Rebuild
A new application with the same business purpose. Right when the current system's data model is sound but the technology is a dead end.
Legacy modernization is rebuilding or replacing software your business depends on and can no longer safely change. What it costs depends almost entirely on the data. A small application with clean data can be rebuilt quickly and inexpensively. Getting twenty years of records out of a system nobody documented is where the time goes, and that part costs what it always has.
A new application with the same business purpose. Right when the current system's data model is sound but the technology is a dead end.
The same application on modern infrastructure. The least expensive path. It buys time, and it changes nothing about the software itself.
Leave the system running and put a modern interface or API in front of it. Right when it still works but cannot be integrated or used comfortably.
Move to an off-the-shelf product and migrate the data. Frequently the right answer, and we will say so when it is.
The right path comes out of a handful of plain questions:
A system that still works but cannot talk to anything often only needs wrapping. A sound data model on dead technology points to a rebuild. A system doing something a mainstream product now does well usually points to replacement.
Modernization quotes vary widely for one reason: data migration. The cost scales with how messy the source data is, not how much of it there is.
Someone has to reverse-engineer a schema nobody remembers designing, reconcile years of inconsistent records, decide what to do with rows that break the rules the new system will enforce, and prove nothing was lost. AI-accelerated development speeds up building the new system. It does not speed up that archaeology.
That is why a small application with clean data sits at the low end of the range, and why an undocumented system with decades of history sits at the high end.
| Situation | Typical budget |
|---|---|
| A small application with little or well-structured data, or a modern interface in front of a system that still works | From $4,000 |
| Migrating out of an undocumented system with years of history | Up to about $60,000 |
| Heavy migration combined with compliance scope | $45,000–$90,000, the compliance and migration tier |
Prices and timelines here are examples to help you plan, not a quote, an offer, or a contract. Every engagement is governed by its own written statement of work and agreement.
Where a source system is undocumented, we look before we price. An honest quote depends on knowing what is inside it.
Sometimes the most useful thing we can tell you is not to rebuild at all. If a mainstream product now does what your custom system was built to do, moving to it and migrating your data is often less expensive to own over time than maintaining a custom replacement.
We will tell you when that is the case, on the first call, before you have spent anything.
What the workflow is, who uses it, what it connects to, whether data has to come along, and what compliance applies. We will tell you on that call if you should buy something instead, and if the scope you have in mind does not fit the date you have in mind.
Within a few business days of that call, with a delivery date on it. Fixed price rather than hourly, so the risk of the work taking longer is ours rather than yours. If we deliver late, monetary penalties apply, on terms set out in your statement of work.
You see the software working rather than described, typically twice a week. You should never have to ask where the project stands.
Deployed to your infrastructure, with a walkthrough, written handover, and the source code in a repository you control. Stephen sees every engagement through to this point personally. Nothing is handed off at eighty percent.
All the work is done by the True Cedar team and completed by US-based resources. We do not outsource any of the work. This describes how we typically work; each engagement's terms are set out in its own written statement of work and agreement.
Legacy modernization typically runs $4,000 to $60,000. A small application with little or well-structured data sits at the low end. Cost climbs with data migration and reverse-engineering an undocumented system, and projects that also carry compliance scope move into the $45,000 to $90,000 range. These are examples; each project's price is set in its statement of work.
Rebuild when the data model is sound but the technology is a dead end. Re-platform when you need time rather than a fix. Wrap it when it still works but cannot be integrated. Replace it with a product when one now covers what your custom system does, which is often the right answer.
It migrates, and that is usually the hardest and most expensive part of the project. It involves mapping the old schema, reconciling inconsistent records, deciding how to handle data that breaks the new system's rules, and proving nothing was lost.
It depends on the data. A small rebuild with clean data can move quickly. Projects with heavy migration or compliance scope typically take five to ten weeks. The timeline for each project is set out in its statement of work.
Sometimes the answer is connecting the old system, not replacing it.
What a rebuilt application usually becomes.
Replacing the workarounds that grew up around an old system.
Describe what it does and what is wrong with it. We will tell you which path fits, including when the right answer is to buy something instead.