What this costs
Here are the real ranges for all seven things IG Digital Lab builds, what sits inside each one, and what moves a job from the bottom of a range to the top. The audit that produces your exact number is free.
The short answer
Most IG Digital Lab projects land between $2,500 and $15,000, priced by scope of work rather than by seats or pages. One process costs $2,500 to $6,000. Several systems connected together cost $6,000 to $15,000. Custom software built from scratch starts from $15,000. Support after launch runs $300 to $1,500 a month.
| Service | Typical range | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| Custom software | $2,500 to $6,000 $6,000 to $15,000 from $15,000 |
A single internal tool or integration at the low end. Several systems joined into one in the middle, including private AI over your own documents. A product built from scratch at the top. |
| Websites and web apps | $2,500 to $6,000 $6,000 to $15,000 |
A typical business site: design, build, content structure, analytics, launch. The upper band is for portals, e-commerce and web apps with logins, payments or a custom back end. |
| Mobile app development | $2,500 to $6,000 $6,000 to $15,000 from $15,000 |
A progressive web app or a simple single-purpose app at the low end. An app wired to its own backend, API and integrations in the middle. A full product with multiple user roles, offline support and ongoing development at the top. |
| AI for calls and chat | $2,500 to $6,000 | A voice agent or website chat assistant deployed and integrated: your scripts, your data, your calendar and CRM, tested against real calls before it goes live. |
| AI workflow automation | $2,500 to $6,000 $6,000 to $15,000 |
One process end to end: phone, forms, CRM, calendar, documents on one path. The upper band adds several systems, exception handling and monitoring. |
| Servers and support | Care $300 to $500 a month Active $750 to $1,500 a month hosting from $50 a month hourly $150 to $200 |
Hosting, monitoring, backups, updates and incident response on Care. Active adds continuous development and DevOps. One-off work is hourly. |
| AI agent setup | $1,999 setup and training | Your own AI agent system installed on a server in your office or in the cloud: Cardloop with Claude, OpenAI Codex, Grok or local models, connected to your services, tested on your work, with personal training. Hardware or hosting, AI plans and API usage are yours. |
| Devices and smart spaces | $2,500 to $6,000 $6,000 to $15,000 |
A small fleet of kiosks, locked-down tablets, signage or check-in screens, configured and enrolled. Larger rollouts sit in the upper band. Ongoing management runs under Care or Active. |
FirstReply, our own AI receptionist, answers live: it qualifies the caller, books mid-call and sends a transcript with a call card. Call it at (916) 618-0502, see what else we have built, then get your own build scoped in the pricing above.
Full descriptions of each service are on the services overview.
What changes the number
Two jobs that sound identical on a phone call can be four times apart in price. These are the things that move it, in plain language:
- How many systems have to talk to each other. One is quick. Five, each with its own login and its own idea of what a customer record is, is a project.
- Whether the tools you already own can do it. If your CRM has a usable API, we connect it. If the missing piece does not exist, we build it, and that is a different band.
- How messy the data is. A clean export is fast. Scanned PDFs, an inbox and a spreadsheet somebody maintains by hand are not.
- How many exceptions your team handles manually. The happy path is the cheap part. Every "except when the customer is out of state" adds work.
- Access and compliance rules. Private hosting, signed agreements and restricted data handling all add real hours.
- What already exists. Reusable work lowers the price. A half-finished build nobody can log into raises it, and usually starts with a takeover first.
- How fast you need it. A normal schedule is priced normally. Compressing it costs more, and we say so before you agree.
The three implementation bands
Every build we do is priced into one of three bands. The band is decided by scope of work.
One workflow, running end to end.
- Phone, forms, CRM and calendar connected
- Or a voice agent deployed and integrated
- Or a website or web app, built and shipped
Several systems made to work as one.
- Private RAG over your own documents
- Multiple integrations and internal tools
- A fleet of kiosks or managed devices
- Secure deploy, CI/CD and monitoring
Custom software, built from scratch.
- Bespoke software and complex RAG
- Multi-system builds over a longer schedule
- Full DevOps and security review
- Dedicated ongoing support
Not sure which band you are in? That is what the free audit is for.
What does ongoing support cost per month?
Support from IG Digital Lab is $300 to $500 a month on Care and $750 to $1,500 a month on Active. Care covers hosting, monitoring, backups, updates and incident response for what we built. Active adds continuous development: new workflows, changes and DevOps. Hosting on its own starts at $50 a month.
Care: $300 to $500 a month
For a system that is finished and needs to stay up. Uptime and error monitoring, backups, security and dependency updates, small fixes and content changes, and a named person to call when something breaks. It is the plan behind our local IT support work in Sacramento.
Active: $750 to $1,500 a month
For a system that is still growing. Everything in Care, plus a standing block of development each month: new automations, new integrations, changes as your process changes, and infrastructure work such as CI/CD, scaling and security review.
When do you bill hourly?
Hourly work is $150 to $200 an hour at IG Digital Lab, and it is for jobs that do not need a project around them: reviewing code somebody else wrote, a one-off fix, sitting in on a vendor call, training your team on a tool, or an afternoon of scoping. Anything larger belongs in a band.
What do public agencies pay?
Public agencies pay fixed public-sector rates. For California state departments, cities, counties, special districts and public schools, IG Digital Lab quotes $130 an hour for development, front-end and accessibility work and project coordination, and $145 an hour for architecture and integration work. We quote as a California Certified Small Business (Micro), DGS #2055405, and every quote and price sheet we send a public buyer uses these numbers.
Website care for a public agency, 12 months: $4,800
$400 a month: uptime monitoring with alerts, monthly CMS and dependency updates, a quarterly restore test, two hours of changes a month and a quarterly report. Hosting and licenses are paid by the agency or billed at cost.
Registry or request app, version 1: $14,000
One web application: up to two forms, a staff workspace with search, filters and statuses, three roles, an audit log, email notifications, CSV and PDF export, two reports, WCAG 2.1 AA for the new interface, documentation, two hours of training and a 30-day warranty, deployed in the agency's own cloud account. Single sign-on and integrations with other systems are quoted separately at the hourly rates above.
Starter project for a public agency: $2,500
A fixed price for one defined deliverable, about 19 hours at $130 an hour. Typical examples: one online form with email notifications and a staff list; moving up to 15 pages onto the agency's site; a small searchable table with CSV export. The scope is agreed on one page before work starts, delivery is within three weeks, and we invoice on acceptance. Any new interface is built to WCAG 2.1 AA. Work beyond the agreed scope is quoted separately at the hourly rates above.
What's free?
Three things cost nothing: the audit (a written review by email), the scoping call and the written estimate. In the audit we look at how the work moves through your business now and where people are doing what software should do. Then we tell you which band it lands in, in writing.
There is no charge and no obligation attached to any of it. If you do not need a build, or a $50 tool solves it, we say that. Free audits are useful to us because a scoped project is worth more than a guessed one.
No "contact us for pricing"
Most agencies hide the number until they have you on a call. We think that mostly wastes your time and ours. The numbers on this page are the same ones we say out loud, and they come from the same place every time: how much work the job is.
What we will not do is pretend a range is a quote. The band tells you whether we are in your budget at all, which is the question you have right now. The exact figure comes after the free audit, in writing, with what is in it and what is not.
If you are comparing us with someone else, useful places to look next: what we do, web design in Sacramento, IT support in Sacramento, or taking over a site somebody else built. And before you hand money to anyone, including us, read how to verify us - public records, independent profiles and systems you can test yourself.
Frequently asked questions
The questions people ask before they request the audit.
Why don't you publish a fixed price per page?
Because a page is not the unit of work. Two five-page sites can differ by four times, depending on integrations, logins, payments and how the content is produced. IG Digital Lab prices by scope: what has to be built, connected and maintained. A typical business site lands at $2,500 to $6,000.
Do you require a retainer?
No. Support plans start after launch and are optional: Care is $300 to $500 a month, Active is $750 to $1,500. Nothing on the project side obligates you to a monthly plan. You can run the build yourself for a while and add a plan when you want us watching it.
What's the smallest project you take?
About $2,500 for software: one process automated end to end, one small internal tool, or a straightforward site. The exception is AI agent setup: your own AI agent system installed on your server, with training, costs $1,999. Below that, hourly work at $150 to $200 usually makes more sense for both sides, and hosting or a small managed service on its own starts at $50 a month.
Do you do payment plans?
We use milestone-based invoicing. The project is split into stages, usually scope, build and launch, and each stage is invoiced when it is delivered, so you are never paying far ahead of the work. Support plans are billed monthly. We accept invoice, ACH and card.
What's not included?
Our price covers our work, not third-party costs. Domains, phone numbers and call minutes, licensed software, premium plugins and per-seat fees for tools you keep are yours directly. Every one of them is listed in the written estimate before you agree to anything.
Get the exact number.
Get the free audit. We look at the process, tell you which band it lands in, and send the estimate in writing.
Get the free auditNo commitment. If you do not need a build, we will tell you that.
Tell us what's slowing you down.
You get a free written review by email within two business days.