How much does a software development subscription cost?

The devkyn subscription offers multiple monthly plans, each built around one senior, founder-led engineer working your board one priority at a time. We'll match capacity and pricing to the workload on the sales call. It's a monthly rate you can pause, not a contract or a lump-sum project quote.

How long does a build on the subscription take?

It depends on the build. Most SaaS MVPs land in six to eight weeks, internal platforms in five to eight, marketplaces in eight to twelve. You see a reviewable increment every week, and because it's month to month you can pause between phases whenever the roadmap goes quiet.

What changes the total price of a build?

The number of active months, mostly — the total depends on the selected monthly plan and the weeks the build runs, so a shorter or paused build costs less. Scope, how well each priority is defined, and whether you continue into new phases after launch all move the total. You never pay a change-order fee to reprioritize.

Is a subscription cheaper than an agency?

For a single senior engineer on a month-plus build, usually yes — a plan matched to the workload with no minimum beats a $10k–$40k+/month agency retainer with a multi-month commitment, and there's no pod overhead. If you need several engineers shipping in parallel, an agency or a team is the right tool and we'll tell you so.

What do I own with a subscription?

All of it. Every task ships as pull requests into your repo, and the deploy pipeline and cloud accounts are yours. Pausing or cancelling doesn't cost you the code — there's no contract and nothing held back. See how the software development subscription runs a month-plus build.

Cost guide - Software Development Subscription Cost

A software development subscription trades a project quote or a salary for a flat monthly rate: one senior engineer, one priority at a time, pause when it's quiet. The question buyers actually have is what that monthly number means for a real build — how it stacks up against an agency retainer, a freelancer, or a hire, and what a month-plus build ends up costing in total. Here's the honest math.

Talk through your build How the subscription works →

The honest options, compared

The subscription has multiple monthly plan options. For a month-plus build that usually works out cheaper than an agency retainer and far less overhead than a hire — but the monthly price isn't the whole story. A build spans a few active months, and what matters is the total across the weeks it runs, which you control by pausing between phases.

Option	Typical cost	Rough timeline	What to know
Agency retainer	$10k–$40k+/month	Contract, often 3–6 mo min	A pod of people and a minimum commitment. Good for parallel workstreams, but you carry the coordination tax and can't pause a slow month.
Freelancer (hourly)	$60–$200+/hr	Ad hoc	Flexible and often cheap per hour, but the meter runs on revisions and you own the vetting, management, and the risk of a stalled handoff.
Full-time senior hire	$130k–$220k/yr + overhead	2–4 months to hire	Best once the roadmap is steady and full-time. Until then it's months of recruiting and a salary you pay through the quiet weeks.
devkyn subscription	Variable by plan	Variable by scope	One senior engineer, unlimited requests worked one at a time. The selected plan is the monthly price — a month-plus build's total is that rate across the active weeks, and you pause between phases to stop the clock.

About that monthly number

The monthly rate is not the build's total. A build that takes six to eight weeks is roughly one and a half to two active months of subscription; a twelve-week platform is about three. You control the total by pausing between phases and reprioritizing — you pay for active weeks, not a lump-sum quote and not a full-time salary carried year-round.

Rough timelines by build type

Cost tracks time on the subscription, so the honest way to estimate is by build. These are the typical ranges for real devkyn builds:

Build	Typical timeline
SaaS MVP Build	6–8 weeks typical	See the build →
Internal Tools & Admin Platform	5–8 weeks typical	See the build →
Stripe Billing System	4–7 weeks typical	See the build →
Marketplace Platform	8–12 weeks typical	See the build →

What changes the price

How many active months the build actually needs — the total is the monthly rate times the weeks it runs, and pausing between phases lowers it.
Whether you're carrying one continuous build or a steady trickle of smaller tasks between builds.
How well-scoped each priority is — clear, narrow tasks ship faster and get more out of each active month.
Whether the work needs one senior engineer (the subscription's shape) or several in parallel (a team or agency).

Frequently asked questions

How much does a software development subscription cost?: The devkyn subscription offers multiple monthly plans, each built around one senior, founder-led engineer working your board one priority at a time. We'll match capacity and pricing to the workload on the sales call. It's a monthly rate you can pause, not a contract or a lump-sum project quote.
How long does a build on the subscription take?: It depends on the build. Most SaaS MVPs land in six to eight weeks, internal platforms in five to eight, marketplaces in eight to twelve. You see a reviewable increment every week, and because it's month to month you can pause between phases whenever the roadmap goes quiet.
What changes the total price of a build?: The number of active months, mostly — the total depends on the selected monthly plan and the weeks the build runs, so a shorter or paused build costs less. Scope, how well each priority is defined, and whether you continue into new phases after launch all move the total. You never pay a change-order fee to reprioritize.
Is a subscription cheaper than an agency?: For a single senior engineer on a month-plus build, usually yes — a plan matched to the workload with no minimum beats a $10k–$40k+/month agency retainer with a multi-month commitment, and there's no pod overhead. If you need several engineers shipping in parallel, an agency or a team is the right tool and we'll tell you so.
What do I own with a subscription?: All of it. Every task ships as pull requests into your repo, and the deploy pipeline and cloud accounts are yours. Pausing or cancelling doesn't cost you the code — there's no contract and nothing held back. See how the software development subscription runs a month-plus build.

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