Software Development RFP Template (Free Download)
A ten-section template, a scoring sheet, and data on how much budget to state
A software development RFP template gives every agency the same brief, so the proposals you get back can be compared line by line. The template below has ten sections and takes about a day to fill in. Copy it from this page or download it as a Word file.
The section most buyers leave out is the budget range. Edverise listing data shows why that costs you time.
Updated October 2026
What a software development RFP is for
An RFP (request for proposal) asks a few vendors how they would build something and what it would cost. It doesn't commit you to anything. What it does is make proposals comparable and filter out poor fits before you spend hours on calls.
Agencies weigh your RFP before they answer it. Loopio's 2025 trends report, a survey of 1,544 people who work on proposals, puts the average response at 25 hours of work with nine contributors (Loopio). A vague brief gets a guess, or no reply at all from the busy firms you most want.
The software development RFP template
Copy the ten headings below into a document, or download the Word version. Each section says what to write and gives a sample line you can adapt.
1. About your company
Who you are, how big you are, what you sell. Name the person who owns the project on your side and how many hours a week they can give it.
Sample: "We're a 40-person HVAC service company in Ohio. Our operations lead owns this project and has 6 hours a week for it."
2. The problem and what success looks like
Describe the business problem, not the solution you have in mind. Then give two or three goals you can measure after launch.
Sample: "Customers phone us to check job status, which takes up most of one coordinator's day. Within six months of launch, we want 60% of status checks to happen online."
3. Scope: must-haves, nice-to-haves, out of scope
Write three short lists. Must-haves are features you won't launch without. Nice-to-haves let vendors price options separately. The out-of-scope list stops agencies from padding quotes with things you never asked for.
If you're building a product to sell to other companies, say so early. SaaS product development teams plan billing, multi-tenancy and onboarding from day one, and that changes the estimate.
4. Users and volumes
Who will use the software, roughly how many, and on which devices. Agencies size hosting, testing and performance work from these numbers, so a guess is better than nothing.
Sample: "About 3,000 customers, mostly on phones. Six office staff on desktop. Peak load is Monday mornings."
5. Technical constraints and integrations
List the systems the new software must talk to, with links to their API docs if you have them. Add hosting preferences, where your data must live, and any security or compliance standard your customers expect (SOC 2, HIPAA, PIPEDA in Canada, the Privacy Act in Australia).
Integrations are where estimates go wrong most often. If an integration is the hard part, consider asking specialist API development and integration firms as well.
6. Budget range
Give a range, and say what it covers: design, build, testing, launch, and how many weeks of fixes after launch. The next section shows how to pick the numbers.
Sample: "$70,000 to $110,000, including launch and 30 days of bug fixes."
7. Timeline and milestones
Give the dates that are fixed and why they're fixed (a trade show, a contract renewal, a season). Let vendors propose the milestones in between.
8. Contract type
Say whether you want fixed price, time and material, or are open to both. If you aren't sure, our guide to fixed price vs time and material vs outcome-based contracts covers who carries the risk in each.
9. What every proposal must include
Ask for the same things from everyone so you can line them up:
- Their understanding of the problem, in their own words
- The approach, phases and main technical choices
- Named people who will do the work, with their roles and time on the project
- Two similar projects, each with a client reference you can call
- Cost broken down by phase, plus the assumptions behind it
- Support after launch, and who owns the code and IP
- A sample status report or demo cadence
10. How you'll choose, and the process
State your scoring criteria and how much each one counts. US federal buyers must publish their evaluation factors and their relative importance in the solicitation (FAR 15.304). Private buyers aren't bound by that, but it's a good habit to borrow, because agencies write better proposals when they know what you value.
Then list the dates: questions due, answers shared with all bidders, proposals due, shortlist calls, decision.
How much budget to put in your RFP
Many buyers leave the budget out, hoping for a lower quote. What usually comes back is a spread so wide you can't tell differences in scope from differences in price.
There's a second cost. Many agencies have a minimum project size, and a budget below it means they decline or send a token reply. Here's how common those minimums are among companies listed on Edverise.
| Service | Country | Companies that state a minimum | Minimum of $10,000 or more | Minimum of $25,000 or more | Minimum of $50,000 or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom web app development | US | 8,241 | 38.6% | 19.6% | 8.7% |
| Custom web app development | Canada | 1,631 | 33.7% | 16.7% | 7.4% |
| Custom web app development | Australia | 797 | 32.2% | 14.3% | 5.8% |
| Mobile app development | US | 5,219 | 44.5% | 22.4% | 9.5% |
| Mobile app development | Canada | 973 | 39.3% | 19.8% | 8.5% |
| Mobile app development | Australia | 536 | 37.9% | 16.8% | 5.6% |
Read it this way. A US mobile app brief with a budget under $25,000 rules out about one in five agencies that publish a minimum, before anyone has read your scope. Under $10,000, that rises to 44.5%. Between 15% and 19% of listed companies in each group don't state a minimum at all, so ask them directly.
Based on custom web application development and mobile app development companies listed on Edverise in the US, Canada and Australia, pulled 23 Oct 2026. Profiles are partly compiled from public information, so treat ranges as indicative. These are listing minimums, not quoted prices.
Turning hours into a budget range
The simplest way to set a range is hours times rate. Here's how listed hourly rates split for mobile app development companies, in USD.
| Hourly rate band (USD) | US | Canada | Australia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $25 or not stated | 23.6% | 25.0% | 28.9% |
| $25 to $49 | 24.4% | 24.6% | 23.2% |
| $50 to $99 | 32.3% | 29.4% | 25.3% |
| $100 to $149 | 17.9% | 20.0% | 20.3% |
| $150 and up | 1.8% | 1.0% | 2.3% |
Based on 6,211 US, 1,151 Canadian and 641 Australian mobile app development companies listed on Edverise, pulled 23 Oct 2026. Profiles are partly compiled from public information, so treat ranges as indicative.
The $50 to $99 band is the largest in the US and Canada. Listed rates often blend junior and senior staff, though. Keyhole Software's 2026 cost guide puts US senior developers at $125 to $250+ an hour (Keyhole Software), so a team built mostly from onshore seniors will price above these bands.
A filled-in example: a 12-week customer portal
Take the HVAC company from the samples above. They want a portal where customers book visits, see job status and pay invoices. It has to connect to their field service software and their payment provider.
A typical team for that is a designer, two developers, and part-time project management and QA for 12 weeks. That's roughly 1,200 hours. At $50 to $99 an hour, the build lands between $60,000 and $118,800.
That lines up with outside numbers. Keyhole's guide gives $40,000 to $120,000 for a simple project or MVP, built over 2 to 4 months (Keyhole Software).
| RFP section | What they wrote |
|---|---|
| Problem | Status calls take most of one coordinator's day |
| Goal | 60% of status checks online within six months |
| Must-haves | Booking, job status, invoice payment, staff admin screen |
| Out of scope | Technician mobile app, inventory |
| Integrations | Field service software API, payment provider |
| Budget | $70,000 to $110,000 including launch and 30 days of fixes |
| Deadline | Live before the spring service rush |
| Contract | Fixed price for design, time and material for the build |
With $70,000 at the bottom of the range, only about 3% of US web app agencies that state a minimum are priced out (those starting at $75,000 or more). The firms that reply know the money is real and can scope to it.
Scoring proposals: a weighted scorecard
Score each proposal from 1 to 5 on every row, multiply by the weight, and add the results. Ask two people to score on their own before comparing notes.
| Criterion | Weight | What a 5 looks like | What a 1 looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Understanding of the problem | 20% | Restates your goals and questions a weak assumption | Repeats your brief back to you |
| Approach and technical plan | 20% | Clear phases, risks named, choices explained | A generic process diagram |
| Team | 20% | Named people with relevant past work | "Our team of 200 experts" |
| Similar work and references | 15% | Two close matches, references who pick up the phone | Logos with no contacts |
| Price and breakdown | 20% | Cost by phase with written assumptions | One total number |
| Communication | 5% | Fast, specific answers during the question window | No questions asked at all |
The UK government's Digital Marketplace guidance does something similar. Quality and price scores are each converted using weights set in advance, then added together, and the highest total wins (GOV.UK Digital Marketplace blog). Setting the weights before proposals arrive keeps you from bending the scoring toward the vendor you liked on the call.
Mistakes that get you useless quotes
- Naming the tech instead of the problem. "Build it in React" tells agencies nothing about what success means.
- Leaving out the budget. You get a spread of quotes you can't compare.
- Sending it to 15 agencies. Firms know their odds and put in less effort. Four to six is enough.
- No question window. Answer questions in writing and share every answer with all bidders.
- Asking for a fixed price on a loose scope. Agencies pad the number to cover what they can't see.
- Less than two weeks to respond. Good firms are busy and will skip a rushed deadline.
- Not asking who does the work. The senior people on the sales call may not be on your project.
Most of these come from the same root. The buyer wrote the RFP for themselves, not for the person who has to answer it. A bad pick costs far more than the week it takes to write a good brief, as we cover in the hidden cost of a bad vendor decision.
RFP vs RFI vs RFQ: which one to send
| Document | Send it when | What you get back |
|---|---|---|
| RFI (request for information) | You're still exploring and don't know the options | Capabilities, rough ranges, questions |
| RFP (request for proposal) | You know the problem and want approaches and prices | Proposals with a plan, team and estimate |
| RFQ (request for quote) | The scope is fixed and detailed, and price is the main question | Price quotes against your spec |
A common pattern is a short RFI to 10 or so firms, then an RFP to the best four to six. For a project under $25,000 you can often skip the RFI and send a two-page RFP.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a software development RFP be?
Five to ten pages is enough for most projects under $250,000. Long documents get skimmed, not read. Put detailed specs in an appendix so the main brief stays readable.
Should I include my budget in an RFP?
Yes, as a range. Without it, agencies guess, and you can't tell whether a low quote means a smaller scope or a better price. A range also tells agencies with a higher minimum to step aside early.
How many agencies should I send an RFP to?
Four to six. Fewer gives you little to compare, and more means each agency puts in less effort because their odds are lower. If you're starting from a long list, use a short RFI first to narrow it.
How long should agencies get to respond?
Two to three weeks for a typical project. Set a question deadline at the end of week one, and send all answers to every bidder within a couple of days.
What's the difference between an RFP and a statement of work?
An RFP goes out before you choose a vendor and asks how they'd solve your problem. A statement of work is written with the vendor you picked, and it becomes part of the contract. A good RFP makes the statement of work much faster to write.
Compare agencies before you send it
Shortlist four to six firms whose minimums and rates fit your budget. Compare custom web application development companies on Edverise, or browse mobile app development companies if you're building for iOS and Android.