her struggle with thatâtrying to find a balance between now and the future. She fought it, but she was always young at heart and her yearning for excitement never went away.
âLiving for the present was her way.
I’m going to miss Jennifer like hell. But maybe if we can live life a little more her wayâmore honest, more kind, more loyal, more faithful, more genuineâthen her love can be enduring.
Because after all, and above all⌠Love was always her way.
Web applications play an essential role in business operations. These software applications are accessed through a web browser and donât need to be downloaded. They provide functionality through a URL so companies can engage with customers, automate processes and improve efficiency. With web application development, most businesses want to first understand how significant their investment in the technology will need to be. The answer can differ depending on many factors.
In 2023, the cost of web application development is determined by things like the size and complexity of the application, any refinements and/or constraints, and hosting and maintenance costs.
Start with the basics: how to determine size and complexity.
To determine the size and complexity of your web application, we need to first define what itâs going to do. The specifications for modern software are often defined by âuser storiesâ. These user stories are a simple way to describe discrete functionalities your application should provide, from an end-user perspective. They are often used by developers to define and estimate the effort required for web application development.
Letâs use Facebook as an example of a web-based application that most people are familiar with. While Facebook may seem relatively simple to use, it is actually a massive web application with many different layers of functionality for different user groups. Describing it in user stories would take a very long time, however, if we stick to its most basic functionality we can use it as a good example. Here are some examples of web-based user stories:
As a user, I need to register and create a profile
As a user, I need to verify my email address to complete my registration
As a user, I need to find friends to connect with
As a user, I need to request to connect with the friends I find
As a user, I need to add pictures to my profile
As a user, I need to post status updates to my feed
As a user, I need to be able to react (like, love, hate, cry, etc) to posts
As a user, I need to be able to comment on posts
As an advertiser, I need to compare the performance of my campaigns
As an page manager, I need to manage roles for my page
I think you get the idea.
Defining this application in user stories would take a very long time, and producing each piece of application functionality takes a lot longer! With the table below we will try to ballpark the relative size of your web application using the number of user stories.
When you are thinking of your user stories, also think of the relative complexity of each user story. For example: âAs an advertiser, I need to compare the performance of my campaigns.â is not the same level of effort as âAs a user, I need to be able to react to posts.â
We normally apply a âlevel of effortâ attribute to each user story to help scope the application. In development, âlowâ might mean 5-10 hours, âmediumâ 10 to 20, and âhardâ 50 to 100.
Any user story more complex than that should be broken down into smaller stories. For example âAs a user, I need to manage my profileâ is not an acceptable user story and should be broken down into even smaller pieces.
Micro (< $50,000)
Small($50,000-$200,000)
Medium($200,000-$1M)
Large($1M+)
10-15 âlow effortâ user stories
25-50 âlow effortâ user stories
50-100 âlow effortâ user stories
200+ âlow effortâ user stories
5-10 âmedium effortâ user stories
10-25 âmedium effortâ user stories
25-50 âmedium effortâ user stories
50+ âmedium effortâ user stories
1-2 âlarge effortâ user stories
2-5 âlarge effortâ user stories
10-20 âlarge effortâ user stories
25+ âlarge effortâ user stories
Web Application Development Cost – estimated in user stories
Whatâs next? Identify web application refinements and constraints.
Another factor that can impact the cost of building and hosting a web application in 2023 is refinements and constraints. Refinements include features and functionality that are not essential but enhance the user experience or provide additional value.
Constraints refer to specific requirements or limitations that the application must meet, such as compliance regulations or security measures. These can add to the web application development time and cost of the project.
Web Application Development: Gain a competitive edge by considering user delight.
With any web application you build, you are most likely facing competition in one form or another. In many cases it is with a direct competitor, but you are also competing with your usersâ expectations of what an efficient and pleasant web interaction feels like.
That being the case, you want to refine your application to not only beat the competition but to also be a joy to use. Therefore, you will probably want to pay attention to usability in the design of your application.
Software developers often have a basic idea of usability when developing web applications, but thereâs a big difference between a rudimentary interface and an efficient experience developed by a UI/UX professional. Here are a few classic UX design failures to illustrate the point.
Good usability is best built into the design and informed by user research. To add a UX professional or team to your web application development project might add another 5-10% in cost (could be more depending on the nature of the application and how important the experience is). That said, this 5-10% can save you much more down the road in rework and enhanced customer satisfaction and retention.
Criticality, security, and regulatory requirements directly impact web application development cost.
Is your application critical to the daily operation and success of your business, or that of others? Does it deal with health and safety or finance? Does it deal with an industry with regulatory requirements, such as PCI or HIPAA? Do federal accessibility requirements apply? If you answer yes to any of these questions, your web application needs to be developed with special requirements in mind.
All of these considerations will increase your web application development budget significantly; not only through the additional requirements, but also due to the need for testing. All well-developed applications are tested continually through the development process with both automated testing and human testing and peer review.
Application software that is extremely sensitive or critical would have additional layers of testing and security added throughout the process. Normal development of a web application would include a 20% cost for testing and security, but on critical or extremely critical software that might grow as high as 40% of the total cost.
Ensure a smooth run with ongoing web application development support.
Designing and developing the application is just the start. Once it is built, it must be operated from somewhere by someone (hosting), and all software needs periodic maintenance such as security and feature updates.
What about hosting?
For most web applications we recommend a cloud environment for scale and redundancy. Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure to name a few. Processing cycles, storage, bandwidth, backup, disaster recovery, and other details all add to the web applicating hosting cost. With a disclaimer on accuracy for your particular application, here are some ballparks below. Â
Micro
Small
Medium
Large
< $100 / month
$100-$500 / month
$1,000-$5,000 / month
$5,000-$100,000+ /month
Web Application Development Cost – hosting estimates
Donât forget application management.
Applications have an ongoing cost of ownership â all software, especially critical applications, need security updates, periodic maintenance, updates to supporting software and technology, and perhaps testing of backup and disaster recovery. To keep your web application secure and performing well, these need to be performed as preventive maintenance, not as an emergency response after problems occur.
To make sure all these happen, you will want some level of application management, whether thatâs internal or through a managed service provider like Atlantic BT. Because you have a custom application, your best bet in choosing a managed service provider will be a company that can both manage the hosting and the ongoing web application development and support.
Itâs very rare that you ever âfinishâ developing your application. Normally, you continue to evolve and improve your application over the course of the time it is in production. Choosing a managed service provider that has a continuous DevOps chain from development through hosting will ensure efficient, continuous operation.
The costs of managed services around a custom application could range from 5%-20% depending on how well it was built originally and how many features and requests you want to continue to add as the application is used.
Are the numbers starting to make sense?
This web application development cost article will help guide you in the right direction for a ballpark estimate. More importantly, it tells you how to approach estimation in general for software development and lifecycle maintenance.
Trying to figure it out on your own is time consuming and relatively imperfect if you donât have the in-house skills and experience. We can help in a couple ways:
If you just want to chat — weâre always here and look forward to getting to know you and what youâre working on. We can probably give you a SWAG (scientific wild ass guess) in just a few minutes, but more likely we’ll recommend some kind of discovery to start nailing things down to plan the web application development.
If you need something with a bit more fidelity for an internal budget request or pitch to management we can help with a âQuickStart Web Application Budget Workshopâ. For a very high value engagement that wonât cost you much, weâll put 3-4 of our top brains in a room and create a budget range and document the broad requirements for your application.
Ultimately, the investment in a well-designed and well-maintained web application can pay off in increased customer engagement and business growth. Working with an experienced development team to create a detailed project plan and budget will provide the most benefit.
Atlantic BT’s years of experience and expertise in web application development, combined with our ability to handle everything from design to hosting and management, make us the ideal choice for businesses seeking a comprehensive solution to their web application development needs.
Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help your business thrive in the digital age.
Before embarking on any web design and development project, it’s important to ask a few key questions to best understand the reasons why the website needs to be redesigned to begin with. While every project is different, we’ve found that most businesses will decide to go through a website redesign when they are experiencing the following issues.
If any of these reasons resonate with why you feel your website is not attracting visitors or getting conversions, then it might be time to consider revamping your website.
1. You Want to Add More Functionalities to Your Website
Websites are now the most common point of contact between customers and companies, as well as among employees. Many websites incorporate payment processing, live chat, administrative tools, and other advanced features. These features require sophisticated technologies implemented within the code and backend of the website to function seamlessly and with zero downtime. Many businesses today are adding custom-built applications to their websites to allow customers to make purchases, add a modern feel to the site, and integrate with other systems (such as ERP, CRM, and POS). An experience web design and development company can really add value to your website by making it more functional for your users.
2. You Need an Industry Compliant Website
In addition to the reasons mentioned above for updating your website, there are a number of regulations and stringent compliance requirements many industries must adhere to today. For example, if you are a medical clinic or hospital and you want to provide online appointment booking services, you will need to be HIPAA compliant in order to do so. Even if you arenât a medical facility or government agency, you may still need to comply with certain security and privacy regulations on your website. For example, if you are collecting sensitive information from users, you need to ensure that your site is secure. Failure to do so could result in serious consequences for both your business and its customers/clients. A web design and development agency can help ensure your website is compliant.
3. You Have Large Amounts of Content
With web design and development, it is crucial to have a clear navigation system in place so that potential customers and visitors can easily locate the information they need. Keep in mind that there are many elements of a websiteâs design that should be carefully considered before building. The goals should always be outlined prior to beginning the web design and development project and a plan that is focused on results should be followed. Here are a few of the ways websites with large amounts of content can keep things clear and consistent:
Keep the navigation simple and easy to use so users can easily find essential information.
Use an overall design format that works well with lots of text.
Make sure your fonts are legible and that there is an enhanced mobile experience.
If your website needs redesigning, these are just some of the main reasons why it could be a good idea. Whether you want to give your site a facelift or want more functionality, we hope this list has helped you decide the best path forward for your web design and development project.
At Atlantic BT we have over two decades of experience building software and integrating solutions for businesses across the globe. Our vast experience sets us up to be your trusted advisors in web design and development, and beyond! Let’s discuss your project!
If youâre looking to build an eCommerce website, youâre probably wondering about the cost. As you might have guessed, there isnât a one-size-fits-all answer. The price can range from as little as $5,000 to well over $5 million, depending on the platform, features, and complexity of your online store.
But the cost doesnât stop at the initial development. To maintain and grow your eCommerce business, youâll need to factor in ongoing investments in functionality, user experience, marketing, and security.
Key Factors That Influence eCommerce Costs
To help you estimate the cost of your eCommerce website, weâve outlined the major factors that influence pricing. At the bottom of this article, you’ll find a cost summary table to give you a clearer breakdown.
1. How eCommerce Platforms Impact Cost
The cost of your eCommerce site largely depends on the platform you choose. Options range from industry-specific solutions to Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms, integrated solutions with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, and fully custom-built stores.
The look and feel of your website affect both customer experience and branding. Your design costs will depend on whether you choose a pre-built theme or a custom design.
Pre-Built Themes
Many SaaS platforms offer ready-to-use templates that cost between $0 and $250.
Minor customizations (beyond basic branding) can add $1,000 to $2,000.
Custom Design & Development
A fully custom design ensures your store is unique but comes at a higher cost.
A simple custom theme may cost $10,000 to $30,000, while a high-end bespoke design could cost $100,000 or more.
3. Custom Programming & Functionality
Many platforms offer plugins and extensions to add features without custom coding. However, some businesses need custom features that require development work.
Third-Party Extensions: Many are affordable but may require vetting to ensure quality and security.
Custom Features:
Small customizations can start at $2,000.
Complex integrations or unique functionalities can push costs to $150,000+.
Tip: Before developing custom features, check if existing extensions meet your needs to save money.
4. Web Hosting & Maintenance Costs
Your hosting cost will depend on the type of eCommerce platform you choose:
SaaS Platforms (like Shopify) include hosting in their monthly fees ($20â$250/month).
Self-Hosted Platforms (like Magento or WooCommerce) require dedicated hosting. Costs start at $300/month for basic hosting and can exceed $2,000/month for high-traffic, enterprise-grade setups.
The cost of building and hosting an eCommerce website varies widely depending on your business needs. SaaS platforms like Shopify offer an affordable, user-friendly solution, while custom-built eCommerce platforms provide more flexibility at a higher cost.
Before making a decision, consider: â Your budget and long-term costs â The level of customization you need â How much technical expertise you have or are willing to hire
Ready to start your eCommerce journey? We can help. Let’s talk eCommerce.
How much does a custom web application cost to build and host? If you are reading this article you are probably trying to figure out if the application you need can be built at an affordable cost. Use this guide as a web application cost calculator. While there are many variables that can impact cost, the key factors generally fall into three categories: 1) size and complexity, 2) refinements and constraints, and 3) hosting and maintenance.Â
Start with the basics: how to determine size and complexity.
To determine the size and complexity of your application we need to first define what itâs going to do. The specifications for modern software are often defined by âuser storiesâ. These user stories are a simple way to describe discrete functionalities your application should provide, from an end-user perspective, and are often used by developers to define and estimate the effort required to build an application.Â
Letâs use Facebook as an example of a web-based application that most people are familiar with. While Facebook may seem relatively simple to use, it is actually a massive web application with many different functionalities for different users. Describing it in user stories would take a very long time, however, if we stick to its most basic functionality we can use it as a good example. Here are some examples of web-based user stories:
As a user, I need to register and create a profile
As a user, I need to verify my email address to complete my registration
As a user, I need to find friends to connect with
As a user, I need to request to connect with friends I find
As a user, I need to add pictures to my timeline
As a user, I need to post status updates to my timeline
As a user, I need to browse my feed from other friends
As a user, I need to be able to react (like, love, hate, cry, etc) to posts on my feed
As a user, I need to be able to comment on posts on my feed
As an advertiser, I need to compare the performance of my campaigns
As an organizational social media manager, I need to manage roles for my page
I think you get the idea. Defining this application in user stories would take a very long time, and producing each piece of application functionality takes a lot longer! With the table below we will try to ballpark the relative size of your application using the number of user stories. When you are thinking of your user stories also think of the relative complexity of each user story. For example: âAs an advertiser, I need to compare the performance of my campaigns.â is not the same level of effort as âAs a user, I need to be able to react to posts on my feed.âÂ
We normally apply a âlevel of effortâ attribute to each user story to help scope the application. In development âlowâ might mean 5-10 hours, âmediumâ 10 to 20, and âhardâ 50 to 100. Any user story more complex than that should be broken down into smaller stories. For example âAs a user, I need to manage my profileâ is not an acceptable user story and should be broken down into even smaller pieces.
Micro (< $50,000)
Small($50,000-$200,000)
Medium($200,000-$1M)
Large($1M+)
10-15 âlow effortâ user stories
25-50 âlow effortâ user stories
50-100 âlow effortâ user stories
200+ âlow effortâ user stories
5-10 âmedium effortâ user stories
10-25 âmedium effortâ user stories
25-50 âmedium effortâ user stories
50+ âmedium effortâ user stories
1-2 âlarge effortâ user stories
2-5 âlarge effortâ user stories
10-20 âlarge effortâ user stories
25+ âlarge effortâ user stories
Whatâs next? Identify application refinements and constraints.
With any web application development, you must not only consider what your basic functional requirements are, but also include user expectations and behaviors, i.e. usability, and other constraints such as mission criticality and regulatory requirements in your industry.
Gain a competitive edge by considering user delight.
With any application you build, you are most likely facing competition in one form or another – in many cases direct competition, but even if not that, you are competing with your usersâ expectations of what an efficient and pleasant web interaction feels like. That being the case, you want to refine your application to not only beat the competition but to also be a joy to use. Therefore, you will probably want to pay attention to usability in the design of your application. Software developers often have a basic idea of usability when developing software, but thereâs a big difference between a software interface that basically functions and an efficient experience developed by a UI/UX professional. Here are a few classic UX design failures to illustrate the point.
Good usability is best built into the design and informed by user research. To add a UX professional or team to your software project might add another DevOps chain5-10% (could be more depending on the nature of the application and how important the experience is). That said, this 5-10% can save you much more down the road in avoided rework and enhanced customer satisfaction and retention.
Criticality, security, and regulatory requirements directly impact application cost.
Is your application critical to the daily operation and success of your business, or that of others? Does it deal with health and safety or finance? Does it deal with an industry with regulatory requirements, such as PCI or HIPAA? Do federal accessibility requirements apply? If you answer yes to any of these questions, your application needs to be developed with special requirements in mind.
All of these considerations will increase your budget significantly; not only through the additional requirements, but also due to the need for testing. All well-developed software is tested continually through the development process with both automated testing and human testing and peer review. Software that is extremely sensitive or critical would have additional layers of testing and security added throughout the process. Normal software development would include a 20% cost for testing and security but on critical or extremely critical software that might grow as high as 40% of the total cost.
Ensure a smooth run with ongoing application support.
Designing and developing the application is just the start. Once it is built, it must be operated from somewhere by someone (hosting), and all software needs periodic maintenance such as security updates.Â
What about hosting?
Hosting alone could be an entirely separate article but weâll take a quick swag at it based on what you found above. For most web applications we recommend a cloud environment for scale and redundancy. Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure to name a few. Processing cycles, storage, bandwidth, backup, disaster recovery, and other details all add to the cost. With a disclaimer on accuracy for your particular application, here are some ballparks below.Â
MicroÂ
Small
Medium
Large
< $100 / month
$100-$500 / month
$1,000-$5,000 / month
$5,000-$100,000+ /month
Donât forget application management.
Applications have an ongoing cost of ownership — all software, especially critical applications, need security updates, periodic maintenance, updates to supporting software and technology, and perhaps testing of backup and disaster recovery. To keep your application secure and performing well, these need to be performed as preventive maintenance, not as an emergency response after problems occur.
To make sure all these happen, you will want some level of application management, whether thatâs internal or through a managed service provider like Atlantic BT. Because you have a custom application your best bet in choosing a managed service provider will be a company that can both manage the hosting of your application and the ongoing application development and support. Itâs very rare that you âfinishâ developing your application. Normally, you continue to evolve and improve your application over the course of the time it is in production. Choosing a managed service provider that has a continuous DevOps chain from development through hosting will ensure efficient, continuous operation.
The costs of managed services around a custom application could range from 5%-20% depending on how well it was built originally and how many features and requests you want to continue to add as the application is used.Â
Are the numbers starting to make sense?
This web application cost calculator will help guide you in the right direction for a ballpark estimate. More importantly, it tells you how to approach estimation in general for software development and lifecycle maintenance. If you want a more refined estimate, contact us for a free consultation. We can help you with everything from a quick idea over a phone call to structured requirements-gathering and a detailed estimate process.Â
Many businesses today are facing some of the toughest digital problems they have ever encountered. The combination of continuous technology evolution and explosive adoption in business have created remarkable challenges for modern executives and business owners. In addition to moving the organization forward, these challenges are sometimes significant enough to threaten basic business continuity.
A decade ago technology was often contained to individual business functions and fairly rarely exposed directly to customers. Today, that is no longer the case. As the complexity of the challenges has grown, businesses have added dozens of individual systems to perform specific business functions. Unfortunately, these systems are often disconnected and do not share data directly with the rest of the enterprise. And that creates a new set of problems that further hamper the growth of the business.
The Pressures That Create Tough Digital Problems
The key factors that are creating pressure for business leaders to continually solve tougher and tougher digital problems are security, efficiency, and customer/competitive demands. The pressures these key factors generate has never been greater and comes at a time when many enterprises are squeezing their IT budgets.
So how does a business or enterprise become leaner and more agile so they can solve tough digital problems? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this question but there are some specific actions an organization should take to remain competitive and avoid putting the organization in catastrophic risk territory such as what happened to Sony Pictures.
4 Keys to Solving Tough Digital Problems
Commit to making technology a competitive advantage. Technology can either be something an organization deals with because it has to, or something an organization embraces and turns into an advantage. The first step is as simple as announcing the organizationâs intention to embrace and drive technology. With clear focus and proper leadership, it will quickly grow from a liability to an asset.
Determine roles and responsibilities. Clearly determine who in your organization is responsible for the overall technology vision. If left to their own devices, individual departments will innovate and solve their own problems. While this is normally a good thing, it can introduce new problems in the areas of  security, consistency and data sharing/integration. These issues are critical to the enterprise and must be managed at the top level.
Take a long-term view.Without clear technology standards and leadership at the top level, each new dollar spent on technology not in line with your long-term vision is unlikely to bring your organization closer to and advantage in technology. It may solve a necessary short-term problem, but it will also push your organization further from any unified technology vision.
Create clear standards and rules for engagement. In the creative world organizations use branding and style guides as a method to create consistency across enterprise marketing and communication functions. Technology standards and rules of engagement, while a bit more complicated, play the same role for technology decisions and implementations. Developing these standards and using them within your organization will bring your technology in line with the vision and reduce the friction associated with technology.
Once your organization is on the right track, lots of individual digital problems will surface. With the proper organization and framework your business can move confidently forward and each investment in technology is much more likely to create positive ROI. Doing things that are really difficult and getting them right are what lead to enduring competitive advantages. In many cases each successive digital challenge will be made possible by the investment in the underlying framework and the ability to execute and coordinate sometimes complex operations or activities across large swaths of the enterprise.
Want to Learn More?
Atlantic BT is trusted to solve the toughest digital challenges for some of the worldâs leading companies. Check out our case studies to see some of our recent work and give us a call at (919) 518-0670 or contact us to talk with one of our consultants to see how we can help with the digital challenges you are facing.
