What Clients Budget for Software in 2026: A Study of 589 Freelance Projects
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Get a quote WhatsAppThe short answer: in one week of November 2026, the median software, web or app project on Freelancer.com offered a budget ceiling of $399, about ₹37,500, and had already drawn 104 bids. Only 12.1% of projects allowed ₹1,00,000 or more. We read 589 projects to get these numbers; the method, the limits and the raw aggregates are all below.
Key takeaways
- The median fixed-price budget ceiling was $399 (≈ ₹37,500). Half of all ceilings fell between $133 and $750 (≈ ₹12,500–₹70,500).
- 42.1% of projects allowed ₹50,000 or more, 12.1% allowed ₹1,00,000 or more and 6.7% allowed ₹2,00,000 or more.
- Competition is extreme: a median of 104 bids per project, and 76 bids within the first six hours.
- Bidders undercut: the average bid was a median 62% of the client's stated maximum.
- Rupee-priced projects had a median ceiling of ₹37,500; dollar-priced projects had $750.
- About 1 in 5 projects mentioned AI, and about 1 in 5 mentioned automation or workflows.
- The kind of work barely moved the budget: projects mentioning AI, mobile apps, SaaS or Shopify all had the same ₹37,500 median ceiling.
- On Reddit's hiring boards the same day, people offering services outnumbered people hiring by about 2.5 to 1.
Why we collected this
WavX Solutions runs a lead system that reads public posts from people who want to pay for software: Freelancer.com, Reddit hiring boards and others. Building it in November 2026 raised a question we could not answer from opinion: what do clients actually put down as a budget, and how crowded is it? So we took one clean, dated snapshot and counted.
This matters to two groups. If you are a business planning a build, the numbers show what a marketplace budget buys and why the cheapest bid is rarely the real price. If you write about software costs, here is dated, sourced data you can cite. Our website development cost guide and app cost guide use custom-build ranges; this study shows the marketplace side of the same question.
How we collected the data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Source | Freelancer.com public API, "active projects" endpoint, read on 12 Nov 2026 at 19:02 UTC |
| Search | 20 keyword queries (website, web application, mobile app, Shopify, WordPress, SaaS, AI chatbot, AI agent, React, Next.js, Node.js, Flutter, e-commerce, CRM, ERP, automation and others), up to 200 results each |
| Window | Projects posted between 5 Nov 2026 21:01 UTC and 12 Nov 2026 18:51 UTC |
| Projects read | 935 unique projects |
| Kept | 589 software, web or app projects, after removing design-only, writing, data-entry and similar work with a fixed keyword filter |
| Currency | Converted to US dollars with the exchange rate Freelancer itself attached to each project (₹94.06 per dollar on the day) |
| The 100 newest posts across r/forhire, r/hiring, r/hiredev, r/jobbit and r/B2BForHire, posted 12 Nov 2026 between 01:59 and 18:54 UTC |
We published only totals, medians and shares. No project titles, client names, usernames or post text appear here or in the data file.
What clients budget
Of the 589 projects, 464 (78.8%) were fixed-price and 125 were hourly. 461 of the fixed-price projects stated both a minimum and a maximum, and those 461 are the basis of the budget figures.
| Measure | US dollars | Indian rupees (≈) |
|---|---|---|
| Median budget floor | $133 | ₹12,500 |
| Median midpoint | $266 | ₹25,000 |
| Median budget ceiling | $399 | ₹37,500 |
| 25th percentile ceiling | $133 | ₹12,500 |
| 75th percentile ceiling | $750 | ₹70,500 |
| 90th percentile ceiling | $1,500 | ₹1,41,000 |
How budget ceilings are spread
| Budget ceiling | Share of projects |
|---|---|
| Under $100 | 16.3% |
| $100–$250 | 12.6% |
| $250–$500 | 27.3% |
| $500–$1,500 | 32.1% |
| $1,500–$5,000 | 8.2% |
| $5,000 and above | 3.5% |
In rupee terms, 42.1% of projects allowed ₹50,000 or more, 12.1% allowed ₹1,00,000 or more and 6.7% allowed ₹2,00,000 or more. Only 3 fixed-price projects (0.6%) left the maximum open, the "$100,000+" style of budget that is rarely meant literally.
Hourly work
118 hourly projects stated a rate range. The median range was $8 to $13 an hour, about ₹750 to ₹1,220.
Rupee budgets versus dollar budgets
Projects priced in rupees made up 38.2% of the sample, second only to US dollars at 47.5%. They were budgeted much lower.
| Currency of the project | Share of projects | Median ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| US dollar | 47.5% | $750 (fixed-price, 214 projects) |
| Indian rupee | 38.2% | ₹37,500 (fixed-price, 175 projects) |
| Euro | 5.9% | not broken out (small sample) |
| Australian dollar | 3.2% | not broken out (small sample) |
| British pound | 2.4% | not broken out (small sample) |
| Canadian dollar | 1.9% | not broken out (small sample) |
Among rupee-priced fixed projects, the median floor was ₹12,500 and only 13.7% allowed ₹50,000 or more. A rupee project on a marketplace is, on these numbers, usually a small job: a landing page, a fix or a template site. Our landing page cost guide covers that end of the market.
How crowded it is
The bid counts were the most striking number in the study. These are counts at the moment we read each project, so younger projects have had less time to collect bids.
| Project age when read | Projects | Median bids |
|---|---|---|
| Under 6 hours | 79 | 76 |
| 6–24 hours | 110 | 102 |
| 1–3 days | 204 | 126 |
| 3–7 days | 196 | 99 |
| All projects | 589 | 104 |
A quarter of projects had 193 bids or more. We opened three of the busiest young projects one by one to make sure the counts were real: each had between 389 and 428 bids, and none was older than five hours.
On projects with at least five bids, the average bid came to a median of 62% of the client's maximum. In other words, most bidders quote well under the budget before they have asked a single question about the scope.
For a client, a hundred bids is not a hundred options. It is a hundred messages to read, most of them written before the bidder understood the job. If you would rather start from a written scope and one fixed price, WavX Solutions builds your own software in a fully custom way, with a pricing model that fits how you want to pay. Connect with us and we will scope it first.
What clients want built
We matched keywords in each project's title and description. A project can fall into several groups.
| Theme | Share of projects |
|---|---|
| AI (chatbots, agents, LLMs, machine learning) | 20.4% |
| Automation and workflows (n8n, Zapier, Make) | 20.0% |
| Mobile apps (Flutter, React Native, iOS, Android) | 19.4% |
| Shopify or WooCommerce | 17.0% |
| WordPress | 16.1% |
| Payments (Stripe, Razorpay, PayPal, gateways) | 13.9% |
| SaaS or subscription products | 12.4% |
| Fixing apps made with AI builders (Lovable, Bolt, Replit, Cursor, FlutterFlow, Bubble) | 1.4% |
Harder work, same budget
The most surprising result: the type of work barely moves the budget. Whatever the project asked for, the median fixed-price ceiling was the same.
| Projects that mention… | Fixed-price projects | Median budget ceiling |
|---|---|---|
| AI | 95 | $399 (≈ ₹37,500) |
| Mobile apps | 95 | $399 (≈ ₹37,500) |
| Automation and workflows | 92 | $399 (≈ ₹37,500) |
| Shopify or WooCommerce | 77 | $399 (≈ ₹37,500) |
| WordPress | 76 | $399 (≈ ₹37,500) |
| Payments | 67 | $399 (≈ ₹37,500) |
| SaaS or subscriptions | 61 | $399 (≈ ₹37,500) |
| All fixed-price projects | 461 | $399 (≈ ₹37,500) |
Part of this is how the platform works: ₹37,500 is the top of one of Freelancer's preset budget bands, and many clients pick a band rather than a number. But it also means a WordPress tweak and a subscription product are posted with the same budget, and only one of them can be built for it.
AI is now ordinary: one project in five asks for it in some form. For what an AI build costs when it is done properly, see our AI chatbot cost guide and AI agent cost guide.
The skills clients tag most often
| Skill tag | Share of projects |
|---|---|
| PHP | 40.1% |
| HTML | 32.9% |
| Website Design | 30.7% |
| Web Development | 29.7% |
| Mobile App Development | 19.4% |
| Android | 16.1% |
| SEO | 15.8% |
| Graphic Design | 14.8% |
| JavaScript | 14.8% |
| WordPress | 13.9% |
PHP still leads by a wide margin, which matches the low budgets: much of the demand is for quick changes to existing PHP and WordPress sites. If you are weighing that route against a custom build, our WordPress vs custom website comparison sets out the trade-offs.
Other details
- 11.2% of projects were written in a language other than English.
- 1.2% required a non-disclosure agreement; 1.0% hid other bids from bidders; 0.3% were marked urgent.
- Only one project in the 589 (0.2%) had no bids yet.
Reddit's hiring boards, the same day
We also read the 100 newest posts across five Reddit hiring communities. 21 were tagged [Hiring], 52 were tagged [For Hire] and 27 carried neither tag. That is roughly 2.5 people offering services for every person hiring.
The hiring posts were specific about money: 17 of the 21 (81%) named a budget or an hourly rate. This is a small, single-day sample, so treat it as a snapshot rather than a trend.
Marketplace budgets versus what custom software costs
A marketplace ceiling and the cost of a finished, maintained product are different things. The table below puts the study's medians next to the starting figures in WavX's published cost model. Those figures are planning ranges for custom builds, not quotes; the pricing page explains how they are worked out.
| What you are buying | Median marketplace ceiling in this study | WavX planning figure (starting point) |
|---|---|---|
| Business website | ≈ ₹37,500 (all projects) | Around ₹50,000 (web development) |
| Simple mobile app | ≈ ₹37,500 (projects mentioning mobile apps) | ₹1,50,000 (app cost calculator) |
| AI chatbot | ≈ ₹37,500 (projects mentioning AI) | ₹1,50,000 (AI cost calculator) |
| Internal tool or dashboard | ≈ ₹37,500 (all projects) | ₹2,00,000 (software cost estimator) |
| Custom web application | ≈ ₹37,500 (all projects) | ₹4,50,000 |
| SaaS product | ≈ ₹37,500 (projects mentioning SaaS) | ₹7,00,000 (SaaS cost guide) |
The gap explains the bid behaviour. When most budgets sit below the cost of building the thing properly, bidders either quote low and cut scope later, or reuse a template. Neither is wrong for a small fix. For software that runs your business, budget for the whole job, including yearly maintenance.
What this means if you are planning a build
- Write the scope before the budget. A budget picked from a dropdown attracts bids sized to the dropdown, not to your problem.
- Expect to read a lot. At around a hundred bids per project, shortlisting is real work. Ask each bidder one scoping question and see who answers it.
- Treat bids far below your budget with care. The average bid already sat at 62% of the maximum; the lowest bids are lower still.
- Price AI features separately. One in five projects asks for AI, and it is the part most often underestimated.
- Use a planning range first. Our e-commerce cost guide, Shopify setup guide and CRM cost guide give realistic ranges before you post anywhere.
If your project is bigger than a quick fix, WavX Solutions will build your own software, fully custom, with your own pricing model: fixed price, time and materials, or a mix. Contact us with two lines about what you need.
Limitations
- Open projects only. The endpoint lists projects still open for bids. Projects awarded or closed within the week are missing, and they may differ from the rest.
- A keyword sample, not a census. We searched 20 terms. Projects that matched none of them are not included.
- Budgets are what clients typed. They are stated ranges, not the price finally paid.
- Bid counts are a moment in time. They were read once; projects keep collecting bids.
- Themes come from keywords. A project that mentions "AI" in passing counts as an AI project.
- One week, one platform. November budgets on Freelancer.com may not match other months or other marketplaces. The Reddit figures come from a single day.
Download the data
All the figures on this page are in one CSV file: wavx-software-demand-nov-2026.csv (aggregates only). It is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The same dataset is archived on Zenodo with a permanent DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.24172239.
Cite as: WavX Solutions (2026). Software project budgets on Freelancer.com, November 2026: aggregate statistics from 589 projects [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24172239
We plan to repeat the count so the numbers can be compared over time. If you want a breakdown we did not publish, ask us.
What WavX charges for an app
Starting figures from the model our public calculators run on. 25+ projects delivered; every build is custom code you own, with scope, price and timeline fixed in writing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the typical budget for a software project on Freelancer.com in 2026?
In our sample of 589 software, web and app projects posted between 5 and 12 November 2026, the median fixed-price budget ceiling was $399, about ₹37,500. Half of all ceilings sat between $133 and $750, and only one project in ten allowed more than $1,500.
How many bids does a software project get on Freelancer.com?
The median project in our sample had 104 bids when we read it. Projects less than six hours old already had a median of 76 bids, and three projects we checked by hand had between 389 and 428 bids within two to five hours of being posted.
Do freelancers bid below the client's budget?
Yes. On projects with at least five bids, the average bid was a median of 62% of the client's stated maximum. Bidders compete on price long before anyone has seen the full scope.
How do Indian clients' budgets compare with US clients on Freelancer.com?
Projects priced in Indian rupees had a median ceiling of ₹37,500 and a median floor of ₹12,500, and only 13.7% allowed ₹50,000 or more. Projects priced in US dollars had a median ceiling of $750, roughly twice as much.
What kind of software are clients asking for in 2026?
About one project in five mentions AI (chatbots, agents, LLMs) and about one in five mentions automation or workflows. Mobile apps appear in 19.4% of projects, Shopify or WooCommerce in 17.0% and WordPress in 16.1%.
What are hourly rates for freelance developers on Freelancer.com?
For the 118 hourly projects that stated a range, the median range was $8 to $13 an hour, about ₹750 to ₹1,220 at the exchange rate Freelancer used on the day we read the data.
Is a marketplace budget a realistic price for custom software?
Usually not for anything with logins, payments or a database. WavX's published planning ranges start around ₹50,000 for a business website, ₹1,50,000 for a simple app and ₹4,50,000 for a custom web application, while the median marketplace ceiling was ₹37,500.
Can I use this data in my own article or research?
Yes. The aggregate figures are published as a CSV under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Please cite "WavX Solutions, Software project budgets on Freelancer.com, November 2026" and link to this page.
About the author
Engineering & delivery team, WavX Solutions
Written and fact-checked by the WavX Solutions engineering team in Delhi NCR — the people who scope, price and ship these builds. Costs and timelines quoted here come from projects we have actually delivered, not vendor price lists.
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