Transparent Pricing
A monthly retainer covers your full tech team. At the end of your engagement, a one-time knowledge transfer fee ensures your codebase, processes, and institutional knowledge are fully handed over — then the relationship ends cleanly.
How We're Different
An honest comparison of Tech Department as a Service vs other technical leadership options.
| Criterion | Chrysopoeic | Full-Time | Traditional Agency | Offshore Agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commitment | Month-to-month engagement - scale up, down, or exit without lock-in | Permanent hire and long notice periods - costly to reverse before value is proven | Engagement ends when the defined project scope is complete | Offshore agencies typically work to a defined project scope, often with fixed-price contracts |
| Leadership Included | CTO-level technical leadership and architectural decision-making built into every engagement | You hire a dedicated CTO who owns technical strategy | Agencies deliver outputs - technical leadership stays your responsibility | Offshore agencies supply developers - you must provide your own technical direction |
| Development Team | A full development team is included - no separate hiring required | Your CTO leads the team, but developers must still be sourced and onboarded separately | Project-scoped teams are assembled per engagement and don't remain after delivery | Large pools of developers available at low day rates - volume is easy, coordination is not |
| Strategic Guidance | Ongoing input on architecture, tooling, and technical roadmap as your startup evolves | A dedicated CTO aligns technical strategy directly with your business goals | Strategic input is scoped to the project - broader roadmap guidance varies by agency | Offshore teams execute to spec - strategic and architectural decisions remain with you |
| Knowledge Transfer | Structured handoff to your permanent team - documentation, mentoring, and training built in | Knowledge transfer depends on internal culture and how long your CTO stays | Documentation quality varies - knowledge typically leaves with the agency team | Timezone gaps and high turnover make systematic knowledge transfer difficult |
| Hiring Support | We actively support hiring your permanent CTO and first developers as part of the engagement | Your CTO can hire developers, but there is no structured support for hiring them, their own replacement, or building the team after they leave | Agencies deliver defined projects - building your permanent team isn't their mandate | Offshore agencies supply their own staff - supporting your internal hiring isn't part of the model |
| Flexibility | Adjust scope, team size, and focus monthly as your startup's needs change | Permanent hires are costly and difficult to reverse - equity and severance add friction | Scope changes mid-project are possible but usually require contract renegotiation | Scaling headcount is cheap, but pivoting direction or quality mid-engagement is difficult |
| Code Quality | Senior engineers with accountability for maintainability, testing, and long-term health - reviewed at every stage | A dedicated CTO enforces standards, but quality depends on the individuals hired | Quality varies by agency - incentives favour shipping on time, not long-term maintainability | Cost optimisation often means junior-heavy teams, high turnover, and minimal code review culture |
| Ease of Scaling | Add or remove roles monthly - no recruitment lag, no severance risk | Each new hire requires recruitment, onboarding, and long-term commitment - slow and expensive to scale | Scaling requires a new project scope or contract amendment - not designed for rapid change | Large talent pools make scaling headcount easy - but coordination costs grow with team size |
| Time to Start | First deliverables within 1-2 weeks of contract signing | Recruitment, notice periods, and onboarding typically spans 3-6 months | Proposal, contract, and project kickoff typically takes 2-4 weeks | Offshore agencies can spin up quickly - but scoping and communication setup adds time |
| Cost | Monthly retainer covers the full team - no recruitment costs, benefits overhead, or equity dilution. Scales up or down monthly. | Salary, employer NI, benefits, and equity for a CTO, plus separate recruitment and salaries for each developer hired | High day rates with scope creep risk - changes outside the original spec typically trigger additional charges | Low day rates, but hidden costs in coordination overhead, quality remediation, and re-work often erode the savings |
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Tech Department as a Service
Complete tech department (CTO + development team) in one package. Get both leadership and execution without the complexity of separate hiring.
Build Operate Transfer
A structured path from MVP to scale with a clear handoff to your permanent CTO and developers. Not a never-ending engagement.
Radical Transparency
Complete visibility into technical decisions, trade-offs, and progress. No hidden costs, no surprises, no corporate speak.
| Count | Role | Chrysopoeic / mo | Traditional / mo |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | CTO Chief Technology Officer | £5,000 | £18,333 |
0 | Tech Lead Technical team lead | £4,000 | £15,000 |
1 | Senior Developer Experienced full-stack engineer | £3,500 | £12,500 |
0 | Junior Developer Early-career developer | £2,000 | £8,333 |
0 | QA Engineer Quality assurance specialist | £2,500 | £10,000 |
Rates include all overheads. Max 5 per role.
Monthly Retainer
Chrysopoeic
£8,500
Traditional
£30,833
Save £22,333/mo (72%)
Engagement Duration
Knowledge Transfer Fee
£15,300
15% of annual retainer · paid at handoff
Payment Timeline
Monthly retainer payments followed by a one-time knowledge transfer fee at handoff.
Retainer Total
£102,000
12 × £8,500/mo
+ Transfer Fee
£15,300
15% of annual retainer
Grand Total
£117,300
vs £370,000 traditional — save £252,700 (68%)