How much does a custom SharePoint web part cost?
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A custom SPFx web part built by a consultancy typically costs €3,000–8,000 and takes 6–12 weeks. Simple components land near the bottom of that range; anything with external integrations, complex permissions or a bespoke design lands above it, and some quotes go well past €15,000.
That number is only half the cost, though, and it is the half everybody quotes. The other half is maintenance nobody puts in the proposal: SPFx versions move, Node versions move, and in April 2026 Microsoft retired domain-isolated web parts entirely. Every one of those events is a bill on a component you already paid for.
The cheaper routes exist and are honest options: SharePoint's built-in web parts and JSON list formatting cost €0, a productized build costs €1,500 flat, and a no-code platform runs from €99/month per tenant regardless of how many components you build. Which one is right depends on how unusual your requirement actually is.
What you are actually paying for
| Phase | Share of the budget | What it buys |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and specification | 15–25% | Working out what you actually want. Genuinely valuable. |
| Scaffolding and build setup | 10–15% | Project setup, build pipeline, environments. Identical on every project a consultancy has ever done. |
| The component itself | 30–40% | The part you think you are buying. |
| Testing and deployment | 15–20% | App Catalog, permissions, browser testing. |
| Project management | 10–15% | Meetings, status, coordination. |
The uncomfortable row is the second one. Roughly a sixth of the invoice is scaffolding that is essentially identical every time — and it is the part that no-code platforms remove entirely, which is where their pricing comes from.
What each route costs
| Route | Up front | Ongoing | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built-in web parts + JSON list formatting | €0 | €0 | Hours |
| Power Apps embedded | Days of a maker's time | €0 with standard connectors; ~€19/user/month for premium | Days to weeks |
| No-code platform | €0 | From €99/month per tenant, unlimited components | Minutes per component |
| Productized build (done for you) | €1,500 | Platform subscription | Days, fixed date |
| Consultancy, bespoke SPFx | €3,000–8,000+ | Unquantified, and it never stops | 6–12 weeks |
Read that table by column, not by row. The up-front column favours the free options; the ongoing column is where bespoke development quietly becomes the most expensive line in the list, because it is the only route where the cost of a Microsoft platform change lands on you.
How to read a quote
Five questions that change the number, and that most buyers do not ask:
- Who owns the source code? If it is not you, you are renting a component you paid to build.
- What happens when Microsoft changes the framework? Get the answer in writing before signing, not the first time it happens.
- What does a change request cost? Ask for the price of adding one column. That number tells you what the next two years look like.
- Who deploys it, and does it need new API permissions? A component needing tenant-wide Graph access is a different security conversation, and a longer project.
- Is there a support contract, and what does it cover? "Bug fixes for 90 days" and "keeps working on new SPFx versions" are very different promises.
None of this means a consultancy is the wrong answer. If your requirement genuinely is unusual — a real integration with an external system, unusual permission logic, a regulated process — bespoke development is the honest recommendation, and the comparison in Sharelio vs custom SPFx development lays out where that line sits.
Frequently asked questions
Why is €3,000 the floor for something that sounds simple?
Because the fixed costs do not scale down. Discovery, project setup, the build pipeline, testing across browsers, deployment and coordination happen whether the component shows three columns or thirty. A consultancy cannot profitably quote below the point where those fixed costs are covered, which is why very simple requirements are the worst value in bespoke development.
Is a freelancer cheaper than a consultancy?
Usually yes on the invoice, and the trade-off is concentration risk. A freelance SPFx developer is often half the price of an agency. The question to settle before you start is what happens in two years when the framework moves and that person is unavailable — the code is fine, but nobody is left who knows it.
What does maintenance actually cost per year?
Nobody can give you an honest fixed number, because it depends on how often Microsoft changes something relevant to your component. What is predictable is the shape: it is small in most years and occasionally large in one, and it arrives on a schedule you do not control. Budgeting zero for it is the mistake, not the size of the number.
Can we just use SharePoint's built-in web parts?
For a lot of requirements, yes, and it costs nothing. Built-in list views plus JSON column formatting cover more than most people expect: conditional colours, buttons, formatted cards. Try that route first and find out exactly where it stops — that boundary is what tells you which of the paid routes you actually need.