How much does a system integration cost?

How much does a system integration cost?

The honest answer: it depends on what needs to move and what can go wrong. Copying customers from your online store to your accounts once a day is a different project from orders, invoices and stock flowing immediately and in both directions between your ERP, your CRM and your online store, with rules for VAT, currencies and credit notes.

That is why we don't quote a figure on this page. A price from a pricing model only means something for an integration once you know which systems are involved, what data needs to move and how good the APIs are. With your answers from the cost check we give you an estimate you can check, and in the quote we fix scope, timeline and price before anything is built.

What is an integration, and what is an API?

An integration lets two systems exchange data without anyone retyping it. An order in the online store becomes an invoice in the accounts, and a new customer in the CRM also appears straight away in the ERP.

An API is the fixed entry point a system offers to other software. It sets out which data you can request or write, in what format and with which key you get in. Some systems also announce on their own that something has changed. That's called a webhook.

The integration is everything in between: which field in one system matches which field in the other, when the data moves and what happens when something doesn't add up. That is where most of the work is.

Standard integration or custom

Many packages have their own app store or marketplace with ready-made integrations. If one of those does what you need, use it. It's quicker to get going, the vendor keeps it up to date and you pay a subscription instead of a build project. We'll say so when we see it.

A standard integration is built for the average business. Custom work pays off when your process differs from that, or when the standard integration doesn't quite do enough. You can usually tell from this:

• Data you need doesn't come across
• It works one way, and you need both ways
• Your own rules and exceptions don't fit
• More than two systems are involved, or your own software

What does an integration platform (iPaaS) do?

An integration platform, also called iPaaS, is software that lets you click integrations together from ready-made blocks: when something happens in one system, do this in the other. Zapier, Make and Power Automate are well-known examples.

For simple steps with fixed rules that is often enough, and then we recommend it. It gets difficult with many exceptions, large volumes or data that needs to flow both ways. The logic ends up spread across separate flows nobody has an overview of any more, and subscription costs often rise with the number of tasks.

Sometimes a combination works best: the platform for the simple steps, a custom integration for the part that really matters.

What if a system has no API?

It can still be done. We can connect any system, even without an API. The only question is which route is the most reliable.

These are the usual routes, from most to least reliable. The further down the list, the more monitoring it needs, because a different file format or a new screen can break the integration.

• An export the system produces at fixed times, such as a CSV or Excel file
• Reading straight from the database, in agreement with the vendor
• Reading emails with attachments, such as orders or invoices
• As a last resort: operating the system the way a member of staff would

One-off costs and ongoing maintenance

You pay once to build an integration. After that it keeps running while the systems on both sides change. Vendors release new versions of their APIs and retire old ones, keys expire, fields get renamed and order volumes grow.

That's why maintenance belongs in the budget: monitoring that flags when something gets stuck, a log showing what has moved across, and someone who updates it when an API changes. What that costs depends on the number of integrations and how often they run. We agree it in advance.

• Ask what happens when a system is briefly unavailable
• Ask how you'll notice that something didn't come across
• Ask whether your package charges extra for API access
• Ask who owns the code and where the integration runs

Where AI fits between two systems

An integration moves data that already sits neatly in a field. A lot of data only arrives as free text: a PDF invoice, a delivery note that differs per supplier, an order in an email. That's where AI fits in. It reads the document, extracts the data, and the integration puts it in the right system.

AI can also prepare a proposal, such as a booking or a reply to a customer. Where it matters, a member of staff approves it before it goes through, and doubtful cases go past a person. If the rules are fixed, AI isn't needed and we build a regular integration.

You can also connect an AI assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude to your own systems, so it answers using your data. The same applies: only the permissions it needs, and a record of what it requests.

Security and the GDPR

An integration has access to your systems, and often to personal data of customers or employees. That calls for the same care as any other access: no more permissions than needed, and a record of what happens.

If we process personal data on your behalf, we sign a data processing agreement. Your Tech Club is ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified, so quality and information security are built into how we work.

• A data processing agreement if personal data is involved
• A separate account for each integration, with only the permissions it needs
• Keys and passwords in a vault, not in the code
• Logging of what moved across, when and through which integration