Most custom business apps land between $2,500 and $25,000. Simple internal tools — a booking form, an inventory tracker, a basic dashboard — sit at the low end. Full-featured apps with user accounts, payments, integrations, and a mobile component land in the middle. Multi-platform apps with complex logic, real-time syncing, and enterprise features sit at the high end and above.
When you hear someone quote “$100,000+” for an app, they’re usually a big-city agency talking about a much bigger project than a small business actually needs.
$2,500-$5,000. A single-purpose tool. One core function, one or two screens, a database, and a clean interface. Examples: an internal booking form, an inventory checker, a simple intake portal, a calculator tool. Done in 4-6 weeks. No mobile app — it’s a web app you access from any browser.
$5,000-$12,000. A real multi-feature web app or a simple mobile app. Multiple users with different permissions, multiple connected screens, basic reporting, and a few integrations with other systems. Examples: a grant tracking system, a client portal, a custom booking platform, a single-purpose mobile app for staff. Done in 6-10 weeks.
$12,000-$25,000. A polished cross-platform app with both a web admin dashboard and a customer-facing mobile app, real-time syncing, payments, push notifications, and meaningful integrations. Examples: a full lodge booking app with online payments, a community member app for a band office, a multi-location restaurant operations app. Done in 10-16 weeks.
$25,000+. Larger systems with complex logic, multiple user types, heavy integrations, regulatory compliance, or unusual technical requirements. Usually quoted in phases rather than all up front.
User accounts and roles. Apps with simple “log in and use it” cost less than apps where admins, staff, clients, and the public each see something different. Each role multiplies the work.
Payments. Anything that takes credit cards or processes refunds takes more work than something purely informational. There’s compliance, security, and the user-experience design of failed payments to handle.
Mobile apps vs web apps. A mobile app costs more than a web app of the same scope — you have App Store/Play Store submission, more device variation, more testing, and more ongoing maintenance as iOS and Android release updates.
Real-time features. Live data syncing, multi-user editing, push notifications — these add complexity and infrastructure cost beyond a simple “load page, save data” model.
Integrations. Connecting to QuickBooks, your POS, Microsoft 365, or a payment processor each adds work. Not a lot per integration, but it adds up.
Custom design. Generic clean interfaces are fast to build. Heavily branded apps with custom illustrations and animations cost more — sometimes a lot more.
Tight scope. The single biggest lever. A clear, focused app with one main job costs a fraction of a sprawling “and it should also…” app. We help clients narrow the scope to the parts that actually matter — and add the rest later if needed.
Web app instead of mobile. If your users will mostly access this at a desk or counter, a web app is roughly half the cost of a mobile app and most of the time it’s the right call. Many small businesses don’t actually need a mobile app — they think they do because “app” is the word they’ve heard.
Standard authentication. Logging in with Google or Microsoft instead of building a custom username/password system saves work and improves security.
Phased delivery. Building the must-haves first and the nice-to-haves later means you start using (and benefiting from) the app sooner — and you can decide based on real use whether the later features are still worth building.
Hosting and infrastructure. Apps need to run somewhere. Most projects need $20-$100/month in ongoing hosting costs. Some agencies hide this — get clarity upfront.
Maintenance. Apps decay if left alone. Operating systems update, security issues are discovered, libraries change. Budget 10-20% of the build cost per year for ongoing maintenance if you want the app to stay healthy.
App store fees. Apple Developer Account is $99 USD/year. Google Play Developer Account is $25 USD one-time. Plus Apple takes 15-30% of in-app revenue if you sell anything through the app.
The cost of getting it wrong. A cheap fixed-bid build from someone who underquoted you and bails halfway is more expensive than a properly scoped flat-rate build done right the first time. We see this often — second-attempt rebuilds of failed first attempts.
We quote flat rate after a short scoping conversation. You know the total cost upfront. We don’t bill hourly, and scope creep doesn’t inflate your invoice — if you add new things mid-project, we’ll quote those separately so the decision is yours.
You own everything we build. When the project ends, you have the source code, the design files, and the documentation. You’re not locked into paying us to keep it running — though we’re happy to maintain it for you if you’d rather not.
Most of our app projects in the region land at $4,000-$15,000. We’ve done internal tools as small as $2,500 and multi-feature platforms in the $20,000+ range. Whichever end you’re at, we’ll tell you honestly before any work begins.
Not sure where to start? Get an honest, vendor-neutral assessment of your technology setup before you spend on anything else. See our IT consulting & fractional CTO services →
Band offices hold a lot of sensitive information — member registries, health and social services data, financial records, funding agreements, and confidential council discussions. Many also operate critical community services where downtime hurts real people. And funders increasingly require documented cybersecurity practices as a condition of grants.
The good news: a few high-impact controls cover most of the realistic risk. You don’t need an enterprise security program. You need a focused, ordered set of practical actions.
1. Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) everywhere. Email, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, banking, accounting software, any cloud system. This single step blocks the vast majority of account compromises. Free to enable. Do it this week.
2. Set up a real backup of your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace data. Email, files, SharePoint or Drive — backed up by a third party with at least 30 days of retention. Typical cost is $3-$5 per user per month. Protects against deletion, ransomware, and former-employee data wipes.
3. Set up email filtering and phishing protection. Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Google Workspace both include strong filtering — make sure it’s turned on with the right settings. Add a separate phishing-resistant email security tool if you handle especially sensitive data.
4. Train your staff on phishing. A 30-minute training plus periodic simulated phishing emails will dramatically reduce the chance someone clicks the wrong link. Free or low-cost — and the highest leverage action you can take to reduce risk.
5. Update all computers and devices regularly. Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android security patches should install automatically. Old, unpatched devices are how most ransomware gets in. Check that auto-update is on for every device the office uses.
6. Write down who has access to what — and remove what’s no longer needed. Most band offices have former employees with active email accounts and active access to systems. Get a list of every account in every system, mark which are current, and remove the rest.
7. Use a password manager. 1Password or Bitwarden, business plan, for the whole office. Stops people from reusing passwords or storing them in browser tabs and sticky notes. ~$5-$10 per user per month.
8. Encrypt the laptops and phones. BitLocker on Windows, FileVault on Mac, and screen lock with PIN/biometric on mobile. If a device is lost or stolen, encryption means the data on it stays protected.
9. Document your incident response. One page: who to call if something goes wrong, what systems are critical, who has authority to disconnect things from the network. Include this in your funder reporting — funders want to see this kind of preparedness.
10. Get a cybersecurity audit once a year. An outside review of your setup with a written report. Cost is usually $1,500-$3,000. This is the document funders increasingly ask for, and the report often surfaces a few cheap fixes that meaningfully improve security.
Shared accounts. Multiple people using one “reception@” or “admin@” login. This makes incidents impossible to trace and means revoking one person’s access without disrupting everyone is impossible. Switch to individual accounts.
Old laptops, no patching. Computers running Windows versions that no longer receive security updates. Either replace them or upgrade to a supported version — there’s no acceptable third option for a computer handling member data.
No backup outside Microsoft. Microsoft 365 is reliable but it’s not a backup. We’ve seen band offices lose months of files when a single account was compromised and emptied. A third-party backup of M365 is a $3-$5 per user per month must-have.
Sensitive files in shared inboxes. Photocopies of member ID, financial records, health information — sitting in Outlook inboxes searchable by anyone with access. Move sensitive files to a properly permissioned SharePoint folder.
Federal and provincial funders, ISC, and many private funders increasingly want documented IT security practices as a condition of funding. The good news is that the basics on this checklist are usually enough for most funder questionnaires — MFA, backups, training, written incident response, and an annual audit.
If a funder is asking for something more specific (ITSG-33 controls, ISO 27001 alignment, third-party certifications), that’s a bigger project. Most band offices we work with don’t have those requirements, but if yours does, we can scope an engagement to meet them.
For a typical band office of 10-25 staff, full implementation of this checklist runs roughly $300-$600 per month in ongoing tool subscriptions, plus a one-time setup project in the $3,000-$8,000 range depending on your starting point, plus an annual audit at $1,500-$3,000. Funders will often cover this kind of foundational IT work — it’s not “tech for tech’s sake,” it’s compliance and risk reduction.
For a band-owned business or larger administration office handling more sensitive data, costs scale up — but the order of the checklist stays the same.
Not sure where to start? Get an honest, vendor-neutral assessment of your technology setup before you spend on anything else. See our IT consulting & fractional CTO services →
For most businesses in our region, Microsoft 365 is the better fit. Almost everyone already uses Word, Excel, and Outlook; most clients you’ll send files to expect Microsoft formats; and the Business Premium plan includes serious security tools that Workspace doesn’t match without paying for the much pricier Enterprise plans.
Google Workspace is the better fit when you’re a tech-forward team that genuinely lives in the browser, your collaboration is real-time and document-heavy, and you have no specific need for the Microsoft desktop apps.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard: ~$16.50 CAD per user per month. Full desktop Word/Excel/Outlook/PowerPoint, 1TB OneDrive per user, Teams, SharePoint, email. About $165/month total for 10 users.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium: ~$28 CAD per user per month. Everything above plus Intune device management, Defender for endpoint security, conditional access, and information protection. About $280/month for 10 users. This is the one we recommend.
Google Workspace Business Standard: ~$18 CAD per user per month. Gmail, Drive, Docs/Sheets/Slides, Meet, Calendar, 2TB storage per user. About $180/month for 10 users.
Google Workspace Business Plus: ~$28 CAD per user per month. Everything above plus eDiscovery, retention, and basic device management. About $280/month for 10 users.
Pricing is roughly the same. The difference is what you get for the money — and how it fits with the world your business operates in.
Desktop apps. Word, Excel, and Outlook on the desktop are still the standard for serious document work. Google Docs and Sheets are great for collaboration, but they’re not where you draft a 30-page report, a complex spreadsheet model, or anything you’ll send to a government, bank, or accountant.
Compatibility with the outside world. Almost every business you’ll exchange files with is on Microsoft formats. Google Workspace handles them, but conversions occasionally break formatting on complex documents.
Security at the Business Premium tier. Intune, Defender, and Conditional Access — bundled into a $28/user/month plan — are a serious step up from anything in Google Workspace Business Plus. For businesses handling sensitive data, this is a real difference.
Familiarity. Almost every employee has used Outlook and Word. Training is minimal. Switching a 50-year-old veteran to Gmail and Google Docs is a non-zero amount of friction.
Real-time collaboration. Google’s collaborative editing has always been a step ahead. If three people need to be editing the same document simultaneously every day, Workspace makes that smoother than M365.
Simplicity. Google Workspace has fewer products, fewer settings, and fewer ways to mess up the configuration. Microsoft 365 is a sprawling ecosystem; Workspace is a tighter package.
Mobile. Workspace’s mobile apps are generally faster and more usable than the M365 ones, though M365 mobile has improved substantially.
You’re already on it. If your team is already using Gmail addresses and Google Drive and it’s working, the cost and disruption of switching to M365 is rarely justified by the upgrade.
If you handle First Nations data, healthcare information, financial records, or anything regulated — Microsoft 365 Business Premium’s security tools and compliance reporting are a meaningful advantage. We’ve never set up an organization in those categories on Google Workspace.
If you’re a creative agency, a software developer, or a startup-style operation — Workspace often fits better. Lighter, faster, cheaper to administer.
If you’re using a third-party line-of-business app (a CRM, an accounting system, a property management system), check what it integrates with. Many older Canadian business apps integrate with Microsoft 365 / Exchange far better than they do with Google Workspace.
Neither system backs up your data the way you think. Both platforms have limited retention windows, and once data is deleted past those windows, it’s gone. A separate third-party backup is recommended for either platform — see our backup services page.
For a typical 10-person business in Northwestern Ontario — restaurant, retailer, contractor, professional services, nonprofit, band office — Microsoft 365 Business Premium is our default recommendation. About $280/month, includes desktop Office, business email, Teams, OneDrive, and serious security. Add a third-party M365 backup for another $30-$50/month and you’ve got most of what a small business needs.
If you’re already on Workspace and happy, stay. There’s no reason to switch just because we’d have picked differently from scratch.
Not sure where to start? Get an honest, vendor-neutral assessment of your technology setup before you spend on anything else. See our IT consulting & fractional CTO services →
For a typical small business in Northwestern Ontario with 5-25 employees, expect to spend roughly $150-$300 per user per month on the full picture of IT — covering managed support, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace licensing, cybersecurity tools, backups, internet, phones, and a reserve for hardware replacement.
For a 10-person business, that’s around $20,000-$36,000 a year total. It feels like a lot until you compare it to the cost of one full-time IT person ($60,000+ all-in), or to the cost of one ransomware incident that takes the business offline for a week.
For a 10-person business, a realistic monthly breakdown looks something like this:
Managed IT support: $1,000-$1,500/month. Helpdesk, monitoring, security patching, user onboarding/offboarding, and on-site visits.
Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace licensing: $150-$300/month. Business Standard or Premium plans for everyone, with security tools.
Cybersecurity tools: $100-$300/month. Endpoint protection, email filtering, security awareness training subscription.
Cloud backup: $50-$200/month. Microsoft 365 backup plus server/file backup if you have on-premises data.
Internet: $150-$400/month depending on what’s available — Bell business fibre where you can get it, Starlink Business for remote locations.
VoIP phones: $200-$400/month for a 10-person business with auto-attendant.
Hardware replacement reserve: $300-$600/month set aside. Laptops last 4-5 years; you want roughly 20% of your fleet replaced every year.
Total: roughly $2,000-$3,700/month, or $200-$370 per user. Many businesses are at the lower end if their needs are simpler; some at the higher end if they have specialized requirements.
You have an “IT contract” that includes things you don’t use. Some MSPs sell expensive packages with monitoring tools, compliance reporting, or premium support tiers that a 10-person plumbing company will never touch. If the line items don’t make sense, ask for them in plain English. If the explanation still doesn’t make sense, you don’t need it.
You’re paying enterprise prices for small-business needs. Some big-name MSPs charge $250-$400 per user per month for managed IT that’s no better than what a competent local shop provides for $80-$120. Pay for skill and responsiveness, not for the office tower the MSP rents in Toronto.
You’re being upsold hardware constantly. Business laptops last 4-5 years. If you’re being told everything needs replacing every 2-3 years, get a second opinion — that’s a sales target, not an IT recommendation.
You’re paying for the same protection twice. Some businesses end up paying for antivirus, then again for endpoint protection, then again for security software bundled inside Microsoft 365 — all doing the same job. An audit usually finds at least one redundant subscription.
No backup. If a ransomware attack or a hardware failure tomorrow would cost you weeks of recovery, you’re under-spent. Backup is the cheapest insurance against the most expensive incident.
No MFA. If your email accounts don’t require multi-factor authentication, you’re one phishing email away from a compromise that costs $20,000+ to clean up.
“IT” is one of your staff doing it after-hours. Asking your office manager or “the computer-savvy one” to handle IT in their spare time costs more than you think — it eats their attention, it doesn’t get proactive work done, and it falls apart the moment that person leaves.
You haven’t replaced computers in 6+ years. The productivity hit from slow, failing computers usually costs more than just replacing them.
Most small businesses in our region underspend on IT until something goes wrong, then overspend on a panicked vendor pitch after the incident. Steady, modest IT investment is dramatically cheaper than crisis IT response.
Cloud services have made small-business IT cheaper than it used to be. You don’t need an on-premises server for most things anymore — Microsoft 365 covers email and files, cloud backup covers the rest. If your IT spending is dominated by maintaining old on-premises infrastructure, there’s almost certainly a cheaper modern path.
Per-user pricing is the simplest way to budget. If you know what you pay per user, you know what adding a person costs. That makes hiring and growth decisions much easier than billing structures that bundle everything together.
If your lodge has 4 or more cabins, paying guests who expect to use the internet, or any kind of online booking/payment system that has to work reliably — you want Starlink Business. If it’s just you and family at a personal cabin, Starlink Standard is fine and saves you about $80–$160 a month.
The two plans use the same satellites and same dish technology. The difference is priority and support, not raw speed.
Standard Starlink (~$140 CAD/month) uses what Starlink calls “best effort” network access. When the network is busy — a summer evening with thousands of cabin owners and tourists all online at once — your speed drops first. You’re at the back of the line behind Business and Priority customers. In off-peak hours it’s blazing fast; in peak hours at peak season, it can feel slow.
Starlink Business (~$200–$300 CAD/month depending on data plan) gives you priority network access, much higher data allowances before any throttling, faster business-tier customer support, and the option for a more rugged “high-performance” dish that does better in wet snow, heavy rain, and at higher temperatures. You stay fast even when the network is busy.
Personal cabins use the internet sporadically. A few people stream Netflix in the evening, someone checks email in the morning. Standard Starlink handles that with room to spare.
A working lodge is different. Twenty guests show up Saturday afternoon, every one of them pulls out a phone, half of them start streaming something, the kitchen tablet is running an order app, the office computer is processing credit cards, your VoIP phone needs bandwidth, your security cameras are uploading. Now you’re competing with thousands of other Rainy Lake area Starlink customers all doing the same thing on a Saturday evening — and on the Standard plan, you’re at the back of that queue.
The result with Standard: your guests complain that the internet “isn’t working” (it is, it’s just slow at the worst time), your credit card terminal times out at check-in, and your VoIP phone goes choppy when the dinner rush ends. With Business, none of that happens.
Standard Starlink is the right choice when: you’re using it at a personal cabin where it’s just family; you have a small remote home office with 1–3 users; you don’t run online payments or VoIP through it; you can tolerate occasional slowness in peak hours.
Many of our Rainy Lake area cabin clients run on Standard and are perfectly happy. It’s only when business operations and paying guests get involved that the math changes.
The standard residential dish works in most weather, but it’s plastic, more sensitive to extreme cold and snow load, and not really built for a roof installation that has to last 10 years in lake country weather. The Starlink Business “high-performance” dish is metal-housed, has a wider field of view (more satellites in range), tolerates higher temperatures, and is rated for permanent professional installation.
For a serious lodge install where the dish is going on a roof or a tall mast and you don’t want to be climbing up to swap it in three years, the high-performance dish is worth the upgrade — and it’s only available on a Business plan.
Most working lodges we’ve installed in the region use Starlink Business with the high-performance dish, on a data plan sized to the lodge’s actual peak-season traffic. The total cost is usually $250–$400 CAD per month plus the one-time hardware cost, and it eliminates the entire category of “the internet isn’t working” guest complaints.
If your lodge is on the smaller side — 2 or 3 cabins, low summer traffic, no real online operations — Standard plus a properly mounted dish can work too. We’ll walk through the math with you honestly before you commit to either.
Not sure where to start? Get an honest, vendor-neutral assessment of your technology setup before you spend on anything else. See our IT consulting & fractional CTO services →