Montreal, Laval, South Shore · from India
Custom software your Montreal staff can use in French, built remotely from India
If your warehouse, clinic or office staff work in French, the software they use should open in French from the first screen.
Replies within 2 hours; free quote within 24 hours. Live calls 8am–12pm Eastern, Monday to Friday.
From CAD 30 an hourexcl. GST/HSTSee pricing →
- Fixed CAD price before work starts
- Every French string read by a reviewer
- Charter and Law 25 items in the spec
- Code and IP yours on final payment
- ★ 4.9 on Google (92 reviews)Lucknow, India profile
- 200+ projects worldwide since 2017
- Top Rated on Upwork, 100% Job Success
Founder-led by Ashish Sharma
What happens after you contact us
Step 1: A reply within 2 hours
Ashish or the team answers on WhatsApp or by email, usually with a few questions about your scope.
Step 2: A call, if you want one
Weekdays between 8am and 12pm Eastern, on a WhatsApp or video call.
Step 3: A free quote within 24 hours
Scope, timeline and either a fixed CAD price or your hourly rate, excluding GST/HST, in writing.
Step 4: You decide, no obligation
If you go ahead, fixed-scope work keeps one price once the scope is agreed, and hourly rates are agreed in writing first. You can pay in CAD or USD by local bank transfer to our Canadian bank account.
Overview
We build it remotely from Lucknow, India. Every label sits in a language file, and a fluent French reviewer reads each one before your own approver signs it off. Fixed-scope builds run CAD 6,000–60,000 over 6 to 16 weeks. There is no Codingclave office in Canada. Write in French and we reply in French; calls are on video, in English.
By Ashish Sharma, founder · Updated 16 October 2026
Quick answer
Can a team in India build our Montreal software in French, and at what price?
Yes, provided the French is built in rather than translated at the end: every label goes into a language file from the first commit, and a fluent reviewer reads each one before release. A fixed-scope build from us costs CAD 6,000–60,000 and takes 6–16 weeks. Changes to software you already use cost CAD 30–60 an hour. Four Montreal firms on Clutch, for comparison, list minimum projects from about CAD 1,400 to over CAD 140,000. Your counsel confirms what the Charter asks of your firm.
- Price fixed once the scope is agreed; paid 40/40/20
- 70% of Montréal CMA workers use French most at work (2021 Census)
- Francization reaches firms with 25–49 Quebec employees since 1 June 2025
- Free bug fixes for six months after launch
Montreal, Quebec · built remotely from Lucknow, India
Montreal at a glance
- Developer wage, Montréal region
- CAD 29.00 / 45.67 / 67.31 an hour, NOC 21232 (updated 19 Nov 2025)
- Source: jobbank
.gc .ca - Developer outlook 2025–2027
- Moderate in the Montréal region (updated 10 Dec 2025)
- Source: jobbank
.gc .ca - Charter fine for a corporation
- CAD 3,000–30,000 per offence, doubled on a repeat (s.205; read 16 Oct 2026)
- Source: millerthomson
.com
Areas covered in this guide
- Montreal (Montréal CMA)
- Laval
- Montérégie (South Shore)
01of 8
Which screens should open in French, going by how Montrealers actually work
Statistics Canada's Montréal spotlight (2021 Census) breaks work language down by sector, which is what you need to set defaults. In 2021, 70% of Montréal CMA workers used French most often at work, down from 73% in 2001; 21% used English most and 8% used both equally. 69% could speak English and French.
That last figure misleads. A bilingual warehouse lead can read an English screen, but will reach for the tool that speaks the shift's language. So we set a default per user group, not per app.
| Screen or user group | What the data says | Our default | Toggle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warehouse, clinic or field staff tool | 70% of CMA workers use French most at work; in health care, 80% | French | English on request, saved per user |
| Finance or insurance back office | French as the main work language fell from 71% to 60% between 2001 and 2021 | French | English toggle on every screen |
| Internal tool for a professional-services or tech firm | 56% work mainly in French in professional and technical services | French | English toggle, choice saved per user |
| Customer portal or SaaS sold to the Quebec public | The Charter applies whatever your users' language skills (see the Charter table) | French first | English alongside, with the same features |
| Reps or customers in Ontario or the US | Outside Quebec | English | French available |
The percentages are Statistics Canada's; the defaults are our call. A tool that opens in the wrong language gets bypassed for a spreadsheet.
Want to talk this through?WhatsApp Ashish (opens WhatsApp)Get a free CAD quote →
02of 8
Bill 96 and the Charter of the French language, line by line, in your software spec
In short: software offered in Quebec, including the tools an employer gives its staff, must be available in French (s.52.1), and since 1 June 2023 non-negotiable terms must be offered in French first (s.55). Your counsel confirms how each applies to you.
Quebec's Charter of the French language, as amended by Bill 96, has four rules that reach into software, plus the fines. Each becomes a tested line in the scope. Our reading of each rule follows three law firms, Miller Thomson, Gowling WLG and BCF; your counsel can check it against LégisQuébec.
| Rule | In force | What it means on screen | What we build |
|---|---|---|---|
| s.52.1: software must be available in French unless no French version exists | Before Bill 96; Miller Thomson reads it as covering software an employer procures for staff | Other language versions may sit alongside if the French one is offered on terms no less favourable | Full French interface, error messages, help text and exports |
| s.55: French first for a contract of adhesion | 1 June 2023 (Gowling WLG) | Non-negotiable terms: portal or SaaS sign-up, subscription terms, consent screens | French terms shown first; English only when the user expressly asks, with that choice logged |
| Francization, 25–49 Quebec employees | 1 June 2025; register with the OQLF within six months (BCF) | BCF says francization requires communications, digital tools included, to be primarily in French | A language inventory of your screens for your OQLF file |
| Francization, 100 or more employees | A joint francization committee is required (BCF) | Nothing new on screen | An exportable list of screens and strings with each one's French status |
| s.205 fines | Per offence, doubled on a repeat; each day can count separately (Miller Thomson) | CAD 700–7,000 for an individual, CAD 3,000–30,000 for a corporation | Nothing to build. This is what a missing French version can cost. |
Your lawyer decides which rows apply to you; we build whichever ones they do. Rules for public websites and storefronts are on our web development page.
Does this fit your project?WhatsApp Ashish (opens WhatsApp)Get a free CAD quote →
03of 8
How the French gets written, and who approves it
French breaks on remote builds predictably: the English gets finished, someone translates in the last week, and the buttons overflow and the plurals come out wrong. We work in this order instead:
Strings live in language files from the first commit
No label is typed into the code; every string sits in French and English message files, so a changed screen can't leave a stray English button. Sentences are never stitched together from fragments ("Vous avez" + a number + "commandes"), because French plurals and gender agreement break that.
Your trade’s words, collected before the first screen
Your warehouse says bon de commande; your sales staff say soumission. We ask your people for those words on a one-page glossary before any screen is built, so the software speaks your trade's French rather than a dictionary's first guess.
Every string read by our fluent French reviewer
The reviewer reads each string on the screen where it appears, and fixes the word that's wrong for your trade or the label that no longer fits its button. Nothing ships unread.
Your staff approve the French
One named person at your firm approves the French at each milestone. They know how your people talk at work.
French QA on staging
French labels run longer than English, so screens are tested for truncation on phone and desktop. Numbers, money and dates follow the fr-CA locale (1 234,56 $). Search and sorting are tested with accents: "ecole" finds "école", and Élise sorts beside Elise.
Where our part ends
We don't hold OQLF certification and we don't deal with the OQLF for you. We hand over software that's ready for your francization file; your team and counsel own the file itself.
Planning a project in Montreal?
Send a few lines on WhatsApp, or get a free CAD quote within 24 hours.
Replies within 2 hours; free quote within 24 hours.
04of 8
Law 25 features you need if your app tracks people or decides things on its own
The Commission d'accès à l'information (CAI) sets out five duties that become features once an app is public, tracks people or decides about them. An incident log planned in week one is a table and an admin screen. Added after launch, it means changing live data and retesting every screen that writes to it.
| Duty | Triggered when | Feature in the build |
|---|---|---|
| Highest confidentiality by default (cookies excepted) | A tech product or service is offered to the public | Privacy settings ship at the strictest level; users loosen them |
| Identification, location or profiling disclosed beforehand, off by default | Any tracking, geolocation or scoring | Switches set to off, plus a plain-French screen on what each one does |
| Notice of a decision based only on automated processing | AI approvals, pricing, scoring or routing with no human step | A notice no later than the decision, and a route to submit observations to a staff member who can review it |
| Register of confidentiality incidents | Always | An admin incident log (date, data affected, actions taken) that you must provide to the CAI on request |
| Privacy officer's title and contact published | Always | A footer link and contact page, French first |
These duties are widely reported as in force since 22 September 2023; the CAI page doesn't date each one. The privacy impact assessment, portability and the Montreal cloud regions are on our national custom software page.
Questions about how this works for you?WhatsApp Ashish (opens WhatsApp)Get a free CAD quote →
05of 8
What Montreal software development companies charge, and what a developer earns there
Clutch lists 180 companies for Montreal and notes that it "may earn a fee for some placements". Clutch prints a bare $; we read it as US dollars, its convention. The four firm rows come from Oriana Solutions' 8 October 2026 list, which compiled them from Clutch.
| Source | What it publishes | In CAD |
|---|---|---|
| Clutch Montreal page (180 firms), first page | Hourly bands from under $25 to $150–199; minimums from $1,000+ to $50,000+ | Under 35 to 213–283 an hour; minimums about 1,420+ to 70,980+ |
| Algoseed Labs | $50–99 an hour; $1,000+ minimum project | 71–141 an hour; about 1,420+ |
| Sidekick Interactive | $100–149 an hour; $25,000+ minimum | 142–212 an hour; about 35,490+ |
| eXolnet | $100–149 an hour; $75,000+ minimum | 142–212 an hour; about 106,470+ |
| nventive/Wepoint | $100–149 an hour; $100,000+ minimum | 142–212 an hour; about 141,960+ |
| Oriana Solutions, its own page | First working web app 5,000 (14 days); full custom software 15,000–25,000 (6–10 weeks); taxes extra | Currency not labelled; shown as published |
| Job Bank, Montréal region, NOC 21232 | 29.00 / 45.67 / 67.31 an hour, low / median / high employee wage | Already CAD |
Laval (median CAD 44.38) and Montérégie on the South Shore (CAD 46.94) sit within about CAD 1.30 of the Montréal median. At that median, one full-time developer costs about CAD 89,000 a year in wages at 1,950 paid hours (37.5 × 52), before benefits, payroll taxes and a desk.
Does this fit your project?WhatsApp Ashish (opens WhatsApp)Get a free CAD quote →
06of 8
The case Montreal agencies make against India, and our answer to each point
Montreal firms argue that a company in the city beats a team in India or a freelancer from Fiverr or Upwork. Oriana Solutions sets out the argument in its 8 October list: language, Quebec's rules, payment, time zone and recourse; other lists add tax credits. Here is our answer, including where they have a point.
| What Montreal agencies say | What we do | Where they're right |
|---|---|---|
| Quebec French needs people who work in it | Language files from day one, a fluent reviewer on every string, your approver's sign-off (how) | Your staff know your trade's French better than any reviewer; their approval step is not optional |
| Law 25 and the Charter need someone who knows Quebec | Each rule becomes a tested feature in the spec (Charter, Law 25); your counsel confirms it. Our own quote and terms come in French first, English if you ask | We are not your privacy officer or lawyer |
| Pay a Canadian firm, in Canadian dollars | You pay in CAD or USD, by local bank transfer to our Canadian bank account | Your contract is with Codingclave Development LLP, an Indian firm |
| An offshore team is asleep when you need it | Weekday calls 8am–12pm Eastern; email or WhatsApp, in French or English, the rest of the day; 24/7 response for emergencies on live sites and apps | No live calls in your afternoon, and calls are in English |
| If it goes wrong, you have no recourse | 40/40/20 payments, so your money follows the work; the code and IP pass to you with the last payment; free bug fixes for six months | An Indian LLP is not a Quebec company. Settle which law governs the contract, and where a dispute would be heard, before you sign |
| Workshops belong in a room | Video calls, screen sharing and a staging site to click through | Agreed. Nobody from our side can stand beside your staff at rollout |
| Quebec tax credits make Montreal firms cheaper | We claim no credits for you | Quebec's tech credits are generally tied to salaries paid in Quebec; your accountant can tell you whether contracting abroad affects yours |
Need someone on the warehouse floor for rollout week, or a credit that only in-house Quebec salaries earn? Hire in Montreal. If the deciding questions are the French and the price, send us the brief.
07of 8
A worked example: a 30-person distributor whose warehouse works in French
This is a made-up example to show how we'd scope it, not a past client. A distributor in Laval has 30 employees in Quebec, inside the 25–49 francization band since 1 June 2025. The warehouse works in French, two reps cover Ontario in English, and emailed orders are typed again into accounting.
An order desk that opens in French
Picking lists, stock counts and back orders open in French. Anyone can switch to English and the choice is remembered, so the Ontario reps always see English.
A B2B portal with the French terms first
Customers accept terms of use shown in French first (s.55). English appears only on request, and the portal logs that request with a date.
Tracking off until someone turns it on
If the app tracks reps or profiles customers, those switches ship off, each explained on a plain-French screen; the footer names the privacy officer.
One accounting connection
We can sync orders and invoices with QuickBooks Online or Sage, whichever the distributor runs.
The estimate, and what moves it
For this made-up scope, our estimate is CAD 25,000–40,000, inside our CAD 6,000–60,000 band for custom software. Ashish sets the fixed figure himself once the screen list is agreed. It moves with the number of screens (order desk, portal, admin) and with each integration; a second warehouse, a driver app or a second accounting system pushes it up.
The named work we can point to is outside Canada: the European Society of Medicine's membership and publishing site (WordPress, PHP) and Correct Prices, a React and Node price-comparison app. Two-language work: runningrace.com.sa, the Sharqiyah International Race site in Saudi Arabia, our build in Arabic (right-to-left) and English, with a language switcher, race categories, registration links and past winners' results. It is not French and not Canadian; it shows a live site running in two languages.
Want to talk this through?WhatsApp Ashish (opens WhatsApp)Get a free CAD quote →
08of 8
Write to us in French; calls are in English, on Montreal time
Write to us in French by email or WhatsApp and you get written replies in French, with help from our fluent French reviewer. Écrivez-nous en français sur WhatsApp. Live calls are in English, 8am–12pm Eastern on weekdays, with Ashish, who prices the work himself.
Montreal falls back an hour on 1 November 2026 and springs forward on 14 March 2027. The call window stays on Eastern time through both; the widget below shows it in each time zone.
| Where you are | Until 31 Oct 2026, and again from 14 Mar 2027Until 31 Oct | 1 Nov 2026 – 13 Mar 2027From 1 Nov |
|---|---|---|
| St. John's (Newfoundland) | 9:30am– | 9:30am– |
| Halifax (Atlantic) | 9am– | 9am– |
| Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal (Eastern) | 8am– | 8am– |
| Winnipeg (Manitoba) | 7am– | 8am– |
| Regina, Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) | 6am– | 7am– |
| Calgary, Edmonton (Alberta) | 6am– | 7am– |
| Vancouver, Surrey (British Columbia) | 5am– | 6am– |
| Lucknow, India (our team, IST) | 5:30pm– | 6:30pm– |
Pricing in CAD
Our CAD bands for Montreal work
Tax excluded. Each band shows where most jobs of that kind land. Your fixed figure follows once the scope, French screens included, is agreed in writing.
Custom software, portal or SaaS
CAD 6,000 – CAD 60,000
Excl. GST/HSTCustom software, portal or SaaS · Typical timeline: 6–16 weeks
A fixed-scope staff tool, portal or order desk, with its French screens written into the scope.
Get a quote for this plan
Developer by the hour
Changes and fixes to software you already use, billed by the hour.
Custom CRM
A custom CRM your Montreal sales team can work in French, down to the automatic emails.
French version of an app you already own
String extraction, the reviewer's pass and French QA on staging. Quoted once we have seen the codebase and the scope is agreed.
Monthly dedicated developer or a team of 3+
Priced from the CAD 30–60 hourly band and quoted in writing once the scope is agreed.
- Fixed price in CAD once the scope is agreed
- Free quote within 24 hours
- No obligation
Need a public website or a phone app instead? See custom web development for Montreal sites and what app development costs.
Prices are in Canadian dollars (CAD) and exclude GST/HST. Our invoices are issued from India; if your business is GST/HST-registered, ask your accountant how to account for imported services. You can pay in CAD or USD by local bank transfer to our Canadian bank account.
Free CAD quote
Map your screens and get a CAD price
Two lines are enough, in French or English: who the users are (warehouse, office, customers, Ontario reps) and what the software must do. We send back a language map of your screens and a CAD estimate.
Ashish Sharma
Founder, Codingclave
Replies within 2 hours; free quote within 24 hours. Live calls 8am–12pm Eastern, Monday to Friday.
What happens next
A reply within 2 hours
Ashish or the team answers on WhatsApp or by email, usually with a few questions about your scope.
A call, if you want one
Weekdays between 8am and 12pm Eastern, on a WhatsApp or video call.
A free quote within 24 hours
Scope, timeline and either a fixed CAD price or your hourly rate, excluding GST/HST, in writing.
You decide, no obligation
If you go ahead, fixed-scope work keeps one price once the scope is agreed, and hourly rates are agreed in writing first. You can pay in CAD or USD by local bank transfer to our Canadian bank account.
- ★ 4.9 on Google (92 reviews) · Lucknow, India profile
- 200+ projects worldwide since 2017
- Top Rated on Upwork, 100% Job Success
- Founder-led by Ashish Sharma
Prefer WhatsApp?
WhatsApp AshishTell us who works in French
Your first WhatsApp message or the form, in French or English, names the user groups: warehouse, office, customers, reps outside Quebec.
Language map and spec
Each screen gets a default language plus its Charter and Law 25 items. You correct the map before it is priced.
A fixed price, paid in three parts
With the scope agreed, the price stops moving: 40% to begin, 40% at the agreed mid-project milestone, the last 20% at launch.
Build with language files
French reaches staging with each milestone, not in a rush at the end.
French QA, twice
French QA on staging at the mid-project milestone and again before launch; your named approver signs off each round.
Launch, then six months of fixes
Bugs found in the six months after launch are fixed free. Later changes are billed at CAD 30–60 an hour.
FAQ
Common questions about hiring us from Canada
Can’t see yours? Ask on WhatsApp and get a straight answer, not a sales script. Replies come within 2 hours.
Founder-led by Ashish Sharma
What do Montreal firms pay for custom software development in 2026?
Can we write to you in French, and get your quote and terms in French?
Does Bill 96 mean our custom software has to be available in French?
Must our customer portal show its terms of use in French before English?
We have 30 employees in Quebec. Does francization now cover the software our staff use?
Which screens need French if most of our staff are bilingual?
Our app scores leads with AI. What does Law 25 require when a decision is automated?
How long does a custom software build take for a Montreal firm?
Who owns the code, and can our data stay in Montreal?
How do I check reviews of a Montreal software company, and of you?
Ashish Sharma · Founder
Tell us who will use it, and in which language
Two lines are enough, in French or English: who the users are (warehouse, office, customers, Ontario reps) and what the software must do. We send back a language map of your screens and a CAD estimate.
- WhatsApp us or fill in the form
- A reply within 2 hours
- A free CAD quote within 24 hours, no obligation
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- About
About Codingclave and Ashish Sharma
Ashish Sharma
Founder, Codingclave · Updated 16 October 2026
Ashish Sharma founded Codingclave and still leads it. The team works remotely from Lucknow, India, with 200+ projects worldwide since 2017; there is no Canadian office.
How we put this page together
Researched and drafted with AI assistance on 16 October 2026 for Ashish Sharma, who prices these builds himself and approves the page before it goes live. Clutch's $ figures are read as US dollars at 1.4196 (Bank of Canada, 15 October 2026); the Charter points rest on law-firm commentary, not the LégisQuébec text. Only the CAD bands, the worked example's estimate, the hourly rate and the payment terms are ours; the prices exclude tax. We checked runningrace.com.sa live on 16 October 2026.
Sources (12)· public sources cited on this page
- Job Bank – Wages for software developers and programmers (NOC 21232), Quebec regions
- Job Bank – Job outlook for software developers and programmers (NOC 21232), Quebec
- Statistics Canada – Languages of work: spotlight on Montréal
- Statistics Canada, The Daily – Population of census metropolitan areas, 2021 Census
- Clutch – Software developers in Montreal
- Oriana Solutions – Best custom software development companies in Montreal (8 Oct 2026)
- Oriana Solutions – Software development in Montréal
- Miller Thomson – Doing business in Quebec: civil law and language compliance (28 Sep 2026)
- Gowling WLG – Bill 96's "French first" rule takes effect: contracts of adhesion in Québec (1 Jun 2023)
- BCF – The Charter of the French language: new obligations as of June 2025 (29 May 2025)
- Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec – Principaux changements de la Loi 25
- Bank of Canada – Daily exchange rates