How it works

How it works, and what it costs.

A free call, a fixed-price diagnostic, a fixed-price build, and ongoing care if you want it. You can stop after any step and keep what that step produced.

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The four steps

Four steps, and you can stop after any of them

Each step ends with something you keep, whether or not the next one happens.

01

A call

Thirty minutes to describe the problem and hear, honestly, whether software is the right answer and what would be worth looking at first. You leave with a recommendation, even if the recommendation is to do nothing.

Free
02

A diagnostic

Two weeks inside your process and the tools you already run. It ends with a written plan and a fixed quote, and the fee is credited against the build if you go ahead. You keep the plan either way.

$1,750 · ten hours at the published rate
03

The build

Priced from the plan, demoed weekly, and every piece lands behind tests before it reaches you. You own the code, the repository, the domain, and the deploy keys from day one.

Fixed price
04

It runs

A 30-day warranty covers anything that breaks. After that, ongoing care is a retainer or a phone call, whichever suits the business, and running it yourself is a perfectly good option if you have the staff.

Retainers from $349/mo
The diagnostic

Two weeks, $1,750, and a plan you can hold Switchyard to

Ten hours at the published rate of $175 an hour, spent inside your process and the tools you already run. It ends with a written plan and a fixed quote. If you go ahead with the build, the fee is credited against it.

What gets examined

The process as it actually runs, the tools it runs on, where the data lives, who touches it, and what breaks when they are out.

What the plan contains

The problem as understood, the system that would be built, what it integrates with, what runs unattended, what it costs to run, and the fixed quote for building it.

When software is the wrong answer

Sometimes the fix is a process change, a setting in a tool you already pay for, or nothing at all. The plan says so, and the engagement ends there.

Pricing

Projects

Every project is fixed price after the diagnostic. These are the ranges the diagnostic turns into a number.

Diagnostic

$1,750

Two weeks. Credited against the build.

You get

  • A written plan covering the problem, the system, the integrations, and what runs on its own.
  • A fixed quote for the build.
  • A straight answer if software is the wrong fix.

Integrations and automation

$3,500 to $12,000

Usually two to five weeks after the diagnostic.

Typical scope

  • Two systems connected so nobody re-keys between them.
  • A repetitive process moved into software that runs on a schedule.
  • A migration off a tool the business has outgrown, history intact.

Internal tools and modernization

From $18,000

Usually six to twelve weeks, or scoped in phases.

Typical scope

  • The spreadsheet replaced with a tool that enforces the rules and keeps the history.
  • A legacy system modernized one piece at a time, with the old one running until the last piece is out.
  • Staff training and documentation so the team uses it confidently on launch day.

Hourly

$175 / hour

Billed by the quarter-hour. No minimum.

Best for

  • Small fixes and features on a site or tool, yours or someone else's.
  • Technical strategy: vendor selection, an architecture review, a second opinion before a large purchase.
  • Code review of software you have already paid for, with a plain assessment of what it is worth.

Every project includes a written proposal, a fixed scope, clear deliverables, and weekly progress updates.

Ongoing care

After launch, if you want it

Care is the usual choice after a build. Maintain suits software that ships and mostly stays put. Embedded suits a business that treats software as a year-round lever.

Maintain

$349 / month

Request turnaround
2 business days
Hour rollover
Up to 2 hours banked

Keeps the lights on

  • Hosting, DNS, and SSL handled, in accounts that stay in your name.
  • Security patches kept current, with a quarterly dependency review.
  • One hour a month for the small things: a copy fix, a new photo, a broken form.

New pages, integrations, and design changes are quoted as separate projects.

Care

$1,500 / month

Request turnaround
1 business day
Hour rollover
Up to 5 hours banked

Everything in Maintain, plus

  • Ten hours of work each month: a new page, a conversion change, a small integration, whatever is moving the business that month.
  • A 30-minute monthly call on what is working and what to ship next.
  • Priority when something breaks.

Month to month. Net-new builds are scoped as separate projects; third-party software fees and ad spend are yours.

Embedded

$3,500 / month

Request turnaround
Same business day
Time structure
Standing weekly slot, unbanked

For businesses where software is the lever

  • A standing weekly slot with the agenda set by you and no scoping debate before it starts.
  • An honest backlog: what is next, what the trade-offs are, and what is worth leaving unbuilt.
  • Text or call during business hours, with a reply the same day.

Capacity is deliberately limited to keep response times short. You still own the code. Net-new product builds are scoped as projects on top.

All plans are month to month. Cancel with 30 days' notice and keep the code, the hosting accounts, and the keys.

Websites

Switchyard also builds marketing sites

Mostly for trades and local service businesses, at three fixed prices. Each one ships with on-page SEO, a deliverable contact form, and full ownership of the code, the domain, and the deploy keys.

Launch

$4,500

or $1,500/month for 3 months, 0% interest. Typical timeline 2 to 3 weeks.

Includes

  • A 5 to 7 page site, mobile-first and fast.
  • On-page SEO and Google Business setup: structured data, sitemap, page-speed tuning.
  • A contact form that lands in the inbox you actually check.

Growth

$9,500

or $1,900/month for 5 months, 0% interest. Typical timeline 4 to 6 weeks.

Everything in Launch, plus

  • One integration that moves revenue: online booking, payments, CRM lead capture, or inventory sync.
  • Custom forms and conversion tracking so you can see what is working.
  • A content workshop to get the copy right.

Custom

From $18,000

Payment schedule set during scoping. Typical timeline 6 to 12 weeks.

For operations-level builds

  • Multi-system integration: POS, CRM, email, and scheduling wired into one source of truth.
  • Custom back-end logic: quoting tools, dispatch boards, inventory.
  • Staff training and documentation.
After launch

Where the build ends and the relationship begins

Custom software needs care after it ships. Stating up front where the build ends is what keeps that from feeling like a surprise later.

What every build includes

Full ownership. The source code, the repository, the domain, and the deploy keys are yours from day one.

Plain-English documentation. A short README covering how to update content, where things live, and when to call.

A 30-day warranty. Anything Switchyard built that breaks in the first 30 days is fixed free. New scope is billed normally.

Hosting

By default everything is deployed on your own accounts. You own the bill, the keys, and the data, and the setup is done with you so you are not figuring it out alone.

If you would rather not think about infrastructure, an Ongoing Care plan manages the hosting accounts for you. They stay in your name either way.

After the warranty

An Ongoing Care plan from $349/mo, in three tiers. See the plans.

Hourly, on demand at $175/hour, billed by the quarter-hour, no minimum.

Run it yourself. You own it and you run it, which is a sensible choice if you have technical staff or want to be hands-on.

There is no free support outside the 30-day warranty, and that is stated here so neither side is surprised later.

Scope

Where Switchyard is the wrong fit

A few kinds of project are better served elsewhere, and it is better to say so before the first call.

  • App Store and Play Store publishing. Native and web-based mobile apps get built here; store submission, review, and ongoing store compliance need a publisher or an in-house team.
  • Large e-commerce catalogs (200+ SKUs, complex inventory, multiple warehouses). Shopify Plus or BigCommerce is usually the right tool.
  • Surface patches on a platform that is itself the bottleneck. Making a Wix site faster is a patch on the wrong layer. The diagnostic will say what the right answer looks like, and sometimes that is a different platform.
  • Crypto, gambling, and adult content. Outside the practice's scope.

Questions before the call?

The FAQ covers cost, timeline, process, and integrations. Or book the call and ask there.

Book a 30-minute call Read the FAQ