Pricing / Monthly software development / Ownership
Both monthly options include direct work with Diana across product leadership, design, development, launch, maintenance, and continued improvement. The difference is source-code ownership.
Product Discovery · credited to month one if you continue
PixelsWithin owns and manages the source code.
You own code created for your business from the start.
Every engagement starts with Product Discovery. We define the useful product, important flows, technical boundaries, integrations, risks, and recommended development sequence for $500.
Managed Software is $3,000 per month. PixelsWithin owns and manages the source code while designing, building, hosting, maintaining, and improving the product.
Client-Owned Software is $6,000 per month. You own the source code created for your business from the start while PixelsWithin continues the same senior-led product and delivery work.
The commercial model in one sentence
Start small, then choose ownership
Discovery gives uncertainty a useful shape before a larger commitment. If you continue, choose the ownership model that fits the business now.
The $500 fee is credited to month one under either continuing option.
Define the problem, users, flows, important features, technical approach, integrations, risks, and recommended build sequence.
The result stands alone. Continue only when the direction makes sense.
Diana leads the product and handles design, development, hosting, launch, maintenance, fixes, and continued improvement.
You own the business, brand, accounts, customers, and data. PixelsWithin owns and manages the application source code.
You receive the same direct senior attention and delivery, while owning source code created for your business from the start.
This fits teams that need ownership now or expect a future technical handoff.
Both options keep product leadership and hands-on delivery connected. The practical differences concern source-code ownership, operating responsibility after cancellation, and the path to a future handoff.
| Term | $3,000/month Managed Software | $6,000/month Client-Owned Software |
|---|---|---|
| Source-code ownership | PixelsWithin owns and manages the application source code. | You own source code created for your business from the start. |
| Product leadership, design, development, launch, and maintenance | Included while the monthly service is active; led directly by Diana. | Included while the monthly engagement is active; led directly by Diana. |
| Business data, brand, domain, app-store, and customer accounts | You own them. | You own them. |
| Hosting and third-party costs | PixelsWithin manages hosting; usage-based infrastructure and third-party costs may be additional depending on the product. | Infrastructure can be held in your accounts; hosting, licenses, and third-party usage costs are additional where applicable. |
| Future handoff | Requires the $36,000 source-code buyout before code can be handed to your team or another provider. | Straightforward because you already own the code; transition work depends on the product and receiving team. |
| Cancellation and data export | Development, maintenance, and PixelsWithin application access stop. Your business data remains exportable. | Development and maintenance stop. You retain the code and business data already created. |
| Keeping the product live | Continue the managed service, or buy the code and arrange replacement hosting and maintenance. | Your team or another provider can operate the code, provided hosting and third-party services remain active. |
| Managed-code buyout | $36,000 for source-code ownership; transition and infrastructure work may be scoped separately. | Not applicable. You already own the code. |
Need to understand the broader factors that affect a custom build budget? Read the separate custom software development cost guide. This page describes PixelsWithin’s actual engagement terms.
The reason for the model
A useful product is not one frozen estimate delivered at the end of a long tunnel. The monthly model creates a fast feedback loop: decide, build, observe, and improve.
The relationship combines fractional product leadership, product design, architecture, software development, launch support, and maintenance. It can replace the coordination required across several separate senior roles, though the right comparison depends on your scope and existing team.
Learning after launch is included because release changes what we know. Real users reveal where an interface is unclear, an operational exception matters, or a priority should move. Maintenance keeps that learning from accumulating on a fragile foundation.
Predictable monthly pricing preserves room to change the sequence without disguising uncertainty as a fixed specification. For market ranges and the variables behind a complete build estimate, use the software cost guide.
You receive a practical product and development direction. Discovery defines the problem, users, important flows, features, technical approach, integrations, risks, boundaries, and recommended sequence.
The level of detail follows the situation: an existing operational system needs different artifacts than an early product idea.
Yes. If you continue into either monthly option with PixelsWithin, the $500 Product Discovery fee is credited toward your first month.
If you do not continue, Discovery remains a complete fixed-price engagement and the work produced is yours to use.
The monthly model lets the sequence change without pretending the original plan is perfect. Diana reviews new evidence with you, protects commitments already in motion, and reorders upcoming work around value, risk, and dependencies.
A materially larger product may take more months or require separately approved specialists and third-party costs; it does not silently change the monthly rate.
Yes. Both monthly options are month to month. Stopping ends ongoing product leadership, development, fixes, updates, and maintenance.
Under Managed Software, PixelsWithin application access also stops and your business data remains exportable. Under Client-Owned Software, you retain the source code already created.
Hosting, infrastructure, domains, app-store accounts, and third-party services still need an active owner and payment. Under the client-owned option, those systems can be handed to your team or another provider.
Managed Software depends on PixelsWithin’s managed application service unless you complete the source-code buyout and arrange a handoff.
You always own your business, brand, customer relationships, business data, domain, app-store accounts, and other business accounts.
The ownership choice concerns the application source code: PixelsWithin owns it under Managed Software; you own code created for your business from the start under Client-Owned Software.
Yes, while the monthly engagement is active. Both options include launch support, maintenance, fixes, product decisions, and continued development.
Hosting and usage-based third-party costs depend on the systems selected and are handled separately where applicable.
Yes. The source-code buyout rate is $36,000. This converts the managed-code position into client ownership and enables a future handoff.
Any transition work, third-party licenses, infrastructure migration, or continued maintenance is scoped according to the product at that time.
$500 Product Discovery
