Minimum investment ranges · Senior ownership

Pricing for serious systems

Founder-led production engineering for operators who need software built properly: architecture, implementation, deployment, security, and long-term maintainability under direct technical ownership. Agencies can also engage Systems as a private white-label engineering partner for project delivery, monthly benches, and specialist escalation. Delivery timing is confirmed after scope, availability, dependencies, and project complexity are understood.

01

Founder-led production engineering

You are paying for judgment, system architecture, and accountable delivery, not a generic development queue.

02

AI as leverage, not the offer

AI-assisted delivery compresses execution, but it does not replace product thinking, security, data modeling, or technical ownership.

03

Scope controls investment

The ranges below are starting points. Final budgets depend on business logic, integrations, compliance, polish, and operational complexity.

Minimum investment ranges · Selective entry project fit

Entry points, not commodity packages

These ranges help qualify fit before a call. Selective entry projects are accepted when the scope is sharp, the brand fit is strong, and the work supports the broader Ribbsaeter Systems standard.

Systems Engineering

Systems Architecture Sprint

From $12,000

Delivery timing depends on availability and final scope.

  • Complete architectural audit
  • Concurrency and memory backpressure analysis
  • Performance profiling and bottleneck isolation
  • Durable remediation roadmap
Qualify the scope
Systems Engineering

Core Systems Engineering

Custom Scope

Delivery timing depends on availability and final scope.

  • Direct senior engineering implementation
  • Distributed protocol & backend implementation
  • Deterministic test harness delivery
  • Zero junior handoffs — founder-led delivery
Qualify the scope
AI Infrastructure

Inference & Model Infrastructure

From $15,000

Delivery timing depends on availability and final scope.

  • Serving stack architecture & deployment
  • Model routing & fallback pipeline
  • Evaluation harness & observability setup
  • Latency & cost optimization audit
Qualify the scope
Agentic Systems

Custom Agent Deployment

From $18,000

Delivery timing depends on availability and final scope.

  • Custom orchestration stack (OpenClaw/Hermes/LangChain)
  • 10-15 authenticated API/tool connectors
  • Human-in-the-loop review interface
  • Production observability & logging
Qualify the scope
Automation Architecture

Workflow Automation Package

From $10,000

Delivery timing depends on availability and final scope.

  • Full operational pipeline mapping
  • Event-driven queue & integration setup
  • Automated exception handling & alerting
  • Operational documentation & training
Qualify the scope
Product Engineering

MVP to Production Platform

From $25,000

Delivery timing depends on availability and final scope.

  • Complete frontend & backend architecture
  • Database design & auth / RBAC integration
  • Stripe / payment & API integrations
  • CI/CD pipeline & production deployment
Qualify the scope
Technical Strategy

Technical Strategy & Audit Sprint

From $8,000

Delivery timing depends on availability and final scope.

  • Complete architectural & codebase audit
  • Security & scalability risk matrix
  • Sequenced technical roadmap
  • Executive briefing & Q&A session
Qualify the scope
Agentic Systems & Ribbsaeter Agents

Private Agent Setup

From $1,500

Delivery timing depends on availability and final scope.

  • Private agent stack configuration
  • Model API routing & memory layer
  • Tool integration & approval defaults
  • Operational handover & documentation
Qualify the scope
Engagement models · Four structures

Engagement models

Every project gets a structure that fits the real operating need: fixed budgets for defined scopes, time-and-materials for evolving products, weekly retainers for steady momentum, or a dedicated team for long-term ownership. Delivery timing depends on availability and final project scope.

Fixed Budget

Best for MVPs

A clear scope and total cost agreed upon upfront. Ideal when requirements are well-defined and you want reserved senior ownership around a focused build.

  • Predefined scope & deliverables
  • Commercial terms defined upfront
  • Milestone-based payments
  • Great for MVPs & small projects

Time & Materials

Most Flexible

Pay for the actual time and resources spent. Best when the product is evolving and you need reserved senior ownership across discovery, build, and iteration.

  • Flexible scope & priorities
  • Monthly invoicing by hours
  • Agile sprint workflow
  • Ideal for evolving products

Weekly Budget

Steady Pace

A recurring weekly engagement with reserved senior ownership. Keeps momentum high without the overhead of full-time hires.

  • Predictable weekly spend
  • Reserved team capacity
  • Priority task queue
  • Scales up or down weekly

Dedicated Team

Enterprise

A full team embedded in your workflow, managed by us but working as an extension of your company. Best for long-term production ownership.

  • Full-time specialists assigned
  • Direct communication channels
  • Long-term collaboration
  • Scalable team size on demand

Not sure which model fits? A 30-minute discovery call with a senior engineer will clarify scope, availability, risk, and the right engagement shape.

Start a project
White-label retainers

Agency benches are quoted privately.

For agencies and consultants, pricing can be structured as a per-project build, monthly engineering bench, or specialist escalation retainer.

View partner model

Frequently asked questions

How accurate are the price ranges?

The starting prices reflect minimum investment ranges for typical scope. Final quotes are produced after discovery and may be lower or higher depending on integrations, complexity, compliance, polish, and SLAs.

Do you offer fixed-price contracts?

Yes — for well-defined scopes (landing pages, MVPs, defined feature sets). For evolving products we recommend Time & Materials or a Dedicated Team for maximum flexibility.

What is included in the price?

Discovery, architecture, UI/UX design, development, automated testing, deployment to staging and production, store submissions for mobile apps, and 30 days of post-launch bug fixes.

How are invoices structured?

Fixed-price: milestone-based (typically 30% kickoff, 40% mid-project, 30% delivery). T&M and Dedicated Team: monthly invoicing based on logged hours.