Total cost of ownership of custom software over 5 years in Amsterdam in 2026

The verdict in three sentences

Initial development typically represents 40 to 55% of the real cost over 5 years, the rest being operations. Custom software lives, evolves and must be maintained: ignoring these items wrecks any budget. The right reflex is to think in 5-year TCO from the quote stage, not in delivery price.

Visible and invisible items

A 50,000 EUR quote is only the starting line. Here is the breakdown of recurring items every Amsterdam director must provision in 2026.

Maintenance covers fixes, security and support; at 10% per year of a 50,000 EUR build, that is 5,000 EUR/yr. It is the most often underestimated item, yet the one that keeps the tool usable.

The assembled 5-year TCO

Adding all items over 60 months gives a realistic range. Here are two scenarios: a lean project and an active one that evolves a lot.

For a typical project, budget 95,000 to 120,000 EUR over 5 years, roughly double the development price. That 1:2 ratio is the key point: a dev quote should always be read as half the real commitment.

Mini case study

Claire is CFO of an industrial SME in Amsterdam. She commissioned a production-tracking tool at 52,000 EUR. She budgeted that amount only. Three years on, the reality: 3,240 EUR of hosting, 15,600 EUR of maintenance, 22,000 EUR of enhancements requested by her workshops, 3,000 EUR of training. That is 43,840 EUR unprovisioned on top of the build. Had she rebuilt the budget as a 5-year TCO from the start, she would have shown ~110,000 EUR and avoided two emergency trade-offs. She now provisions 18,000 EUR/yr of running cost, and the tool saves her the equivalent of 1.5 FTE in steering, well above its real annual cost.

FAQ

Why does maintenance cost 10% per year? Because software must be patched (security, dependencies), supported and fixed. 8 to 15% of build cost per year is the standard 2026 range; below that, technical debt piles up.

Can the TCO be reduced? Yes: freeze the scope, choose fit-for-purpose shared hosting, batch enhancements into annual releases rather than drip-feeding them, and document to cut lock-in. This can lower TCO by 15 to 25%.

Is custom more expensive than SaaS over 5 years? Not necessarily: beyond 25-30 users, SaaS often exceeds custom TCO because of the lifelong subscription. The math depends on your headcount and specificity.

What if I skip budgeting the version upgrade? The tool gradually becomes obsolete and vulnerable; after 3-4 years without updates, a partial rebuild at 10,000-15,000 EUR becomes unavoidable.

How do I estimate my TCO before signing? Take the dev quote and multiply by 1.9 to 2.4 for a 5-year horizon, depending on expected change intensity. A good vendor hands you this table unprompted.

Let's scope your project. Give us your functional scope and usage horizon: we deliver a detailed 5-year TCO item by item, not just a delivery price. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.