In this article, we're taking a look at web app cost estimating complexities, its main stages and approaches and getting as close as possible to figuring out the price. Plus a few hints of how to cut the cost when the app turns out to be too expensive. Keeping it short: there's no exact number on the 'initial idea' stage. That's due to lots of factors affecting custom web application development cost--time, devs' country of residence, features, and engineering approach. But moving along and not knowing the cost doesn't work either.