What does a client portal cost in 2026? Real prices in Belgium and France

“How much does a client portal cost?” It's often the first question we get. The honest answer: it depends on the scope. A space where your clients download their invoices has nothing in common with a platform that handles several roles, approvals and a connection to your ERP.

Here are realistic ballpark figures for 2026, what makes them vary, and how to get a fixed price before you commit. The figures come from public rate barometers and price guides published by agencies, mostly for the French market. We didn't find an equally detailed public barometer for Belgium: read them as ranges, not as a price list.

Three ways to do it, three price levels

There are three main options, each with a very different cost logic.

• A SaaS or no-code portal tool: you pay a subscription. Softr, for example, lists paid plans from $19 to $329 per month in October 2026, depending on the number of users and features. It's quick to launch, but you stay within the limits of the tool.
• A freelance developer: according to Malt's 2026 rate grid for France, a full-stack developer charges on average about €430 per day with 3 to 7 years of experience, and €560 to €600 beyond 8 years. For a simple portal, expect 15 to 40 days of work, or roughly €6,500 to €24,000.
• An agency: price guides published in 2026 by French agencies put a client portal or extranet at roughly €8,000 to €25,000, and a business application with approval workflows at €15,000 to €40,000. Agency day rates in those guides range from €600 to €1,200.

What really drives the price

Two portals that look alike on screen can differ in cost by a factor of three. What weighs most is what you don't see.

• Roles and permissions: one type of user is simple. Clients, staff, managers and administrators with different access rights mean many more rules to write and test.
• Integrations: connecting to your ERP, your accounting software or a business system often takes longer than the portal itself, especially if the existing tool has no documented API.
• Security: strong authentication, encryption, an audit trail, a security review before launch. It's essential as soon as the portal holds personal or sensitive data.
• Data migration: importing years of Excel files or an old system takes cleanup and checks.
• Languages, mobile and offline: each language, an installable app or an offline mode adds work.
• Hosting and compliance: hosting in Europe, backups and a data processing agreement (DPA) should be planned from the start.

The costs people forget in the quote

The build price is only part of the budget. Over three years, recurring costs can weigh as much as the initial development.

• Hosting and cloud services: often €30 to €200 per month depending on traffic, according to one of the guides cited above.
• Maintenance: security updates, fixes, small improvements. The same guide estimates it at 10 to 20% of the initial cost per year.
• Third-party services: email and SMS sending, e-signature, online payment, AI billed by usage.
• Your team's time: scoping, testing, data migration, training. It doesn't appear on any invoice, but it counts.
• The exit cost: with a SaaS, your data and workflows live with the vendor. Check how you'd get them back if you leave.

How to get a fixed price

A fixed price is only reliable if the scope is clear. At the start of a project, it almost never is. The method that works best, in our experience: build a short prototype first, then price the project.

• List the users and the three or four journeys that really matter (uploading a document, tracking a case, approving a request…).
• Identify integrations early, and test them with real access rather than on paper.
• Have a prototype built that works on your real data: technical unknowns show up in days, not halfway through the project.
• Ask for a fixed quote that spells out the scope, what's excluded, the schedule and the monthly cost after launch.
• Insist on owning the code, the hosting access and the documentation.

A concrete reference point

To give you a sense of scale: the patient portal we built for Labo El Allali, a medical lab in Agadir, includes secure online results connected to the lab system, a doctor portal, a back-office and an installable app in French and Arabic. It's about 36,000 lines of code and 37 cloud functions, and it's in production.

With us, a client portal or business tool starts at €6,000 excl. VAT, live in 3 to 8 weeks. We often start with a 5-day prototype sprint at €1,500 excl. VAT, deducted if you go ahead, which leads to a fixed quote. And if you'd like an opinion on your project, or on a quote you got elsewhere, the 30-minute diagnostic is free.

Sources

• Malt — 2026 rate grid, freelance full-stack developers (France): malt.fr/t/barometre-tarifs/tech/developpeur-backend/developpeur-fullstack
• KreaRise — Custom web application prices for SMEs (July 2026, in French): krearise.com/blog/prix-application-web-sur-mesure-pme
• NexaFlow — Cost of custom web application development (April 2026, in French): nexaflow.fr/blog/cout-developpement-application-web-sur-mesure
• Softr — Pricing page, viewed October 2026: softr.io/pricing