How Much Does Bad Code Cost Your Company? Here’s How We Avoid It

Bad code is expensive for your company, this is the reality. We know that investing in quality code early can seem costly and even daunting, but the real expense comes later. Worldwide, companies accumulate technical debt - unfinished or poor-quality code that must be fixed later - now estimated at $1.52 trillion.

Despite better tools and methodologies, bad code still drains resources, slows development, and creates security risks. But what exactly is bad code, how do you spot it, and (most importantly) how can you avoid it? At Acid Tango, we've seen it all, and we’re here to help your company steer clear of this costly trap.

What Is Bad Code? How to Identify It

Bad code isn’t just about syntax errors or minor bugs: it’s code that is hard to read, difficult to maintain, and painful to scale. It might work today, but it becomes a nightmare tomorrow.

Some common signs of bad code include:

🔸 Unnecessary complexity: overly intricate solutions for simple problems. Think reinventing the wheel… but with triangles.
🔸 Poor structure: code that lacks logical organization, making navigation a scavenger hunt.
🔸 Lack of documentation: future-you (or your teammates) will curse your name when trying to understand what that function from six months ago was meant to do. Even worse? Outdated or incomplete documentation that no longer reflects reality, leading to confusion and wasted time.
🔸 Code duplication: copy-pasting the same logic everywhere instead of using reusable components. DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) exists for a reason!
🔸 Excessive dependencies: when your code relies too much on third-party libraries, one update can break everything. And it’s not just that: failing to create proper abstractions over these dependencies makes your system even more fragile. Using techniques like encapsulation, facades, or Anti-Corruption Layers (ACL) in Domain-Driven Design (DDD) can help mitigate these risks (stay tuned, we will get back to this).

Why Does Bad Code Happen?

Nobody wakes up thinking: Today, I will write horrible, unmaintainable code. Bad code usually happens because of:

🔸 Rushed deadlines: speed over quality, leading to quick fixes that become long-term headaches.
🔸 Lack of experience: new developers often follow outdated or unreliable tutorials without knowing better.
🔸 No code reviews: if nobody points out problems, bad habits stick around.
🔸 Technical debt: shortcuts taken today create problems for future development.

On forums like Reddit, developers frequently discuss how hard it is to recognize bad code, especially for self-taught programmers. A common concern has always been: How do I know if I’m writing bad code?

The truth? You often don’t, until things start breaking or progress slows to a crawl. A great resource on this topic is Rich Hickey’s talk, Simple Made Easy, which explores why simplicity should be a core principle in software development.

The key takeaway? Good code is about making it work well for the long run.

Problems Your Company Faces with Bad Code

In our experience of over a decade, we’ve seen firsthand how bad code can derail even the most promising projects. It doesn’t just cause minor inconveniences—it drains budgets, slows development, frustrates teams, and ultimately hurts the business. Here’s what happens when bad code sneaks into your product:

1️⃣ Growing Technical Debt

Cutting corners today means paying the price later. Poorly written code accumulates over time, making future updates harder and more expensive. We’ve seen companies sink months into untangling technical debt instead of innovating.

2️⃣ Developers Spending More Time Fixing Than Building

Instead of shipping new features, developers waste hours debugging, patching, and reworking existing code, spending 42% of their time dealing with bad code. This slows progress and turns every new feature into a potential minefield of regressions.

3️⃣ More Production Failures (and Angry Customers)

Bad code leads to unstable systems, crashes, and unexpected bugs. Every issue that makes it to production erodes customer trust, increases churn, and floods support teams with tickets. According to a PwC study, 73% of consumers say that customer experience is a key factor in their purchasing decisions, so, make the math.

4️⃣ Loss of Productivity and Developer Frustration

Nothing kills momentum like trying to decipher spaghetti code. When developers spend more time reading confusing logic than writing new functionality, frustration builds - leading to burnout and even staff turnover.

5️⃣ Difficulty Hiring and Onboarding New Developers

Bad code makes onboarding new developers a nightmare. A messy, undocumented codebase means it takes weeks or even months for new hires to be productive. And let’s be honest: talented engineers don’t want to work somewhere known for poor practices.

6️⃣ Security Vulnerabilities

Bad code can be dangerous. Poor error handling, weak authentication, and outdated dependencies open the door to cyberattacks, data breaches, and compliance nightmares.

7️⃣ Damage to Your Company’s Reputation

Your customers aren’t the only ones watching: so is the tech community. A buggy, unreliable product affects your brand’s credibility, and word spreads fast among developers about which companies prioritize quality… and which don’t.

The Real Cost of Bad Code

Now, let's talk numbers, the tangible costs of bad code. We've gathered data from various reputable sources to shed light on the financial impact of poor software quality.

Consider these statistics:

➡️ The Consortium for Information and Software Quality (CISQ) reported that in 2022, the cost of poor software quality in the U.S. reached $2.41 trillion. This figure encompasses issues like cybercrime, technical debt, and software supply chain problems.

➡️ A study highlighted that 19% of software projects result in complete failure, and 49% face budget overruns. Alarmingly, 17% of IT projects risk collapsing the company itself.

➡️  The Standish Group's CHAOS Report reveals that only 31% of software projects are completed on time and within budget, with bad code being a significant contributing factor.

These figures underscore that bad code isn't just a technical issue; it's a substantial financial burden. Companies worldwide are losing trillions due to poor software quality, leading to failed projects, budget overruns, and, in severe cases, business collapse.

Investing in high-quality code and robust development practices is a critical business strategy to prevent these costly pitfalls.

How to Avoid the Cost of Bad Code

Yes, you know already: bad code is expensive. But here’s the good news: i’s preventable. Avoiding the pitfalls of poor software quality requires a mix of strong project management, solid engineering principles, and a commitment to continuous improvement. Based on industry best practices and especially our own experience, here’s how to keep bad code from creeping into your projects:

✅ Follow Proven Software Engineering Principles: using well-established development methodologies helps create scalable, maintainable, and robust software. Some essential principles include:

• SOLID principles – encourage clean, modular, and extendable code.
• Domain-Driven Design (DDD) – ensures the code aligns with business needs.
• Design patterns – provide reusable solutions to common coding problems.

✅ Invest in Good Architecture: a well-thought-out architecture lays the foundation for scalability and maintainability. Whether it’s microservices, monoliths, or event-driven architectures, picking the right design from the start prevents major headaches down the line.

But making the right architectural decisions isn’t always straightforward, and this is where expert guidance can make a difference. Consulting with specialized companies (like us! 😉) ensures that your system is built for the long run, avoiding costly reworks and performance bottlenecks.

✅ Prioritize Code Reviews and Knowledge Sharing: bad code thrives in silos. A strong code review culture helps catch potential issues early while promoting team-wide best practices. Encouraging pair programming, documentation, and technical discussions ensures that knowledge isn’t locked away with individual developers.

Pair programming, in particular, not only improves code quality but also helps spread knowledge across the team, making onboarding smoother and reducing the risk of a single developer becoming a bottleneck.

✅ Write Tests, And Actually Run Them: tests prevent regressions and ensure new features don’t break existing ones. Investing in unit tests, integration tests, and automated end-to-end testing saves time (and money) in the long run.

✅ Understand the Business Domain: great code solves real problems. But understanding the business domain isn’t just a developer’s responsibility. It requires alignment between all stakeholders: business, design, marketing, and development.

Again, one of the key pillars of Domain-Driven Design (DDD) is fostering a shared understanding of the domain across teams. Ensuring proper onboarding, collaboration with stakeholders, and continuous knowledge exchange helps bridge the gap between business needs and technical implementation, leading to better architectural decisions and more effective code.

✅ Avoid Rushed Decisions and Short-Term Fixes: many bad coding practices stem from tight deadlines and pressure to “just ship it.” While speed is essential, cutting corners today leads to technical debt and costly rewrites later. Taking time for proper analysis, planning, and documentation pays off.

We hope our experience helps you avoid the hidden costs of bad code and build software that’s scalable, maintainable, and frustration-free. Every project has its challenges, but with the right approach, you can stay ahead of technical debt and focus on what truly matters - innovation and growth.

If you have any questions or want to share your own experiences, leave a comment or reach out to us, we’d love to hear from you! 😊