Patient portal cost calculator
Choose the portal features and platforms and get a cost and timeline range, with what cutting each feature would save.
Free, runs in your browser, no sign-up. Updated 2026-10-25.
Result
Estimated cost $57,400 – $140,400 (USD), 10–24 weeks with a team of 4. Platform: Web app + cross-platform mobile app. Design: Custom design. Features: Sign-up, login, password reset; User profiles and settings; Health record view: results, medications, allergies; Appointment booking, reminders and check-in; Secure messaging with the care team; Digital intake and consent forms; EHR integration (FHIR or HL7 v2); Email and push notifications; Admin panel; Audit log.
- Timeline
- 10–24 weeks
- Total hours
- 1,247–3,050
- Engineering hours
- 860–2,104
- Team
- 4 people
| Role | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering | 860–2,104 | $43,000 – $105,200 |
| Product design | 129–316 | $5,800 – $14,200 |
| QA / testing | 172–421 | $5,200 – $12,600 |
| Project management | 86–210 | $3,400 – $8,400 |
| Feature | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-up, login, password reset | 47–94 | $3,100 – $6,300 |
| User profiles and settings | 31–63 | $2,100 – $4,200 |
| Health record view: results, medications, allergies | 117–274 | $7,800 – $18,300 |
| Appointment booking, reminders and check-in | 117–274 | $7,800 – $18,300 |
| Secure messaging with the care team | 117–274 | $7,800 – $18,300 |
| Digital intake and consent forms | 78–195 | $5,200 – $13,000 |
| EHR integration (FHIR or HL7 v2) | 195–547 | $13,000 – $36,500 |
| Email and push notifications | 47–109 | $3,100 – $7,300 |
| Admin panel | 78–195 | $5,200 – $13,000 |
| Audit log | 31–78 | $2,100 – $5,200 |
What cutting a feature would save
Each row re-runs the estimate without that feature, including its share of design, QA and project management. Biggest saving first.
| Drop this feature | Saves | Weeks saved |
|---|---|---|
| EHR integration (FHIR or HL7 v2) | $13,000 – $36,500 | 2–6 |
| Health record view: results, medications, allergies | $7,800 – $18,300 | 1–3 |
| Appointment booking, reminders and check-in | $7,800 – $18,300 | 1–3 |
| Secure messaging with the care team | $7,800 – $18,300 | 1–3 |
| Digital intake and consent forms | $5,200 – $13,000 | 1–2 |
| Admin panel | $5,200 – $13,000 | 1–2 |
Assumptions
Every number the result depends on, and where it comes from. Change any value and the result updates.
| Assumption | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering rate | USD/hour | OceanLab's rates are $30–50/hr depending on role and seniority. Other teams' rates vary several-fold by country and seniority; replace them with the rates you are quoted.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
| Product design rate | USD/hour | OceanLab's rates are $30–50/hr depending on role and seniority. Other teams' rates vary several-fold by country and seniority; replace them with the rates you are quoted.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
| QA / testing rate | USD/hour | OceanLab's rates are $30–50/hr depending on role and seniority. Other teams' rates vary several-fold by country and seniority; replace them with the rates you are quoted.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
| Project management rate | USD/hour | OceanLab's rates are $30–50/hr depending on role and seniority. Other teams' rates vary several-fold by country and seniority; replace them with the rates you are quoted.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
| Product design hours | 15 % | OceanLab assumption. Hours for this role as a share of engineering hours. Planning assumption.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
| QA / testing hours | 20 % | OceanLab assumption. Hours for this role as a share of engineering hours. Planning assumption.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
| Project management hours | 10 % | OceanLab assumption. Hours for this role as a share of engineering hours. Planning assumption.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
| Contingency | % | OceanLab assumption. Buffer for unknowns found during the build. Planning assumption.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
| Productive hours per person per week | hours | OceanLab assumption. 40 paid hours minus meetings and review. Planning assumption.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
| Platform multiplier: Web app + cross-platform mobile app | 1.7 × | OceanLab assumption. Two front ends on one backend. Planning assumption.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
| Design multiplier: Custom design | 1 × | OceanLab assumption. Baseline.Reviewed 2026-10-25 |
Send this estimate to OceanLab
Opens an email to OceanLab with this result and a link to your inputs. Nothing is sent until you press send, and there is no sign-up.
How this is calculated
The estimate starts from a patient portal preset: sign-in, health record view, appointments, secure messaging, intake forms, EHR sync, notifications, admin and an audit log, on web and mobile. Each feature has a low and a high hour estimate for development, multiplied by the platform and design level, plus a contingency.
Design, QA and project management are added as shares of development hours, and each role's hours are multiplied by its hourly rate.
Weeks come from total hours divided by team size and productive hours per person per week.
The hour ranges are OceanLab planning assumptions, not market benchmarks. Edit any of them in the assumptions panel.
Sources
- HL7 FHIR R4 (4.0.1) specification · checked 2026-10-25
Questions about this tool
Can the portal start without EHR integration?
Yes, as a booking and forms portal. Untick EHR integration to see the difference; results and records then need another way in.
Where do the feature hours come from?
They are OceanLab planning assumptions for a typical version of each feature, not survey data. Each one is shown and editable, so you can replace it with a number from your own team or quote.
Which hourly rates does it use?
Default rates are OceanLab's own: $50 an hour for engineering, $45 for design, $40 for project management and $30 for QA. Change any of them to the rates you have been quoted.
Is anything I enter sent anywhere?
No. The tool runs in your browser and there is no sign-up. Nothing leaves the page unless you choose to email your result to OceanLab.
Other free tools
OceanLab product builds like this
Products OceanLab designed and built. Each case study covers the screens, the scope and the rules it was built for.
Tavor - Member Portal for an Israeli Health Fund with Family Proxy Access
Designed and built a clickable member portal for an Israeli health fund: one login for a member and the children and parents they look after, referrals and tofes 17 commitments with an honest status, and test results with plain-language explanations, held results and teen confidentiality built in.
Baken - Lab Results Portal with Critical Value Calls and Read-Back
Designed and built a clickable lab console for an ISO 15189 accredited laboratory in Zuid-Holland: follow every order and sample from collection to storage, read validated results with flags, EUCAST susceptibility and release state, and phone critical values against a deadline with a logged call chain and a read-back check.
Lyrebird - Patient Booking and Intake Platform with Clinician-Routed Risk Flags
Designed and built a clickable booking and intake platform for a group of GP, physiotherapy and psychology clinics in regional Victoria and southern NSW: a day calendar by practitioner or room, pre-visit forms reviewed before the visit, and a clinician-only queue that puts every risk answer in front of a clinician against a response target.
Sutura - HIPAA-Compliant Patient Data Hub over HL7 and FHIR
Designed and built a clickable patient data hub for a US health system running Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth and eClinicalWorks: a live monitor for every HL7 v2, FHIR and HIE feed, one matched enterprise patient with a provenance-tagged record, and a duplicates queue where a person decides every uncertain match.
