Pricing
Right-priced: senior talent at fair market rates.
We publish our starting prices because we have nothing to hide. You pay for senior engineers doing real work, not for account managers, slide decks or code you will have to throw away.
What "right-priced" means
Transparent rates
Starting prices are on this page. Every proposal shows who works on your project, for how long, and at what rate. No hidden fees.
Senior talent only
Every engineer is a senior, in-house employee. No juniors billed as seniors, no freelancers you have never met.
Zero technical debt by design
Tests, code review, documentation and infrastructure as code are part of the price, not extras. You get a system your next engineer can work on.
Engagement models
Three ways to work with us. Starting prices shown; your proposal has exact numbers.
Project-Based Delivery
A clear goal with a fixed scope. Best for an MVP, a new module or a well-defined rebuild.
Starting from$5,000 per project
- Goals and scope agreed in writing before work starts
- Split into milestones with clear acceptance criteria
- Milestone-funded billing
- Senior lead engineer as your single contact
- Full source code and documentation handed over
Dedicated Engineering Squad
A cross-functional team that works toward your goals, sprint by sprint. Best for ongoing products and scale-ups.
Starting from$8,000 per month
- Infra, backend and frontend engineers plus a tech lead
- Works by goals in agile sprints
- Daily progress updates and a weekly report
- Shift priorities quickly at any sprint planning
- Scale the squad up or down monthly
Staff Augmentation
Senior engineers on individual contracts who join your team. Best when you have leadership in place and need more hands.
Starting from$1,500 per engineer / month
- Individual contract per engineer
- Senior, in-house engineers only
- Engineers join your standups, repos and reviews
- Roll out, add or swap engineers with short notice
- No long lock-in contracts
How each model works
Same senior engineers, three ways to work together. Pick the one that matches how much you want to direct the work yourself.
Project-Based Delivery
Goal-based, fixed scope
- Best for
- MVPs, new modules, well-defined rebuilds
- Contract
- One project contract with a written scope
- How work is planned
- We break the goal into scoped milestones with acceptance criteria
- Reporting
- Progress update and demo at every milestone
- Changing priorities
- Through a change request: we re-scope and re-price before work changes
- Changing the team
- We staff the project; you deal with one lead engineer
- Billing
- Milestone-funded: funds are released when you accept each milestone
Dedicated Engineering Squad
Goal-driven, agile
- Best for
- Ongoing products, scale-ups, long roadmaps
- Contract
- Monthly squad contract
- How work is planned
- Agile sprints planned around your goals and roadmap
- Reporting
- Daily progress updates plus a weekly report on goals, delivery and system health
- Changing priorities
- Easy: shift priorities at any sprint planning, no re-contracting
- Changing the team
- Scale the squad up or down monthly
- Billing
- Monthly, per squad
Staff Augmentation
Individual contracts, your lead
- Best for
- Teams with their own tech lead who need more senior hands
- Contract
- Individual contract per engineer
- How work is planned
- Your team plans the work; our engineers join your process
- Reporting
- Through your standups and tools, the same as your own team
- Changing priorities
- You direct the work day to day
- Changing the team
- Easy: roll out, add or swap engineers with short notice
- Billing
- Monthly, per engineer
Milestone-funded billing
You fund one milestone at a time. The money is released only when that milestone ships and you accept it. If a milestone does not start, the unreleased funds come back to you. You never pay far ahead of delivered work.
01
Agree
We define the milestone, its acceptance criteria and its price.
02
Fund
You fund that milestone before work starts.
03
Ship
We build, test and deliver it to production or staging.
04
Release
You accept it and the funds are released. Not started? Refunded.
Why the right price is cheaper in the end
The cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest system. The real cost of software is what you spend over its whole life, not just on the first version.
Rewrites
Fragile code often has to be rebuilt within one or two years. You pay for the same features twice and lose the time in between.
Security holes
Missing input checks, leaked secrets and open storage turn into incidents, fines and lost customer trust.
Downtime
Every hour your product is down costs revenue and support time. Untested releases and manual servers cause most of it.
Slow change
Tangled code makes each new feature take longer than the last. Your roadmap slows down while competitors move.
Illustrative example
Cheapest quote
- First build
- $20,000
- Fixes and hot patches, year 1
- $15,000
- Rewrite in year 2
- $40,000
- 2-year total
- $75,000
Right-priced build
- First build, tested and documented
- $35,000
- Normal maintenance, year 1
- $5,000
- Rewrite in year 2
- $0
- 2-year total
- $40,000
Numbers are an illustration, not a quote. Your scoping call gives you real numbers for your project.
Frequently asked questions
Something else on your mind? Email contact@hilman.dev and an engineer will answer.
Why do you publish starting prices?
So you can decide quickly if we fit your budget. It saves both sides time, and it keeps us honest.
Do you charge in USD or IDR?
Both. International clients usually pay in USD; Indonesian clients can pay in IDR.
Can we switch between engagement models?
Yes. Many clients start with a project, then move to a dedicated squad once the product is live.
What changes the final price?
Scope, team size, timeline and how much of the stack we own. The scoping call turns these into a written estimate.
Who owns the code?
You do. Source code, infrastructure code and documentation are yours, delivered to your repositories.
How does milestone-funded billing work?
You fund one milestone at a time. Funds are released when the milestone ships and you accept it. Unstarted milestones are refunded.
How do you report progress?
Squads send daily progress updates and a weekly report. Projects report at every milestone. Augmented engineers report through your own standups.
Get a real number for your project.
A scoping call turns your idea or system into a written estimate: scope, team, timeline and price.
Schedule a Technical Scoping Call