How we price
The mechanism behind value-based pricing.
Most value-based-pricing claims fall apart in the first sales conversation because there's no mechanism behind them. Ours is documented, repeatable, and signed before kickoff. We're publishing it because the buyers we want will ask anyway.
The mechanism, in plain English
We scope the outcome, not the hours.
Before kickoff, we agree what "done" looks like for each milestone — a feature that ships and works, a system that passes its acceptance criteria, a metric that moves. The milestone is the unit of work.
We price each milestone as a fixed amount.
No hourly rate. No retainer. Each milestone has a number attached before we start. You see exactly what every step costs.
Payment triggers on milestone delivery, not on calendar dates.
If we ship early, we get paid early. If we slip, we don't get paid for the slip — we eat the time.
Scope changes are repriced in writing.
When you add to the scope, we publish the new milestone and the new number. No hidden change orders. No surprise invoices.
A 20% kickoff deposit secures the team and the timeline.
Standard across all engagements. Applied against the first milestone.
A sample engagement
Multi-tenant SaaS MVP rebuild for a Series A B2B SaaS founder
Real engagement structure. Figures are representative of typical pricing for an engagement of this shape and shared as a guide — your quote will depend on the specifics of your project.
Total engagement value
$41,000
11 weeks, four milestones
Milestone 1 · 2 weeks
Architecture & data model design
Written architecture brief, data model schema, and architecture decision records.
$6,500
Milestone 2 · 3 weeks
Multi-tenant foundation
Auth, tenancy, billing integration, deploy pipeline, and observability.
$11,000
Milestone 3 · 4 weeks
Core feature pack
Five core product features — onboarding flow, team management, billing self-serve, usage dashboard, and role-based access — each with acceptance criteria signed off before milestone close.
$16,500
Milestone 4 · 2 weeks
Production hardening
Load testing, security review, runbooks, and handover documentation.
$7,000
What this engagement did not include
Native mobile apps (iOS / Android)
Typically scoped as a separate milestone pack, priced from $12,000 depending on feature parity with the web app.
Third-party integrations beyond the core stack (e.g. Salesforce, NetSuite)
Priced per integration based on the API's complexity and the audit requirements around it — usually $2,500 to $6,000 each.
Ongoing managed support after handover
Available as a monthly retainer once the product is live, sized to your support volume.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about how we price
What happens if a milestone is harder than expected?
We eat the difference. That's the deal. We absorb the estimation risk so you don't have to.
What happens if I want to change scope mid-engagement?
We repropose the affected milestone in writing within 48 hours. You decide whether to proceed. No surprise charges.
Do you ever do hourly work?
Rarely. For one-off advisory engagements with no fixed deliverable — for example, spending a day at your office auditing the team — we'll quote a flat day rate. Otherwise: milestone-priced.
What's your typical engagement size?
Diagnostics and reviews typically run from $2,500 to $6,000. Full builds typically run from $25,000 to $150,000+, depending on scope. We'll quote specifically after the fit call.
Want a quote shaped like this for your project?
Book a call and we'll map your engagement into milestones with real numbers attached, before anything is signed.
Start the conversation
Ready to ship?
If you're a founder or operator building something serious, and you're tired of hourly billing, slow timelines, and partners who don't understand your business. Let's talk.
Prefer email? Write to us directly at info@critonyx.com