What Does Technology Due Diligence Typically Cost?
TDD fees vary depending on the scope of the engagement, the complexity of the target, and the depth of assessment required. As a general guide:
Red flag / early-stage assessment:
10,000€ – 15,000€. A focused assessment designed to identify showstoppers quickly before committing to a full process. Typically delivered in five to seven business days.
Standard technology due diligence:
20,000€ to 30,000€. A comprehensive assessment covering architecture, code quality, security, infrastructure, and engineering team — the appropriate scope for most SaaS and software acquisitions. Delivered in two to three weeks.
Large or complex engagements:
from 30,000€ to 50,000€+. For targets with multiple products, large engineering teams, complex technology stacks, or significant regulatory requirements.
These ranges reflect independent, expert-led engagements conducted by specialist firms. Costs will vary by provider, geography, and the specific requirements of each transaction.
What Drives the Cost?
Several factors push TDD fees up or down:
Complexity of the target. A five-person SaaS startup with a single product is fundamentally different from a mid-market software company with ten years of development history, multiple codebases, and a complex microservices architecture. More complexity requires more time and more senior expertise.
Scope of the assessment. A red flag review scoped around the highest-priority risks is faster and cheaper than a full assessment covering every dimension of the technology. The right scope depends on where you are in the deal process and how much risk you are prepared to carry.
Speed of delivery. Accelerated assessments — delivered in five to seven business days rather than two to three weeks — typically carry a premium. When deal timelines are compressed, that premium is almost always worth paying.
Access and cooperation. When targets are well-prepared, documentation is thorough, and access is granted promptly, engagements run efficiently. When access is delayed or documentation is incomplete, timelines extend and costs increase accordingly.
The Cost of Not Doing Technology Due Diligence
This is the number that rarely appears in deal budgets — but arguably should.
Technology problems discovered post-close do not come with a renegotiation option. They come with a remediation bill, an integration delay, and in some cases a fundamental reassessment of the investment thesis.
Consider the most common scenarios:
Undiscovered technical debt.
A codebase that looks functional from the outside can carry years of shortcuts, outdated dependencies, and poorly documented logic that makes every future development effort slower and riskier. Remediation costs for significant technical debt routinely run into hundreds of thousands of pounds — sometimes more.
Security vulnerabilities.
A breach that occurs post-close traces back to a pre-existing vulnerability. The cost includes incident response, regulatory fines, customer notification, potential litigation, and reputational damage. The average cost of a data breach now exceeds $4 million globally — a figure that dwarfs any TDD fee.
Scalability failures.
A platform that cannot support your growth plans requires significant re-architecture post-close. Projects of this nature are expensive, time-consuming, and disruptive — and they could have been identified and priced into the deal before signing.
Key person dependency. If two engineers hold all critical system knowledge and both leave within six months of close — a common occurrence — you may find yourself owning a platform nobody fully understands. Knowledge transfer and re-documentation are costly. The disruption to development roadmaps is harder to quantify.
The pattern is consistent: technology problems that surface post-close are almost always more expensive to fix than they would have been to discover pre-close. A 20,000€ TDD that surfaces a 200,000€ remediation requirement — and allows you to adjust the deal price accordingly — is not a cost. It is a return on investment.
Getting the Scope Right
One of the most important decisions in commissioning a technology due diligence is getting the scope right for the situation. Overspending on a comprehensive assessment for a small, low-complexity target is unnecessary. Underspending on a red flag review for a large, complex acquisition is a false economy.
An experienced TDD provider will help you define the right scope for your transaction — balancing cost, timeline, and the risk profile of the target.
How VeryDiligent Approaches Pricing
At VeryDiligent, we provide transparent, fixed-fee pricing agreed upfront, using a pre-defined rate card — no hourly billing, no scope creep surprises. Every engagement is scoped to the specific requirements of your transaction, and we will always be clear about what is and is not included.
Our efficient processes allow us to deliver deep, actionable findings at a cost that is a fraction of the risks we help our clients avoid.
Contact us today for a no-obligation discussion about scope and pricing for your upcoming transaction.
Related reading: How Long Does a Technology Due Diligence Take? | In-house vs External Technology Due Diligence | Cybersecurity Due Diligence: The New Dealbreaker