How Much Does a Custom Laravel Cost in 2026?

Highlights: In 2026, custom Laravel development cost can vary from $3,000 to $100,000, depending on its features and complexity. The average hourly rate of Laravel developers is between $15 $75, depending on their experience level and geographic location. The total cost of a Laravel development project depends on whether you hire a freelance Laravel developer, outsource the project to a professional Laravel Development company, or recruit an in-house Laravel development team. The pricing model (Hourly/Fixed) you follow also impacts the total cost of your Laravel project. Choosing the correct pricing and hiring model can help you make cost-effective decisions.

Website Size	Description	Estimated Hours	Approximate Cost (in USD)
Small-Sized Laravel Website	Simple Business Websites, Landing Pages, MVPs for Startups with Login/ Contact Forms and Static Content Pages	80-160 Hours	$3000-$8000
Mid-Sized Laravel Website/ Application	A business website with a user dashboard, third-party integrations, an admin panel, and login permissions.	200-400 Hours	$8,000-$25,000
Enterprise-Level Laravel Website/Application	Portals, marketplaces, websites with custom architecture, huge data processing, high-end security, and CRM systems	600-1000+ Hours	$25,000-$100,000+

Besides project size and features, the development cost also depends on the hiring model you choose. Hiring an in-house Laravel developer might cost you more than outsourcing your project to a freelancer. Also, outsourcing your project to a professional Laravel development company can cost you more than delegating the project to a freelancer. 

Basically, the cost of a custom Laravel project in 2025 would depend on who you delegate your project to and from which region they are based. Obviously, outsourcing your project to an experienced Laravel development company in India would cost you less than a beginner Laravel developer in the U.S. The reason? The cost of living varies in different countries, and so do Laravel developers’ salaries.

Let’s have a detailed look at how much a custom Laravel project can cost in 2025 based on an hourly billing model.

Custom Laravel Cost Based on Hourly Billing Model

The average hourly rate of Laravel developers in 2025 ranges from $15 to $75, depending on their experience level and geographic location. Hourly billing enables flexibility without paying a huge amount upfront and, therefore, is an ideal option for projects requiring scalability in the future. 

Hourly Rates: Hire Freelancers or Outsource Project to a Professional Laravel Development Company

These are approximate prices that have been fetched from different market guides and salary sites and may vary depending on your project complexity.

These hourly rates can vary depending on whether you are hiring a freelancer Laravel developer or outsourcing the entire project to a professional Laravel development company. Well, hiring a freelancer Laravel developer can cost you less than hiring a professional Laravel development company.

The table below displays the hourly rates of Laravel developers and professional Laravel development companies with different experience levels and locations across regions worldwide.

But why is it expensive to outsource the project to a Laravel development company than to a freelancer? Simple, a professional Laravel development company has a full-fledged team of Laravel developers, designers, QAs, project managers, and more to take care of the end-to-end requirements of your project. Salaries of the entire team, infrastructure costs, and overhead expenses lead to increased costs, and that makes it expensive to outsource a Laravel project to a professional Laravel development company.

On the other hand, hiring a freelance Laravel developer is proven to be cheaper if you have specific coding requirements and can manage quality assurance, delivery, and maintenance on your own. 

The question still remains - how much does a custom Laravel project cost if you select an hourly pricing model? 

To answer this question, you first need to find out how many hours it would take to complete your Laravel project. The timeline of your project completion depends on its level of complexity and the time taken by the Laravel Development team to complete the project.

Let’s have a look at how to calculate the estimated cost of a Laravel project if you go for an hourly pricing model based on some assumptions.

How to Calculate the Estimated Cost of a Laravel Project?

For example, if you are planning to build a mid-level Laravel website that requires 220 hours of a Laravel developer, 50 hours of a QA, and a project manager, then the table below shows the estimated cost of your project.

This calculation is based on assumptions. The exact price can be obtained after consulting with the best Laravel development company or a freelancer and receiving a quotation from them based on your project features, complexities, requirements, and goals.

Now, this is how you calculate the estimated cost of a Laravel project when hiring freelancers or delegating the project to an expert web development company, using an hourly pricing model. 

But, how much would a custom Laravel project cost if you hire an in-house team of Laravel developers?

In that case, to estimate the cost of your Laravel project, you need to know the approximate monthly salary of Laravel developers currently trending in the market. Well, the salaries of Laravel developers also vary depending on their geographic location. Let’s have a look at the currently prevailing salaries of Laravel developers in different geographic regions.

Custom Laravel Cost Based on In-House Hiring Model

To know how much a custom Laravel project costs in 2025, if you are following an in-house hiring model, it becomes imperative to know the approximate salaries of Laravel developers worldwide. Let’s have a look at the details.

Cost of Hiring Laravel Developers’ Worldwide

The figures here are approximate, and the salary of the Laravel developer you hire would depend on their experience level and not only their geographic location. Hiring a highly experienced Laravel developer in the Netherlands might cost you less than hiring a beginner Laravel developer in Australia.

So, are you planning to hire Laravel developers in-house? Then, not only the salary of your Laravel developers, but you also need to consider expenses relating to the recruitment process, infrastructure, and overheads while calculating your custom Laravel project cost in 2025.

Precisely, the cost of your custom Laravel project would depend on the pricing model (fixed-price and hourly pricing) and hiring model (freelancers, outsourcing, or in-house hiring) you choose. Selecting an appropriate pricing model and hiring model is a strategic decision that should be made after considering your project scope & goals, budget, and infrastructure.

Let’s now have a look at situations in which a fixed-price model would be suitable and when hourly pricing proves to be the best option.

When to Select a Fixed Pricing Model for your Laravel Project?

A fixed pricing model would best suit when: 

• Project requirements, scope, timeline, and deliverables are clearly defined
• The budget is fixed and requires cost certainty
• A standard website or MVP needs to be built
• The Laravel developer or company you outsource your project to is experienced enough to estimate the accurate cost and time of the project
• There is little or no expectation of changing the project scope and requirements

When to Select an Hourly Pricing Model for your Laravel Project?

An hourly pricing model would be an ideal choice when:

• Project requirements and scope are unpredictable
• Ongoing maintenance and updates are required
• Unexpected technical challenges may arise
• Project owners and stakeholders want to be involved at every stage of development
• The budget is limited

Besides the pricing model, the total cost of your Laravel project would also depend on the hiring model you follow. Whether you are outsourcing your project to a freelancer, a professional company, or hiring in-house Laravel developers?

Let’s now have a look at which option would be the most suitable for your budget, infrastructure, and project requirements.

When to Hire Freelance Laravel Developers?

Hiring a freelancer is best suited when:

• The budget is low
• Project scope is clearly defined
• You need a Laravel developer on a temporary basis
• You require a specific skill set or exact knowledge of a specific Laravel tool

When to Hire In-House Laravel Developers?

Hiring in-house Laravel developers is best suited when:

• Budget is not a constraint
• Strong collaboration within teams is a necessity
• You need to work on several projects simultaneously
• Security, compliance, and scalability are mandatorily required
• You need full control over the development process

When to Outsource a Project to a Professional Laravel Development Company?

Outsourcing a project to a professional Laravel development company suits best when:

• You are on tight deadlines and need to launch your project quickly
• You lack in-house technical expertise and required infrastructure
• Your project is medium to high complexity
• You are looking for predictable costs, high quality, clear communication, and no uncertainties
• You need ongoing support and maintenance

So, these were the scenarios that can help you make the right decisions while selecting the appropriate pricing and hiring models for your Laravel project.

Even though you do all the strategizing perfectly and take care of all the aspects while budgeting for your Laravel project, some hidden costs can unexpectedly arise and disrupt your financial planning. To avoid that, it is always better to keep some hidden costs in mind while preparing a budget for your customized Laravel project. Let’s have a look at them.

Custom Laravel Project: Hidden Costs

Hidden costs in a custom Laravel project often arise because of sudden requirements relating to infrastructure, upgrades, integrations, testing, and ongoing support. Below are some hidden costs that are likely to come up and how to avoid or at least minimize them.

Bugs Fixing

Sometimes bug fixing can take up a lot of developers’ time, and that leads to increased project cost. Establishing clear requirements before starting the project and fixing bugs during the development lifecycle can help you avoid this cost. 

Infrastructure Costs

There are instances where companies need to purchase software licenses or invest in additional resources to complete the project. Documenting resources required to complete the project in the initial stage can mitigate this issue to a great extent.

New Features and Design Requirements

As the project progresses, there are chances of new ideas relating to features and design emerging in the minds of project owners and stakeholders. It is always better to document the detailed scope of work and reserve the new ideas for future milestones to avoid this problem. 

Security Enhancements

Websites and apps handling sensitive information may require security enhancements like GDPR compliance, SSL, data encryption, and advanced user permissions after project completion. It is advisable to add costs relating to security enhancements at the initial stage itself to avoid last-minute surprises.

Finally, here are some tips that can help you reduce the cost of your custom Laravel development project without compromising its quality.

How to Lower Custom Laravel Cost (Without Compromising on Quality)?

Below are the four realistic steps to consider at the initial stage of planning your custom Laravel project to ensure costs are controlled and quality remains intact.

Let's have a look at these steps in detail.

Focus on Essential Features

Sometimes, not all the features of a website or app are used from day one. Keep the feature requirements minimal when you start, and gradually you can scale in the future when your project starts generating revenue.

Use Laravel’s Integrated Tools

Laravel includes robust tools for billing and subscriptions, performance monitoring, admin dashboards, queue management, and more. These tools can save a lot of developers’ time, leading to cost savings without compromising its quality.

Choose the Right Hiring and Pricing Model

For example, when there is an MVP to be built, hiring a freelancer can prove to be cost-effective rather than outsourcing the project to a professional company. Also, for large projects, it is always better to go for a fixed pricing model rather than an hourly model. Therefore, select the appropriate hiring and pricing model based on the nature of your project to minimize costs.

Select a Reputed Laravel Developer/Company

Check reviews and past projects of a Laravel developer or company you select, as that will give you an idea about their reputation and working style. Instead of looking for cheap Laravel services, go for high-quality Laravel services, as cheap can prove to be expensive in the long run.

Conclusion: Invest Smartly in a Custom Laravel Development Project

To summarize, 640,408 live websites are using Laravel, indicating its popularity among PHP development companies. So, you have already made the most important decision that can lead to the success of your website/app development project, and that is choosing the best PHP framework. 

The next most important aspect is planning the budget for your custom Laravel project. Budget planning is not all about choosing low-cost Laravel development services. On the contrary, it is about balancing developers’ technical skills, professional etiquette, and communication modes with the overall cost of the project. 

Building a custom Laravel project involves making several decisions relating to project complexities, design aesthetics, third-party integrations, team members, and more. Making the right choices pertaining to all these factors impacting the cost of your Laravel project development can make your investment worthwhile and help you gain the most out of it. Yes, smart investments in a custom Laravel project can give you a considerable competitive edge and, perhaps most importantly, help you achieve your specific business goals.

Custom Laravel Cost 2026 - FAQs

Is Laravel the Right Choice For Large-Scale Websites and Applications?

Yes, Laravel provides robust architecture and includes excellent scalability features that make it the right choice for even large-scale websites and applications.

How Much Time Would It Take to Complete a Custom Laravel Website or Application Development Process?

Custom Laravel development process can take 4 Weeks to 6 months time depending on its size, complexity, and features required. You need to consult a Laravel development company to know the exact time it can take to complete your web or app development project.

What are the Key Factors that Influence the Cost of Laravel Website/App Development?

The key factors that influence the cost of Laravel website or app development include its scope complexity, functionality, developers’ location, experience, and expertise level, tech stack being used, frequency of maintenance and support, third-party integrations, and testing and deployment requirements.

Why Do Professional Laravel Development Companies Charge More Than Freelancers?

Professional Laravel development companies deploy the entire team, which includes UI/UX designers, developers, QA testers, and support engineers, to provide you with end-to-end services. While dealing with professional companies, you get everything in one place. On the other hand, freelancers can only do the development tasks for your project, and for other tasks like designing, testing, deployment, and launch, you need to depend on other service providers. This is the reason why professional Laravel development companies charge more than freelance Laravel developers.

Which Pricing Model Proves to be Cost-Effective for Laravel Projects? Hourly or Fixed-Price?

Fixed price proves to be cost-effective if you want to build a non-scalable Laravel web or mobile app with well-defined features, functionality, and complexities. Whereas, hourly pricing would be the best option if you are low on budget and not clear with the project scope, or need to scale the project in the future.