Worked example

Patient portal development cost

Records, appointments, secure messaging and an EHR interface. Priced as a HIPAA-regulated patient app with EHR integration, at US rates and launch scope.

A feature-complexity comparison, not an official estimate for any named company’s product. This site is not affiliated with them.
Estimated development cost
$875,000 – $1,225,000
Timeline8.5 – 11.8 months
Engineering hours6,650 – 8,450
Team9 people
Blended US rate$138/hr

Planning range, not a quote. Every figure comes from the same engine the calculator runs on.

Why it costs this

What makes it expensive

Compliance is engineering here, not paperwork: audit logging, key management, retention policy and access reviews all have to be built and then proven. On top of that, the EHR integration timeline is gated by the vendor review queue rather than by your team.

What is in scope

  • HIPAA controls and full audit logging
  • EHR or FHIR integration
  • Secure messaging with clinicians
  • Consent records and delegated access
HealthcareHealthcare / patient portalCross-platformWeb app
Cost breakdown

Where the money goes

The six largest disciplines in this build. The calculator shows all 11, itemised down to individual features.

Largest cost disciplines
DisciplineHoursShareCost
Backend engineering1,90027%$280,000
Cross-platform mobile89012%$125,000
QA & testing1,17511%$115,000
Security & compliance63011%$110,000
DevOps & cloud6109%$95,000
Project management6108%$80,000
Scope options

The same product at four standards of finish

Identical answers, four levels of depth. This is usually the most useful comparison on the page, because it is the decision you actually control.

MVP$625K – $850K7.2 – 9.9 months · 5,250 hrs
Standard$875K – $1.23M8.5 – 11.8 months · 7,400 hrs
Advanced$1.1M – $1.55M9.7 – 13.2 months · 9,350 hrs
Enterprise$1.43M – $1.95M11.1 – 15 months · 11,950 hrs

Standard is highlighted because that is what this example is configured at.

After launch

What it costs to keep running

Separate from the build, because operating cost scales with usage and development cost does not.

Cloud & vendors
$3,400 – $8,800

per month at 45,000 monthly users

Annual maintenance
$230,000 – $290,000

22% – 28% of build cost

Architecture
Cached & load balanced

318 peak concurrent users

Price your own patient portal

Open this configuration and change anything — platforms, features, traffic, compliance. The estimate follows every answer.