Frequently asked questions · cost · process · ownership · AI
Frequently asked questions before software product development.
33 questions · 6 topics
Clear, concise answers to the most important questions about project initiation, pricing, collaboration, source code, security, AI and operations.
Cannot find the answer? Ask us · Costs and timelines
Direct, conditional professional answers
01
Projects & fit
Projects are delivered by our own team. If we bring in an external partner for a specialised area, we agree it up front and transparently: who, for what, with what responsibility - under the same NDA and quality terms as the internal team. There is no hidden outsourcing: you will always know who works on your system.
Our typical engagement is custom software from €13k or a €5–13k PoC. For mobile apps the MVP runs €15–38k and a full application €50–125k; AI adoption projects typically fall between €30–125k. Below ~€2.5k we will honestly tell you a freelancer serves you better; for multi-team programs above €250k we recommend an enterprise integrator.
Since 2013 we have delivered 100+ projects across 13+ industries: transport (BKK), healthcare (Swiss Clinic, Diavitas), education (Corvinus), tourism and hospitality (TMRW Hotels, Bart), commerce (UNIX Autó, Praktiker), logistics, finance and industry. Industry-specific compliance (healthcare data, financial audit logs) is handled as part of design, not as an afterthought.
Three things: a business goal, a decision-capable point of contact, and a few hours per week for demos and approvals. Everything else, specification, architecture, stack decisions, timeline, is worked out together in the discovery phase.
Most of our clients arrive with a 2–3 page idea outline or the pain points of an existing system, that is exactly what discovery is for. Within 1–2 weeks we get to a use-case matrix, priorities and a fixed-price MVP scope, documented in a written brief you can decide on.
Yes. Legacy takeover and rewrite is a standalone service (4–39 weeks, from €15–20k): we map the existing system with AI-assisted code analysis, document it, then migrate to a modern stack in a controlled way. Reference: we rewrote a 30-month development baseline in 50 days with zero critical vulnerabilities.
02
Pricing & contract
We contract through a Hungarian Kft. in EUR or GBP. With EU member-state companies reverse-charge VAT applies; with UK companies a net invoice all the same. NDA, MSA, DPA and SCC packages are ready on request.
Every phase closes with a decision gate, so the project can be stopped cleanly at any gate. The work completed so far - documentation, prototype, source code - is handed over, and only the phases actually delivered and accepted are invoiced. The milestone-based contract is designed exactly to prevent a "we started, pay for everything" situation.
Indicative ranges: PoC €5–13k · custom software from €13k · mobile app MVP €15–38k, full app €50–125k · AI adoption €30–125k · legacy rewrite from €15–20k. The exact price depends on feature count, integrations and backend complexity. Examples: an internal admin system (6–8 core screens) €15–25k · a B2B portal with integrations €30–50k · a multi-user business platform €50–100k · a complex multi-module system €75k+. After a 30-minute call you receive a preliminary time and budget range within 2 business days; the detailed proposal follows after discovery.
After discovery we work in fixed-price milestones: pre-defined deliverables, costs and decision points. We suggest T&M only where the scope is inherently open-ended, e.g. research-type AI PoCs. For continuous development and operations there is a monthly retainer from €750/month.
Tied to milestones: each milestone closes with a pre-agreed, verifiable deliverable (working build, documentation), and invoicing follows that. No hidden costs; the proposal itemises discovery / UX / development / QA / release. EU and UK clients are invoiced in EUR/GBP with reverse-charge VAT.
A written change request: you see the time and cost impact of every change up front, and you decide. Ideas that come up along the way are not lost, they go into the post-launch development cycle, so the project does not slip and the first version ships on time.
The practical minimum is PoC level, around €5k: below that, preparation and quality assurance would be disproportionately expensive. If your need is smaller, we will say so honestly on the 30-minute call and suggest an alternative (off-the-shelf SaaS, freelancer, no-code), even if that means we are not the partner.
03
Process & timeline
Typical delivery for custom software is 4–17 weeks. For mobile apps, an MVP takes 6–14 weeks, a full application 12–26 weeks, enterprise systems 26+ weeks. These timelines assume an AI-native senior team: a classic setup typically takes 1.5–2× longer.
A named senior project lead, not "someone from the team" but the person you meet at kickoff. On top of that, every engagement has owner-level oversight: the company owners personally track each project.
Weekly, in a live build, not on presentation slides. For mobile apps you get TestFlight / internal test builds; for web systems, staging access, so you can try the current state yourself at any time.
Per milestone, against pre-defined acceptance criteria. Every milestone handover includes the working build, test results and documentation: approval is a verifiable checklist, not a subjective impression.
Yes, at milestone boundaries. Because every milestone is a self-contained, documented package (working code + docs), the work you have paid for stays with you and any other team can take it forward. No multi-year commitments, no vendor lock-in.
04
Ownership & handover
You do: 100%, with no license restrictions. This is not a paid extra: every handover includes the full source code, infrastructure definitions and documentation as a baseline condition.
Under your organisation (GitHub or GitLab), with access from the first week of the project, not at handover. You always see the real state of the work, and the code is physically yours from the start.
Architecture description, API specification, data model, deployment and operations runbook, plus handover documentation. Code quality is enforced by static analysis: a SonarCloud A·A·A rating is a release condition.
Yes, we build for that deliberately. Standard, widely known stack (React, React Native, Node.js, Python, PostgreSQL), clean code, full documentation. Any experienced team can continue the work; the handover documentation explicitly supports it.
No. Your repository, your cloud account, your source code, full documentation, you decide freely at every milestone how to continue. We offer operations on a retainer, but that is an option, not a dependency.
05
AI & data security
No. We use enterprise AI subscriptions with EU data residency and zero-data-retention settings: your codebase and business data never enter the training sets of public models. This is fixed in the contract, in a dedicated AI-usage annex.
It depends on the use case: for large language models Claude (Anthropic), GPT (OpenAI), Llama (Meta) and Mistral; for embeddings OpenAI, Cohere or local options. Selection criteria are accuracy, cost, data locality and latency, not brand preference.
Yes. If data cannot leave your environment, we deploy a self-hosted LLM (Llama, Mistral) on your infrastructure or in a private EU tenant, with a private RAG architecture: the model answers from your data while the data stays in place.
A mandatory human security review before every release: performed by a senior engineer with 8+ years of experience, independent of whoever generated the code. Static analysis and automated end-to-end tests run on every CI cycle. AI accelerates; the senior team takes responsibility.
For high-risk AI systems (healthcare, HR, credit scoring, critical infrastructure) the EU AI Act requires risk management, data governance, technical documentation, logging and human oversight. Transparency obligations apply from 2 August 2026, and the rules for high-risk systems from 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028 respectively, following the 2026 EU amendment. We do not bolt these on afterwards: they are part of our process, aligned with NIST AI RMF and MITRE ATLAS.
06
Operations & support
Yes: the retainer comes with a written SLA: fixed response times and a repair commitment. Not a verbal promise: it is part of the contract, alongside the deadline and quality commitments.
We work in your cloud account (AWS, GCP or Azure), access and billing stay with you, we operate it. Worth budgeting: the yearly operations and maintenance allowance is typically 15–25% of the development cost, covering hosting, store compliance and OS updates.
At go-live we set up error and performance monitoring (crash reports, alerts), extended with output-quality measurement (evals) for AI systems. The retainer includes a monthly report: what happened, what improved, what the next priority is.
Deadline and quality commitments fixed in the contract, plus warranty bug fixing after handover. Quality is measurable: SonarCloud A·A·A rating and automated tests before every release.
A monthly budget from €750/month for operations, bug fixes and further development, with a prioritised backlog. Whatever a given month does not use for fixes can be reallocated to development. Written SLA, cancellable any time, no long-term commitment.
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