When a new client asks "how much?", the honest answer is it depends on scope — but that alone helps no one. This guide gives you the real ranges we charge at Sirius in 2026, what is included at each figure, how price varies by vertical (restaurants, hotels, clinics, ecommerce, fintech), how Costa Rica compares to USA and Latin America, and the five most common traps we see in the quotes that land in our inbox.
If you have time, this is a ~15-minute read. If you need the exact range now, jump to the interactive quote builder — 4 questions, 30 seconds, gives you a USD range and prepares a WhatsApp message with your scope pre-filled.
💡 TL;DR: Websites USD 300–3,000. Apps USD 3,000–25,000+. AI automation USD 1,500–8,000. Consulting USD 800/month+. Regulated verticals (fintech, health, e-invoicing) add 20–40%.
Quick summary table
| Project type | USD range | Duration | Who needs it |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-page landing | 300 – 800 | 1–2 weeks | Launch, event, idea validation |
| Multi-page website + CMS | 1,000 – 2,500 | 2–4 weeks | SMBs, independent professionals |
| Site with i18n + integrations | 2,500 – 3,000 | 3–6 weeks | Companies with international clients |
| Working MVP | 3,000 – 5,000 | 4–6 weeks | Founders validating an idea |
| App with payments + roles | 5,000 – 10,000 | 8–12 weeks | Products in production |
| Platform with modules | 10,000 – 25,000+ | 12–20 weeks | Mid-size companies, B2B, custom ERPs |
| WhatsApp / web bot | 1,500 – 3,000 | 2–4 weeks | Businesses with high message volume |
| AI automation pipeline | 3,000 – 5,000 | 4–8 weeks | Repetitive business processes |
| AI agent with tools | 5,000 – 8,000 | 6–10 weeks | Multi-step tasks currently done by a person |
| Technical consulting | 800/month+ | On demand | Founders without CTO, due diligence |
Below, the detailed breakdown by category — what exactly each range includes and when you should be at the low, mid, or high end.
Websites (USD 300 — 3,000)
For companies that need a solid digital presence without reinventing the wheel. The website is still the first digital touchpoint with your customer; a site that loads slow, looks bad on mobile, or does not show up on Google is costing you sales even if you do not see it in the numbers.
USD 300 — 800: one-page landing
- One scrollable section (hero, benefits, social proof, CTA, contact).
- Content provided by you (copy, photos, logo).
- Vercel hosting for the first 12 months.
- Contact form that delivers leads to your email.
- Basic technical SEO (sitemap, meta tags, OG image).
- No CMS — changes go through us or you pay a small retainer.
Best for: validating an idea, supporting a launch, campaign landing, independent professional.
Time: 1–2 weeks.
Real case: a productivity coach in Heredia needed a page for an Instagram campaign. Landing with hero video, benefits list, and form that sent the lead to email + WhatsApp. USD 550, delivered in 9 days.
USD 1,000 — 2,500: multi-page site with CMS
- 5–10 pages (home, services, team, cases, blog, contact, legal).
- CMS so you can edit yourself (Payload, Sanity, or Notion as backend).
- Optional blog with tags and categories.
- Smooth scroll animations (not pushy).
- Structured schemas (Organization, Article, Service) for SEO rich results.
- Integration with Google Analytics 4 and Search Console.
- Contact form with transactional email (Resend) and WhatsApp notification.
Best for: established SMBs, professional firms (lawyers, accountants, architects), agencies.
Time: 2–4 weeks.
Real case: a marketing agency in San José needed to replace its WordPress site (slow, with old plugins). We migrated to Next.js + Payload CMS, 8 pages, blog with 40 migrated posts. USD 1,800, ready in 3 weeks. PageSpeed went from 38 to 95.
USD 2,500 — 3,000: site with i18n and integrations
- Everything above, plus:
- Internationalization (i18n): minimum two languages with separate URLs (
/es/...,/en/...). - CRM integration (HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce) or email marketing (Mailchimp, Brevo, ConvertKit).
- Custom animations — parallax, page transitions, careful hover states.
- A/B testing if needed (Vercel Analytics, GrowthBook).
- Advanced SEO (hreflang, llms.txt, bilingual RSS, breadcrumb schema, FAQ schema on every relevant page).
Best for: companies with international clients, pre-launch SaaS, e-learning, agencies with corporate clients.
Time: 3–6 weeks.
Real case: a tourism company that receives guests from USA, Europe, and Latin America. Bilingual es/en site, HubSpot CRM integration, quote form with conditional logic (tour type, number of people, dates). USD 2,800, 5 weeks.
What is included and what is not
Included: UI/UX design (shared Figma), development, Vercel hosting for the first 12 months, automatic SSL, continuous deploy from GitHub, technical SEO, 30 days of post-launch support (bugs, minor adjustments).
Not included: content (professional photos, long-form copy, branding/logo), stock photo licenses, monthly maintenance starting day 31, domains (USD 12–30/year separate), SaaS service licenses (HubSpot, Mailchimp, Stripe — you pay those directly).
Apps and platforms (USD 3,000 — 25,000+)
For digital products with complex flows and authenticated users. The range widens dramatically here because the gap between "working MVP" and "robust platform" is enormous. It is not about quality — a well-built MVP works perfectly — it is about scope and number of features the system supports.
USD 3,000 — 5,000: working MVP (4–6 weeks)
- Basic auth (email + password or Google OAuth).
- A PostgreSQL database hosted on Supabase or Neon.
- Two main flows — for example: create account + create booking + view bookings.
- Minimal admin panel (CRUD for 2–3 entities).
- Email notification when something important happens (Resend).
- Production deploy with custom domain.
What an MVP at this price does NOT include: complex online payments, advanced roles (more than "user" + "admin"), reporting, exports, multi-tenancy, integrations with external systems. That is scope for later phases.
Real case: a psychologist needed online booking for her patients — previously she did it via WhatsApp. MVP with patient login, see available slots, book appointment, receive email reminder. USD 3,800, 5 weeks. In the first month she captured 22 appointments she would have lost in WhatsApp threads.
USD 5,000 — 10,000: app with payments and roles (8–12 weeks)
- Everything above, plus:
- Online payments — Stripe international (USD 0.30 + 2.9% per transaction) or BAC Credomatic (CRC, negotiated commission) or SINPE Móvil (no commission, weak for web but useful).
- Advanced roles — admin, manager, user, viewer (permissions per section).
- Multi-channel notifications — email + WhatsApp Cloud API (USD 0.0085 per message in CR).
- Dashboard with basic metrics (revenue charts, retention, conversion).
- Search with filters, pagination, sorting.
- File upload to Cloudflare R2 or AWS S3.
- Multi-language if needed.
Real case: a private transport company ran 100% on WhatsApp + Excel. We replaced it with an app: clients book a ride on the web, see immediate price, pay with Stripe, the driver gets a notification with the address. The dispatcher sees a panel with active rides. USD 7,200, 11 weeks.
USD 10,000 — 25,000+: platform with modules (12–20 weeks)
- Everything above, plus:
- Multiple logically separated modules (e.g. sales, inventory, HR, finance).
- Multi-tenancy if SaaS (each client sees their own data, same system).
- Dashboards with basic BI — Excel/PDF exports, scheduled, with complex filters.
- Integration with client's legacy systems (old ERPs, internal systems via REST or SOAP).
- E-invoicing with Hacienda (separate module detailed below).
- Automated tests (unit + integration + some e2e).
- Observability (Sentry for errors, Plausible or GA4 for usage).
Real case: a medical-equipment distributor needed to replace its Excel + 2008 ERP. Platform with multi-warehouse inventory module, quoting module with PDF generation, e-invoicing module, salesperson panel with automatic commissions, integration with bank API for reconciliation. USD 18,500, 18 weeks. They replaced their previous developer who had spent 6 months delivering nothing.
Added cost for special integrations
Some integrations raise the price regardless of overall scope:
| Integration | Added cost | Extra time |
|---|---|---|
| E-invoicing with Hacienda | USD 2,500 – 4,500 | 2–3 weeks |
| Local bank gateway (BAC, BNCR) | USD 1,500 – 3,000 | 2–4 weeks |
| Hacienda API (ID lookup) | USD 500 – 1,000 | 1 week |
| SAP / Oracle legacy integration | USD 3,000 – 8,000 | 4–8 weeks |
| Digital signature (CR e-signature) | USD 1,500 – 3,500 | 2–3 weeks |
| WhatsApp Cloud API + templates | USD 800 – 1,500 | 1–2 weeks |
AI automation (USD 1,500 — 8,000)
This is the newest range and where confusion is highest. We see clients who think a "bot" costs USD 200 (that's a basic script) and others who paid USD 30,000 for a chatbot that solves nothing. Here is the reality of what each level costs.
USD 1,500 — 3,000: RAG conversational bot (2–4 weeks)
- Bot that responds via WhatsApp or web widget.
- Knowledge base (RAG) — upload your documents (PDFs, FAQs, manuals) and the bot uses them to respond.
- Lead qualification — bot asks 3–5 questions and sends qualified lead to a human.
- Smart routing — technical questions to support, sales questions to sales.
- Panel to view conversations and review responses.
What a bot at this price does NOT do: it does not execute actions (does not book appointments, does not query external systems, does not process payments). Only converses and routes.
Real case: a dental clinic handled 80% of inquiries via WhatsApp ("how much is a cleaning?", "do you open Saturdays?", "do you take cards?"). The bot now answers 70% of those and only escalates the complex ones. USD 2,400, 3 weeks. The assistant recovered 12 hours/week.
USD 3,000 — 5,000: pipeline that automates a process (4–8 weeks)
- A business process today done by a person, done by the system with AI.
- Examples: automatic support ticket classification, executive report generation from data, automatic quoting from a brief, resume screening.
- Integration with your systems (CRM, email, Google Sheets, Airtable, database).
- Control panel to see what the system did and correct errors.
Real case: an insurance agency received 150 resumes per month and reviewing them took 8 hours/week of HR. Pipeline reads CV in PDF, extracts data, scores against desired profile, sorts in a table with score and reasons. HR now only reviews the top 20. USD 4,200, 6 weeks.
USD 5,000 — 8,000: agent with tools (6–10 weeks)
- The agent does NOT just respond — it executes real actions in your systems.
- Tools it executes: book on Google Calendar, create Jira ticket, send email from your inbox, update CRM record, query database, call external APIs.
- Error handling, retries, human escalation when uncertain.
- Detailed logs of every decision and action (for audit).
Real case: a law firm had a quoting process that took 2 hours (review case → calculate fees → write proposal → send). Agent receives the client brief, asks follow-up questions, calculates fees from internal table, generates PDF, sends to client and to lawyer for review. USD 6,800, 9 weeks. Quotes now go out in 15 minutes.
LLM token cost (separate)
The project is billed once. LLM tokens (Claude, GPT-4, Gemini) are billed monthly based on usage. Typical ranges in CR:
| Monthly volume | Token cost | Example |
|---|---|---|
| < 1,000 conversations | USD 5 – 20 | Bot for small SMB |
| 1,000 – 10,000 | USD 20 – 100 | Bot for mid SMB |
| 10,000 – 100,000 | USD 100 – 500 | SaaS with hundreds of active clients |
| 100,000+ | USD 500 – 3,000+ | AI-first product, thousands of users |
We make it transparent from the quote with an estimate based on your real traffic.
Technical consulting (USD 800/month and up)
For founders, CEOs without a technical CTO, managers who need clarity before investing. You do not always need to develop — sometimes you need to decide what to develop, in what order, with what stack, hiring whom.
USD 800/month: basic consulting
- 1 weekly 60-minute session.
- Initial technical audit of current system (if any).
- 6-month written roadmap.
- Async availability via WhatsApp/Slack in business hours (response < 4 hours).
- Ad-hoc code reviews if you have an internal team.
USD 1,500 — 2,500/month: pro consulting
- Everything above, plus:
- 2 weekly sessions.
- Hiring support (technical interviews with candidates).
- Technical due diligence if you are buying/selling a company or raising capital.
- Written architecture documents (ADRs, C4 diagrams, runbooks).
- Extended availability (some Saturdays, messages up to 7pm).
USD 3,500+/month: fractional CTO
- You operate with a CTO without paying CTO salary (USD 6,000–12,000/month in CR).
- Decisions on stack, hiring, architecture, ventures.
- Technical representation to investors and corporate clients.
- 8–12 hours weekly.
Pricing by vertical
The figures above are for general systems. Some sectors have specific requirements that change the range. Here are the most common ones we quote in CR.
Restaurants and bars (USD 2,500 — 10,000)
🍴 Dedicated landing: see Restaurant systems in Costa Rica — POS, kitchen orders, reservations, delivery, Uber Eats / Rappi integration, and e-invoicing.
| Solution | USD range |
|---|---|
| Basic web POS (menu + orders + reports) | 2,500 – 4,500 |
| + Online reservations + WhatsApp | + 800 – 1,500 |
| + Own delivery (routes, drivers) | + 1,500 – 3,000 |
| + Uber Eats / Rappi integration | + 1,500 – 2,500 |
| + Kitchen inventory (recipes, costing) | + 2,000 – 4,000 |
| + E-invoicing with Hacienda | + 2,500 – 4,500 |
Total range for a mid-size restaurant: USD 4,500 – 10,000. For a small eatery with just POS and reservations: USD 2,500 – 3,500.
Hotels and B&Bs (USD 1,500 — 15,000)
🏨 Dedicated landing: see Reservation systems for hotels and B&Bs — calendar, online payments, channel manager (Booking, Airbnb, Expedia), and multi-property PMS.
| Solution | USD range |
|---|---|
| Reservation form + WhatsApp (small B&Bs) | 1,500 – 2,500 |
| Booking calendar + online payments | 3,000 – 5,000 |
| + Channel manager (Booking, Airbnb, Expedia) | + 2,000 – 4,000 |
| Full PMS (multi-property, housekeeping) | 8,000 – 15,000 |
| + Revenue management and reporting | + 2,500 – 5,000 |
Real case: boutique hotel in La Fortuna, 14 rooms. System with calendar, Stripe + SINPE payments, channel manager with Booking. USD 6,800, 10 weeks. They no longer pay OTA commission on direct bookings.
Clinics and medical practices (USD 2,500 — 15,000)
🩺 Dedicated landing: see Systems for clinics and medical practices — online appointments, electronic health records, telemedicine, and Law 8968 / HIPAA compliance.
| Solution | USD range |
|---|---|
| Appointment system with WhatsApp reminders | 2,500 – 4,500 |
| + Basic electronic health records (SOAP) | + 2,500 – 4,000 |
| + Telemedicine (video, prescriptions) | + 3,000 – 6,000 |
| + HIPAA compliance / E2E encryption | + 2,000 – 4,000 |
| + Integration with external labs | + 1,500 – 3,500 |
| + E-invoicing + insurance billing | + 3,000 – 5,000 |
Important note: if you handle medical data of US patients, HIPAA is not optional — it is mandatory, and non-compliance can reach USD 50,000+ in fines. We always quote this as a separate module so it is explicit.
Ecommerce (USD 1,500 — 12,000)
🛒 Dedicated landing: see Online stores for Costa Rica — Shopify or custom, SINPE Móvil + BAC + Stripe, multi-warehouse, and e-invoicing.
| Solution | USD range |
|---|---|
| Shopify store with custom theme | 1,500 – 3,500 |
| Custom store with Next.js + Stripe | 5,000 – 8,000 |
| + SINPE Móvil + BAC | + 1,500 – 2,500 |
| + Multi-warehouse stock | + 1,500 – 3,000 |
| + E-invoicing auto on each sale | + 2,500 – 4,500 |
| Marketplace (multiple vendors + commissions) | 12,000 – 20,000 |
Recommendation: if you sell < 100 products and < 1,000 orders/month, Shopify is 70% faster and cheaper. Custom is only worth it if your business has special rules (B2B with negotiated prices, configurable products, complex stock, non-standard payments).
Fintech, insurance, and regulated services (USD 8,000 — 40,000+)
| Solution | USD range |
|---|---|
| Fintech MVP with KYC + basic AML | 8,000 – 15,000 |
| + Onboarding with identity verification | + 2,500 – 5,000 |
| + Batch payment processing (SINPE batch) | + 3,000 – 6,000 |
| + SUGEF regulatory reporting | + 4,000 – 8,000 |
| + Pre-production security audit | + 3,000 – 5,000 |
| Insurance platform with quoting + emission | 15,000 – 30,000+ |
Reality: in fintech, code is 40% of the cost. The other 60% is compliance, audits, certifications, lawyers, and processes. If someone quotes you a "fintech app" at USD 5,000, it includes none of that — and you will have to redo it in 6 months.
Education / e-learning (USD 3,000 — 20,000)
| Solution | USD range |
|---|---|
| Site with course catalog + payment | 3,000 – 6,000 |
| Custom LMS with video, quizzes, progress | 6,000 – 12,000 |
| + Own video streaming (not YouTube) | + 2,500 – 5,000 |
| + Digitally signed PDF certificates | + 1,000 – 2,000 |
| + Live cohorts with Zoom integration | + 1,500 – 3,000 |
| + International payment gateway (USD/CRC) | + 1,500 – 2,500 |
Pricing by individual feature
If you need to estimate a project from scratch, these are typical costs per standalone feature. Useful for validating another agency's estimate or budgeting internally before requesting quotes.
Authentication
| Solution | Cost (project portion) |
|---|---|
| Email + password with Supabase Auth | USD 300 – 600 |
| OAuth (Google, Microsoft, GitHub) | + USD 200 – 400 |
| Clerk (managed auth, better DX) | + USD 25/mo infra + USD 400 dev |
| Custom auth with own JWT | USD 1,200 – 2,500 |
| Corporate Single Sign-On (SAML, OIDC) | USD 2,500 – 5,000 |
| MFA (SMS, TOTP, hardware keys) | + USD 600 – 1,500 |
Payments
| Gateway | Setup | Per-transaction fee |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe (international) | USD 400 – 800 | 2.9% + USD 0.30 |
| BAC Credomatic (CRC + USD) | USD 1,500 – 3,000 | Negotiated, ~3–4% |
| BNCR PagaBN | USD 1,500 – 3,000 | Negotiated |
| SINPE Móvil (via provider API) | USD 800 – 1,500 | 0% (CRC between accounts) |
| PayPal (international) | USD 200 – 500 | 3.49% + fixed |
Transactional email
| Solution | Dev cost | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Resend (recommended) | USD 200 – 500 | USD 0 – 20 (3,000 emails free) |
| AWS SES | USD 300 – 700 | USD 0.10 per 1,000 emails |
| SendGrid | USD 200 – 500 | USD 19.95+/month |
| Postmark | USD 250 – 600 | USD 15+/month |
WhatsApp notifications
| Solution | Dev cost | Per-message cost |
|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp Cloud API (official Meta) | USD 800 – 1,500 | USD 0.0085 (CR) |
| 360dialog (BSP) | USD 500 – 1,000 | USD 0.0085 + setup |
| Twilio | USD 600 – 1,200 | USD 0.005 + price tier |
Technical SEO (included in sites and platforms)
| Feature | Time / value |
|---|---|
| XML sitemap | 2 h |
| Organization, Article, Product, FAQ schemas | 4–8 h |
| Open Graph + Twitter Cards | 2 h |
| Robots.txt + rules for AI crawlers | 1 h |
| llms.txt for LLMs (GPT, Claude, Gemini) | 2 h |
| hreflang (i18n) | 3 h |
| Bilingual RSS | 4 h |
| Submission to Google Search Console | 1 h |
| Performance optimization (Core Web Vitals 90+) | 8–16 h |
Hosting and domains
| Service | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Vercel Hobby (small non-commercial sites) | USD 0 |
| Vercel Pro (commercial apps, team, analytics) | USD 20/mo/user |
| Supabase (Postgres + Auth + Storage + Edge) | USD 0 (free) – 25/mo Pro |
| Neon (serverless Postgres) | USD 0 (free) – 19/mo |
| Cloudflare R2 (S3-like storage) | USD 0.015/GB |
| AWS S3 + CloudFront | USD 0.023/GB + traffic |
| Domain (.com, .cr) | USD 12–30/year |
Costa Rica vs USA vs Latin America
A common question: "is CR cheaper than hiring in USA?" — yes, but the LatAm comparison is more nuanced.
Average hourly rate (2026, mid-tier agencies)
| Country / region | USD per hour |
|---|---|
| USA (San Francisco / NYC) | 150 – 250 |
| USA (second-tier city) | 80 – 150 |
| Canada | 70 – 130 |
| Costa Rica | 35 – 70 |
| Mexico (CDMX, Guadalajara) | 30 – 65 |
| Colombia (Medellín, BOG) | 25 – 60 |
| Argentina (Buenos Aires) | 20 – 50 |
| India | 15 – 40 |
| Philippines | 12 – 30 |
Why CR sits where it does
CR is not the cheapest in LatAm — Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina are 15–30% cheaper. But CR offers three things many people underestimate:
- USA time zone: GMT-6 matches CST. Client in Austin and dev in San José work simultaneously in business hours, no forced async.
- Technical English: the CR dev generation formed by Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon Web Services, GitHub, and other multinationals speaks fluent technical English.
- Stability and compliance: legal contracts with CR jurisdiction are enforceable, courts respect IP, no regulatory surprises.
Typical project comparison (professional website + CMS + SEO)
| Origin | USD |
|---|---|
| SF / NYC agency | 8,000 – 25,000 |
| Second-tier USA agency | 5,000 – 15,000 |
| CR agency (Sirius) | 1,800 – 3,000 |
| Colombia agency | 1,500 – 2,800 |
| USA freelancer | 3,000 – 8,000 |
| Fiverr / Upwork random | 200 – 800 (high risk) |
Pricing models: per deliverable vs hourly vs fixed
There are three common models for billing software, and each has different incentives. This matters more than it seems — the chosen model determines whether your vendor has incentive to be fast or to drag the project out.
Hourly (time & materials)
- Client pays for hours the vendor reports.
- Vendor incentive: maximize reported hours. The slower they are, the more they bill.
- Client incentive: micromanage and audit each reported hour.
- Pro: flexible when scope is unclear.
- Con: uncertain budget, natural conflict of interest.
- When it makes sense: exploratory projects where it's not clear what to do; ad-hoc consulting.
Per deliverable (fixed price)
- Client pays a fixed total for a defined deliverable.
- Vendor incentive: finish quickly because they bill the same whether it takes 4 or 6 weeks.
- Client incentive: define scope well upfront.
- Pro: closed budget, aligned incentives.
- Con: if scope changes a lot, requires renegotiation.
- When it makes sense: 80% of projects. It's our default model.
Monthly fixed (retainer)
- Client pays a fixed monthly fee for X reserved hours.
- Vendor incentive: meet SLA without overworking.
- Client incentive: use the hours, plan ahead.
- Pro: predictable for maintaining a product in production.
- Con: if you don't use the hours, you lose them.
- When it makes sense: post-launch, live product that needs constant evolution.
Hybrid (the reality on long projects)
On projects > USD 15,000 we normally combine: fixed price for the base MVP, monthly retainer for maintenance, and T&M for additional features the client wants to add later. Each piece with its correct model.
How to quote your project without surprises (HowTo)
If you are on the client side looking to quote, this is the process we recommend. It is generic — it works to quote with any agency, not just us.
Step 1: define the problem, not the solution
The #1 error in briefs we receive is asking directly for the solution: "I need an appointment app." Better: describe the problem: "my 200 customers waste time booking by phone and my receptionist can't keep up, I want them to self-book without losing service quality." With that we can propose:
- A Calendly widget embedded (USD 0 + USD 12/month).
- A WhatsApp bot that books (USD 2,500).
- A custom app with your branding and specific rules (USD 5,000).
Three different solutions to the same problem. If you ask directly for the custom app, we quote that even if there is a 90% cheaper option that would solve the problem.
Step 2: list must-haves vs nice-to-haves
In two clear columns:
Must-haves (Day 1): what without which the system does not work. If any of these is missing, the project is not considered delivered.
Nice-to-haves (Later): features that improve but are not critical. Can go in a phase 2.
80% of the cost is in must-haves. Having nice-to-haves separated lets you cut scope without killing the project if budget tightens.
Step 3: research ranges before requesting a quote
Read guides like this one. Ask in founder groups, on LinkedIn, in dev communities. Having an approximate idea of the range protects you:
- If you expect USD 1,000 and the market charges USD 10,000, you will either be sold a toy MVP that does not work, or hire someone who abandons mid-project.
- If you expect USD 50,000 and the market charges USD 10,000, you will be sold inflated scope or overcharged for features you don't need.
Market price is not negotiable; scope is.
Step 4: request 2–3 comparable quotes
Send the same brief to 2–3 agencies. Ask each one to quote in writing, with:
- Detailed scope (what they do and what they don't).
- Concrete deliverables (list of deliverables).
- Deadlines (start date, delivery date).
- Payment terms (% upfront, % midway, % final).
- Post-delivery guarantee (free bugfix days).
- Billing model (per deliverable, per hour, fixed).
Red flags: agency refuses to give a price without a "meeting" (probably wants to inflate based on what you seem willing to pay); agency quotes more than 30% below the market range (probably will abandon); agency promises "we'll finish in 2 weeks" for something the market takes 8 (probably underestimating).
Step 5: compare apples-to-apples and sign with the best-aligned incentives
Read the full contracts. Compare:
- How many demos do they show during development? (Ideal: 1 per week.)
- Who owns the code? (Correct answer: you, in your own repo.)
- How many changes are included without extra cost? (Ideal: unlimited minor changes until delivery day.)
- What guarantee if something breaks post-delivery? (Ideal: 30 days of free bugfix.)
- What if you want to change vendors? (Do they hand over the code? Is there documentation?)
The cheapest quote is not always the best. The best is the one that places risk on the vendor: they eat the cost if they're late, not you.
Five common quote traps
After seeing hundreds of quotes brought to us for "second opinion," these are the five most frequent patterns that end in failed projects or doubled budgets.
Trap #1: "I'll do it cheap and we'll see"
What it looks like: quote 30–50% below market, no clear scope, with phrases like "this is flexible" or "whatever you need."
What happens next: vendor delivers a minimal MVP in the first half of the budget, then "things got complicated" and asks for another 60–100% to finish. Since you already invested, you pay. Final cost: 80–120% over the original.
How to avoid it: scope in writing before starting; scope changes with a formal, signed additional quote.
Trap #2: "I charge hourly because it's flexible"
What it looks like: vendor insists on hourly billing "because it's impossible to know how long it'll take." Promises "reasonable hours."
What happens next: reported hours grow uncontrollably. Tasks that normally take 4 hours get reported as 12. When you push back, you hear "there were issues I didn't anticipate." No way to audit.
How to avoid it: insist on per-deliverable billing. If the vendor flatly refuses, find another. Legitimate exceptions exist (ad-hoc consulting, tech exploration), but product projects normally are NOT one.
Trap #3: "It's that easy, I'll do it in 2 weeks"
What it looks like: vendor underestimates time to win the project. "That's nothing, we'll finish in 2 weeks." An app the market takes 8.
What happens next: in week 2 they deliver something half-done and "small delays" start. In the end it takes 12 weeks, twice the original deadline.
How to avoid it: if an agency promises deadlines way below market, they're underestimating (incompetence) or lying to win the contract (dishonesty). Neither is a good sign. Ask for references on previous projects of the same scope and verify real timelines.
Trap #4: "The code is ours, we give you platform access"
What it looks like: vendor develops in their own repo, on their own infrastructure, with their own keys. You "have access" but you don't own.
What happens next: when you want to switch vendors, you discover you can't — you don't have the code, the keys, or anything exportable. You're trapped paying maintenance to the original vendor forever, or you have to rewrite everything from scratch.
How to avoid it: explicit IP-ownership clause in your favor. Code in YOUR GitHub repo (or GitLab, Bitbucket), under YOUR account. Credentials of your services (Vercel, Supabase, Stripe) in YOUR name. The vendor only has temporary access while working.
Trap #5: "Optional premium support, billed separately"
What it looks like: development quote is reasonable, but they include a mandatory "premium support plan" at USD 500–1,500/month starting day 1 of launch.
What happens next: you pay for support even if you don't use it. If you stop paying, the system "happens to break" and you realize the vendor controls critical things.
How to avoid it: clearly separate "development" from "maintenance." Ask what happens if you decide not to hire the monthly retainer — it should be possible to operate without it. Negotiate: if you DON'T use more than X hours, next month's cost goes down or credits accumulate.
Why Sirius bills per deliverable (and not per hour)
We said this above but it's worth repeating in detail, because it's the heart of how we work.
Hourly billing rewards the slow. If a vendor charges USD 50/hour and takes 100 hours, you pay USD 5,000. If they take 200 hours, USD 10,000. You have no incentive for them to be fast, they don't either. On the contrary: if they're efficient, they earn less.
Per-deliverable billing aligns incentives. We charge a fixed total. If we take longer, we absorb it. If we finish early, you still get it. This means:
- You know the total before signing. No end-of-month surprises.
- We have an incentive to be efficient. Every hour we save on bureaucracy or redundant work is margin for us — and also a signal that the architectural decision was good.
- If scope changes, we discuss it first. If you ask for a new feature that wasn't in the original scope, we tell you: "this adds X days and USD Y." You decide whether to approve. We don't accumulate "quiet hours" to add at the end.
What it looks like in practice
Imagine we quote an MVP at USD 4,200, deadline 6 weeks. Possible outcomes:
- We finish in 4 weeks: we bill USD 4,200, you get it early. You happy.
- We finish in 6 weeks: we bill USD 4,200, plan met. You happy.
- We take 8 weeks (our fault): we bill USD 4,200, we eat the 2 extra weeks of cost. We learn a lesson. You happy.
- We take 10 weeks because you asked for 5 new features not in scope: we quote the additional features separately, you approve them (or not), and it adds to the total. But the original scope still costs USD 4,200.
What to ask before hiring (final checklist)
When you're quoting — with us or anyone — use this list:
- Who owns the code and the data? Correct: you, in your own repo, from day 1.
- How many demos do I see during the project? At least one per sprint (every 1–2 weeks).
- What happens if I need a mid-project change? There should be a clear written change-request process.
- What does post-launch support include? Minimum 30 days of free bugfix.
- How is billing structured? Ideally per deliverable, not per hour.
- What are the deadlines and what happens if they slip? Per-sprint deadlines with clear vendor responsibility.
- What are the recurring costs after the project? Hosting, domains, licenses, retainer.
- What if I want to switch vendors in 6 months? Must be possible — your code, your infra, your data.
- Can I see 2–3 projects of the same scope they delivered before? Verifiable references, not just logos.
- Do I have the right to talk to previous clients? If they say no, bad sign.
In summary
Software pricing decisions are not about finding the cheapest — they're about finding the one whose incentives align with yours, clear scope, and a transparent process.
| Project type | USD range | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Website | 300 – 3,000 | 2 – 6 weeks |
| Working MVP | 3,000 – 5,000 | 4 – 6 weeks |
| App with payments | 5,000 – 10,000 | 8 – 12 weeks |
| Platform with modules | 10,000 – 25,000+ | 12 – 20 weeks |
| AI automation | 1,500 – 8,000 | 3 – 10 weeks |
| Consulting | 800/month+ | On demand |
If your project falls between these ranges, let's talk. The initial quote is free, in writing, and commits you to nothing.
💡 For an approximate quote in 30 seconds, use the interactive quote builder. 4 questions → USD range + WhatsApp message with your scope pre-filled.
📞 To talk directly: WhatsApp +506 8433 7752 or admin@siriusx.net. Monday–Friday 8am–5pm, Saturdays 8am–12pm, CR time.
Related posts
- MVP 6-week schedule — what gets done each week and how progress is measured.
- 1-week sprints: the pattern that keeps flow — why weekly cadence beats long projects without demos.
- AI automation: 3 mistakes that cost money — what to avoid before investing in an agent.
- Next.js, Astro, or Remix: how to pick a stack in 2026 — so the tech decision doesn't unnecessarily inflate the budget.
