Rates and pricing
Our rates are on this page, in full, before you have spoken to anyone. Most agencies ask you to book a call first. We would rather you work out roughly what your project costs, decide whether it is worth a conversation, and only then write to us.
Everything is billed by time: an hourly rate per role, usually bought by the month. The first conversation and a written estimate cost nothing. The smallest engagement is a support retainer of forty hours a month.
The rate card
Pick a role, move the sliders, change the currency. The figure is indicative; a firm quote follows a scoping call.
Rate card
| Role | Hourly | Monthly* |
|---|---|---|
| Frontend / WordPress | $30 | $4,800 |
| Backend / API | $32 | $5,120 |
| Full-stack | $35 | $5,600 |
| Mobile (React Native / Flutter) | $35 | $5,600 |
| DevOps / Cloud | $40 | $6,400 |
| AI / Automation engineer | $45 | $7,200 |
| QA / Test engineer | $25 | $4,000 |
| UI / UX design | $28 | $4,480 |
*160 hrs/month full-time. Rates are indicative for planning, in USD (other currencies are converted at an indicative rate), and depend on seniority, contract length and timezone overlap. Longer engagements and multi-role teams are discounted — ask.
What the hourly rate covers
The rate is the whole cost of the person. Nothing is added at invoice time.
- The engineer’s time, including stand-ups, code review and the questions you ask them
- Payroll, hardware, software licences for our own tools, office and holiday cover
- Source control, issue tracking and a staging server on our side if you do not have one
- Documentation written as the work goes, not invoiced as a separate item
- A written estimate before any work starts, and a timesheet with every invoice
What you pay for separately
Passed through at cost, in your own accounts
- Hosting, domains, SSL certificates and cloud usage
- Paid APIs, SaaS subscriptions and app store fees
- Stock imagery, fonts or third-party licences the project needs
Quoted when you ask for it
- Fixed-price delivery, which is available after a paid discovery
- Working hours outside the agreed overlap with India time
- Travel to your site
From estimate to invoice
Four steps, none of them a surprise.
Estimate
You use the estimator above or describe the work. We reply within one business day with a range and the roles we would put on it.
Scoping
For a project, a paid discovery of one to two weeks produces a scope and a firm figure for the first release. For a developer by the month, a short call to agree hours, overlap and start date.
Working
Hours are logged against tasks you can see. The engagement runs month to month, and you can scale it up or down at the end of any month.
Invoice
Monthly, in US dollars by bank transfer. Clients in India are invoiced in rupees with 18% GST added, as the law requires.
Paying from India and from abroad
The rate card is in US dollars because most of our clients are outside India. The estimator can show the same figures in other currencies at an indicative exchange rate; the invoice uses the rate on the day.
Clients in India
Invoiced in rupees, with 18% GST on top. The estimator’s INR figure is before GST.
Clients abroad
Invoiced in US dollars. This is an export of services from India, so GST is not normally added.
Agencies
White-label work is at the same rates, invoiced to you, never to your client.
Longer engagements
Six months earns 5% off, twelve months 10%. The estimator applies this for you.
About the numbers
Why are the rates so much lower than agencies in the US or Europe?
Because the team is in Rajkot and Ahmedabad, where a good engineer costs a fraction of what the same person costs in London or Austin. The rate is normal for India. What is unusual is publishing it.
Can I get a fixed price?
Yes, after a paid discovery, for a defined first release. Before discovery any fixed price is a guess with a safety margin added, and you pay for the margin.
Does seniority change the rate?
Yes. The card shows the rate for a solid mid-level engineer, which is what most work needs. We say which seniority we are proposing, and the rate for it, before you commit.
Is there a minimum?
Forty hours a month on a support retainer. Below that we would rather point you to a freelancer than take the work.
Do you charge for the estimate or the first call?
No. Discovery is paid because it produces a scope and a data model you can take anywhere; the conversation before it is free.
Ask for a firm number
Two or three sentences about what you need and when. We reply within one business day with a figure, not a sales call.