Dedicated team pricing
| Team | Who is on it | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| One dedicated engineer | One full-time engineer matched to your stack, with a delivery lead overseeing quality. | $6,000 to $11,000 a month |
| Starter squad | Two engineers and a part-time delivery lead. | $11,000 to $17,000 a month |
| Product squad | Two to three engineers, a part-time designer, a delivery lead, and part-time QA. | $18,000 to $28,000 a month |
| Scale team | Four to six engineers, a designer, a delivery lead, QA, and DevOps. | $35,000 to $55,000+ a month |
The three models side by side
| Fixed price | Time and materials | Dedicated team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you pay | One agreed price, often in milestones | Hours used, invoiced every two or four weeks | A monthly fee per team |
| Who carries the risk of overruns | The supplier | You | Shared: the team is fixed, the output varies |
| Flexibility to change direction | Low: changes are quoted separately | High: change at any time | High: priorities set every sprint |
| Budget certainty | High | Low to medium, with caps | High per month |
| Best for | Defined projects: a website, an MVP, an integration | Discovery, research, or unclear scope | Products that change every month |
Why the pricing model matters
The way a project is priced decides who carries the risk, how easily the plan can change, and how much you know about the final bill on day one. The same work can feel cheap or expensive depending on how well the model fits it.
There is no best model in general. There is a best model for a particular piece of work, and many projects use two: a fixed price for a defined first release, then a dedicated team or time and materials for the work that follows.
Fixed price
A fixed price means the supplier agrees to deliver a written scope for one price. You know the cost before work starts, and if the work takes longer than planned, the supplier absorbs it.
That certainty depends on the scope. A fixed price only works when the features, screens, integrations, and acceptance rules can be written down in advance. Suppliers add a margin for risk, so a fixed price is rarely the cheapest way to buy hours, but it is often the cheapest way to buy a defined result.
Changes are handled in writing. If you add a feature, the supplier quotes it separately, and you decide whether it is worth it.
Key points
- Best when the scope is clear
- Budget certainty from the start
- Changes quoted separately
- Payment in milestones tied to working software
Time and materials
Time and materials means you pay for the hours actually worked, at agreed hourly rates. You can change direction at any time, because nothing is locked in. You also carry the risk: if the work takes longer, the bill grows.
This model suits research, discovery, and products where the answer is genuinely unknown. It works best with a weekly report of hours and progress, and a monthly cap that cannot be exceeded without your approval.
Dedicated team
A dedicated team is a group of people who work only on your product, every month, billed as a monthly fee. You set priorities every one or two weeks, and the team builds, tests, and releases continuously.
It suits products that change constantly: a software as a service (SaaS) product with paying customers, a platform that adds features every month, or a company that needs engineering capacity without hiring. The team learns your product deeply, which makes each month more productive than the last.
How we use the three models
We quote fixed prices for defined projects: websites, web apps, mobile apps, stores, integrations, and a first version of a product, often called a minimum viable product (MVP). Most of our projects start this way. For discovery work, where the goal is to find the right answer, we use time and materials with a weekly cap. When a product is live and growing, we offer a dedicated team, so the people who built it keep improving it.
What the numbers look like
Hourly rates for time and materials run from $25 an hour for testing to $80 an hour for specialist AI, cloud, and architecture work, with most design and development at $35 to $55. A dedicated team costs from $6,000 a month for one engineer to $55,000 or more for a scale team of four to six engineers with design, delivery, QA, and DevOps (the work of keeping software deployed, monitored, and running) support.
Fixed prices follow the ranges on our service pages: most business websites cost $3,000 to $7,000, a mobile app MVP $10,000 to $20,000, and most custom software $25,000 to $80,000.
What each model asks of you
A fixed price asks for decisions up front. You need to agree the scope, review designs promptly, and accept that new ideas become new quotes. In return you get a known cost and a delivery date.
Time and materials asks for attention. You review progress every week, decide what comes next, and keep an eye on the hours against the cap. In return you get complete flexibility.
A dedicated team asks for a product owner on your side, someone who sets priorities every sprint and answers the team's questions quickly. In return you get people who know your product inside out and ship improvements every week.
A worked example
Picture a company launching a new client portal. The first release is clearly defined: logins, documents, requests, and status updates. It is quoted as a fixed price of $32,000 and delivered in seven weeks.
Once clients use it, ideas pour in. Rather than quoting each change, the company moves to a starter squad of two engineers and a part-time delivery lead at about $14,000 a month. Priorities are set every two weeks, and the portal improves continuously. When a large new module is needed, it is quoted as a fixed price again.
How to choose
Ask three questions. Can the work be written down in enough detail to price it? If yes, use a fixed price. Will the work change as you learn? If yes, use time and materials with a cap. Will there be work every month for the foreseeable future? If yes, use a dedicated team.