The full price list, in the open.
The pilot: $1,000 flat · one project · two weeks
Every partnership starts here. Fixed scope agreed in writing, fully credited toward month one of any retainer that starts within 90 days. If the work isn’t retainer-quality, walk away with the deliverable.
Two ways to keep building.
How you buy the work after the pilot depends on the shape of your pipeline:
| Your situation | The fit |
|---|---|
| One defined build at a time | A fixed-price projectOne spec, one price fixed in writing, one handover. |
| Client work landing every month | A monthly retainerDelivery is already staffed when it lands. |
Keeping a build healthy after handover is neither — that’s a per-site care plan, an add-on priced on the Maintenance & support page.
Not sure which? That’s what the 20-minute fit call is for.
The monthly bench.
A retainer is a managed monthly block of senior engineering hours you point at any service line — an engineering bench behind your agency, not a bundle of pre-priced builds. Every piece of work is scoped in writing before it starts.
Bench Essential
$1,950/mo
40 senior engineering hours a month. The right size for one steady client project plus overflow.
- Hours apply to any service line
- Unused hours roll 30 days
- Friday written status
- Month-to-month
Bench Priority
$3,450/mo
80 senior engineering hours with priority scheduling — two active workstreams for agencies selling steadily.
- Priority scheduling
- Two active workstreams
- Month-to-month
- Everything included in Bench Essential
Bench Reserve
$6,000/mo
Reserved engineering capacity for agencies that sell against deadlines.
- 130 senior engineering hours reserved for you each month. Unused hours roll over for 30 days.
- First in the delivery queue
- New scoped work starts within 3 business days of an approved scope
- Everything included in Bench Priority
We only reserve capacity we know we can deliver. Ask about current availability before planning client commitments.
A retainer is 40, 80, or 130 senior engineering hours a month, sized by tier, covering frontend and backend work inside your tools; unused hours roll over for 30 days. QA and DevOps are included around those hours at every tier, not billed as additional hires. One bench gives your agency an engineering department’s coverage across frontend, backend, QA, and DevOps, with no one to recruit, onboard, or manage.
- Frontendclient-facing interfaces
- Backendapis, data, integrations
- QAfounder QA, every build
- DevOpsdeploys, infra · shared
Fixed-price projects.
A fixed-price project is one defined build: one spec, one price fixed in writing before work starts, one handover. If the build takes longer than we estimated, that’s our cost — new requirements are a fresh scope. Every build line publishes its range:
- AI agents · AI chatbots$3,000–$8,000 / build
- Voice AI$4,000–$12,000 / build
- Workflow automation$2,500–$7,500 / build
- API integrations$2,000–$10,000 / build
- Web applications$8,000–$25,000 / build
Ranges are honest bounds, not anchors — we scope first projects toward the bottom of them.
Maintenance & support is the one line that isn’t priced per build — it’s a care plan, priced per site per month.
The fine print, minus the fine print.
Our commitments on every engagement, at every tier: a $1,000 2-week pilot to start, replies within four business hours Pacific time, zero lock-in on month-to-month terms, and unused retainer hours that roll over for 30 days. These are promises we hold ourselves to, not results we are claiming.
- $1,000Pilot to proofone project, 2 weeks
- < 4 hrsResponse timein Pacific business hours
- 0Lock-inmonth-to-month terms
- 30 daysHours rollunused time carries over
Fixed-price project or a retainer — how do we choose?
By cadence. One defined build? Fixed price — quoted in writing from the published range, delivered standalone. Client work landing every month? A monthly retainer, so delivery is already staffed when it lands. Either way the relationship starts with the same $1,000 pilot — one fixed-scope project, an audit, a fix, or a small feature — and the fit call is where we settle which. The pilot fee credits toward month one of a retainer; a fixed-price build stands on its own.
What counts as an hour?
Engineering time on your projects. Founder scoping, QA, and internal BenchLayer admin never bill — that layer is priced into the retainer, not metered against it. You see an itemized log with every Friday status.
What happens to unused hours?
They roll forward 30 days, then expire. If you’re consistently under, downgrade a tier — we’d rather resize you honestly than bill for air.
What if a project needs more than my retainer?
We tell you before it does. You choose: extend the timeline inside the retainer, or add a fixed-price block for the overage. No silent overruns, ever.
What am I actually paying for?
A managed bench, not raw hours: Pacific-hours replies, founder scoping, and QA before you ever see the work, plus one person accountable when production breaks. That layer is the difference between work you can put your name on and work you have to double-check.
Can I pause?
Yes — retainers pause for up to 60 days once per year at no cost. Month-to-month means you can also just stop; we re-earn the relationship every month.
How do payments work?
Card or ACH, invoiced monthly in advance for retainers; pilots are paid up front. No deposits beyond that, no annual commitments.
What if a delivered build doesn’t match its signed spec?
We fix it free for 90 days after handover. The warranty is measured against the spec you signed, so it covers defects — not new requirements, which are a fresh scope or a care plan. Nothing about it changes with the size of the build.