The number of users isn't a good indication, necessarily, of the complexity of the application required, the time to create it, or the time to maintain it once

The number of users isn't a good indication, necessarily, of the complexity of the application required, the time to create it, or the time to maintain it once it's deployed. As with all things related to his business, a business owner such as yourself has many factors to consider and weigh against one another. Were I a consultant bidding for your business, and during our meeting(s) you expressed the above concern, all other things being equal I'd conclude your use-case and budget constraints don't mesh well with a custom software solution. I'd probably politely suggest that you would be better served with an off-the-shelf solution (either a packaged goods/downloadable item or a SaaS firm with a very small menu of fixed-version solutions). Then I would politely decline continuing with the meeting and wish you well.