Healthcare software cost in the UK in 2026: Magora's price bands from £10,000, three illustrative budgets, cost drivers and costs outside the build.
Short answer. In the UK in 2026, healthcare software at Magora typically costs £10,000–£25,000 for a startup MVP (6–8 weeks), from £30,000 for a production platform with a backend and admin (3–5 months), and £80,000–£120,000 for a regulated or integration-heavy product (5–8 months). Product Discovery starts from £3,000 and a working prototype is free. Integration and assurance evidence move the price more than the screens do. These are published bands, not quotes.
Healthcare budgets are hard to benchmark because two products that look alike on screen can differ by a factor of three underneath. One reads from a patient's own diary. The other has to write to a GP record, survive an NHS buyer's questions and keep a clinical safety file up to date. This page gives the price bands we publish, explains what moves a project between them, and shows three illustrative budgets. All figures are in GBP and exclude VAT.
What does healthcare software cost at a glance?
The bands below are the same ones on our UK software development pricing and app development cost pages. Each row is the price of the stage named, not of the whole programme.
| Product archetype | Typical timeline | Magora band (GBP) |
|---|---|---|
| Working prototype of the core journey | 5–10 working days | £0, with written analysis from a senior Product Owner |
| Discovery sprint: scope, intended purpose, integration map, fixed-price quote | 2 weeks | From £3,000 |
| Proof of concept (for example one risky integration) | 2–4 weeks | £2,000–£5,000 |
| Startup MVP: one pathway, such as a patient diary, intake tool or clinician dashboard | 6–8 weeks | £10,000–£25,000 |
| Production platform with backend and admin: patient portal, care-management tool | 3–5 months | From £30,000 |
| Regulated or integration-heavy product | 5–8 months | £80,000–£120,000 |
| Bespoke enterprise platform for a provider or life-science organisation | Scoped after Discovery | From £80,000 |
| AI proof of concept; production LLM-powered application | 4–6 weeks for the proof of concept | From £15,000; from £40,000 |
| Support and evolution after launch | Monthly | £2,000–£4,000 a month |
Rates behind the bands: from £49 an hour per developer, and £65–£70 an hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. Sources: Magora's pricing, MVP and healthcare pages.
For a sense of real numbers, our 2026 estimate data includes a health-product interaction checker: £1,524 of Discovery and an £18,206 first release. That sits inside the MVP band above.
What makes healthcare software cost more than other software?
Five things move a healthcare estimate. Discovery is where each is priced properly.
Integration with records and other systems
A standalone app is cheap. An app that reads or writes to EMIS, SystmOne or a trust system is not. The technical routes (HL7 FHIR R4, HL7 v2, GP Connect, SNOMED CT and dm+d coding) are well travelled. What decides the timeline is usually access: partner agreements, sandbox access and sign-off from the system supplier or the trust. That is why we prove the hardest integration in a spike before we price the build.
Assurance evidence
An NHS buyer will ask for evidence, not assurances: technical answers for a DTAC assessment, a clinical safety file, data-flow documentation. Building the product so that audit logging, role separation and data residency are true from the first sprint costs less than retrofitting them. The requirements themselves are covered in our guide to NHS software compliance.
Whether the product is a medical device
Software that supports a diagnostic or treatment decision can be Software as a Medical Device under UK regulation. The line turns on intended purpose and on how results are worded to the user. We write the intended-purpose statement with you in the first fortnight and build to whichever answer your regulatory advisor gives. We are not your regulatory advisor. A device pathway can push a product towards the £80,000–£120,000 band.
Platforms and wearables
A second mobile platform, Apple HealthKit or Google Health Connect, or Bluetooth wearables and home monitoring kit each add engineering and test devices. Above £10,000, additional flows, a second platform and third-party integrations are quoted as add-ons.
AI features
Adding an AI summary to an existing product is a small line. An AI-native product is a different budget: an AI proof of concept starts from £15,000 and a production-grade LLM application from £40,000. In healthcare, AI that influences a clinical decision is exactly the case that can turn a product into a medical device, so we settle that question before the model is chosen. BodySync is an example: a web app that drafts treatment plans for clinicians with OpenAI, restricted to pre-defined peer-reviewed sources and built for HIPAA and GDPR.
What do three realistic budgets look like?
These are illustrations built from the published bands, not quotes and not client projects. Your own number depends on scope.
| Illustrative scenario | What is in it | Budget from the bands |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Founder MVP, wellbeing product | One pathway (for example a symptom and mood diary with a clinician view), one platform, no NHS system integration, intended purpose written to stay outside the device definition | Discovery from £3,000 plus MVP £10,000–£25,000, so about £13,000–£28,000 over 8–10 weeks |
| 2. Provider platform with one integration | Patient portal or care-management tool, admin and roles, audit trail, one record-system integration, DTAC technical responses prepared | Discovery from £3,000 plus build £30,000–£60,000, so about £33,000–£63,000 over 3–5 months |
| 3. Regulated, integration-heavy product | Multiple integrations, device or SaMD support, a living hazard log, wearable or AI components | Discovery from £3,000 plus £80,000–£120,000, over 5–8 months |
Illustrative only. Scenario 1 uses the MVP band; scenario 2 uses the production band, from £30,000; scenario 3 uses the regulated or integration-heavy band. Support after launch is extra at £2,000–£4,000 a month.
If you want a number for your own scope, the app cost calculator prices features at our full-team rate.
We build patient-facing apps and clinical software with privacy and compliance designed in from the start. First release in 6–8 weeks; developers from £49/hour.
What does healthcare software cost outside the build?
The build is not the whole bill. These lines sit outside Magora's bands and are quoted separately or depend on the supplier you choose:
- Clinical Safety Officer. DCB0129 requires a named Clinical Safety Officer, a registered clinician. That role sits with you or with a specialist we work alongside, and is priced by whoever provides it.
- Independent penetration test. A third-party test is a common buyer request. The cost depends on the tester and the size of the product.
- Regulatory advice and any device certification. Quoted by the regulatory consultant or approved body.
- Security certification and audit. Depends on the certification body and auditor.
- Hosting and third-party services. Billed by the provider, in addition to the support retainer.
- Clinical content and validation. Clinicians' time and any evaluation study are yours to budget.
We do not publish figures for these because we do not control them. Ask each supplier for a written quote early, so they are in the plan before launch.
How do you reduce the risk of overspending?
Start small and prove the expensive assumption first.
- Free working prototype (5–10 working days). A running version of your core journey, yours to keep with no commitment. It is the quickest way to learn whether we understood the brief.
- Discovery sprint (2 weeks, from £3,000). Workflow research, intended purpose, integration map, architecture, estimate and roadmap. It ends in a fixed-price quote. You own the output and can take it to another supplier. Read how it works in our Discovery phase guide.
- Integration spike. The riskiest integration proven against a real endpoint or sandbox before the build is priced.
- Build in two-week slices. Weekly demos and a working build at the end of every sprint, with safety documentation written as features land.
The same discipline shows up in our delivered work. For Focalyx, a discovery phase with user interviews shaped a web application for tracking prostate cancer focal-treatment outcomes across partner clinics. InnovoCare, a cost calculator for care pathways, began as a working prototype and then became a full app. Pharm Card replaced hundreds of Excel files with an iPad app and a web application for a pharma sales team, with an offline mode. Consumer-facing health products such as the healthy diet app and Doctor OTC, an iOS app for finding over-the-counter medicines, show a lighter scope with no clinical-system integration.
Should you build in-house or use an agency?
An in-house team makes sense when healthcare software is your core product and you can keep a team busy for years. You pay salaries, recruitment, management and tooling whether or not the roadmap is full, and a specialist hire in a new area takes months to land.
An agency suits a first release, a defined project or a skill you do not have yet. You buy a team with QA and product ownership already in place and stop paying when the work ends. Our terms are plain: source code, designs and IP transfer to you on payment, and the repository is yours from the first commit.
Rates are one input, not the decision. In our published tiers, London product-engineering houses sit at £45–£90 an hour and offshore freelancers at £15–£30. The difference is mostly who owns QA, scope and continuity. See the UK pricing guide for the full comparison.
Where should you start?
Send us your brief and we will build a free prototype of the core journey, then scope it properly in Discovery. For the wider picture of what we build and how, see healthcare software development in the UK and healthcare app development.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to build a healthcare app in the UK in 2026?
At Magora, a startup MVP starts from £10,000 and most land between £10,000 and £25,000. A production platform with a backend and admin starts from £30,000, and regulated or integration-heavy products are £80,000–£120,000. These are published bands, not quotes.
Why is healthcare software more expensive than other software?
Mostly because of two things: how much integration with other systems it needs, and how much assurance evidence a buyer will ask for. Whether the product is a medical device also changes the work. The screens are rarely the main cost.
How much does Discovery cost and is it worth it?
Product Discovery starts from £3,000 and takes two weeks. It produces a written scope, architecture, estimate and roadmap that you own. It is worth it because it prices integration and assurance before you commit to a build.
Are DTAC, DCB0129 and penetration testing included in the price?
We prepare the technical responses and keep the hazard log current through the build. The Clinical Safety Officer, an independent penetration test and any regulatory advice or certification are provided by others and quoted separately.
Is my healthcare app a medical device, and does that change the cost?
Possibly. Software that supports a diagnostic or treatment decision can be a medical device under UK regulation, and that pathway can move a project towards the regulated band. The question turns on intended purpose, so we settle it in the first fortnight with your regulatory advisor.
What does healthcare software cost after launch?
Support and continued development is typically £2,000–£4,000 a month, plus hosting and third-party services.
Can I get a fixed price?
Yes, after Discovery. Any supplier who fixed-prices a vague healthcare brief is either padding the number or will run out of budget. Our fixed-price quote follows the two-week Discovery sprint.
Want a number for your own project? Send us your brief for a free prototype and a senior engineer's reply within one working day, or try the app cost calculator for a first rough figure.
Alex Galaktionov
A seasoned technology expert and agile advocate, Alexey brings over a decade of transformative expertise in the IT sector guiding startups through effective fundraising strategies, tech innovation and development methodologies for groundbreaking products.
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