What is a development subscription?
A third way to buy engineering, between hiring a team and hiring an agency. Here is how it works and when it fits.
In short
A development subscription is a way of buying software engineering as a flat monthly plan rather than by the hour or by fixed-price project. You pay a set fee for reserved engineering capacity, send requests continuously, and the team works through them in priority order. Plans can usually change each billing period.
Also called: Product engineering subscription, Software development subscription, Unlimited development
Why it matters when your prototype goes to production
A product is never finished at launch, so a fixed-price project ends just as the real work starts, and hourly billing makes every small change a negotiation. A subscription matches how a live product actually needs engineering: steadily, with priorities that change week to week.
| Agency project | Freelancer | In-house hire | Subscription | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Per project | Per hour | Salary and overheads | Flat monthly fee |
| After launch | New contract | If available | Yes | Yes, continuously |
| Changing priorities | Change requests | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| If one person leaves | Agency's problem | Work stops | You rehire | Team continues |
How ours works
Our Starter plan is a flat monthly fee, lower when billed yearly, with reserved capacity, up to two business days to action a request, two production deployments a week and unlimited changes within fair use. Growth is priced around the product. You own the code, data and infrastructure throughout, and the current prices are on the pricing page.
Common questions
What is not included in a development subscription?
It varies by provider. Typically infrastructure and third-party services are billed separately; ours are billed to you directly, at cost.
What happens if I cancel?
With us, you keep everything: repositories, infrastructure and documentation.
Related terms
Read next
More on this: Product strategy & scoping · All glossary terms
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