Pricing
Every business is a different size and shape, so every build gets priced for yours. It starts with a free call and a small paid discovery, and you have the price in writing before any build starts.
Free, and staying free
Free
Read the spec
Capsule's whole design, free on GitHub for anyone to use or change (MIT license).
The spec →Free
Build it yourself
Everything you need to build it is in the spec, free to use. Run it on your own machine, against your own data.
Capsule on GitHub →Free
RouterLM
The design for running the AI model on your own hardware, so the questions never leave the building. Also free to use (MIT).
RouterLM on GitHub →Have us build it: three steps
Step 1
A free call
Tell us what you run, where it gives you trouble, and what you'd want from it. We listen, and we both decide whether a discovery is worth doing.
Step 2
The discovery
We survey your whole database and talk with you about it. You get a findings report: what you have, and what's possible.
Step 3
A proposal
Good, better and best, each with what's included and what it costs. Anything that could slow the project down is on the table.
The discovery, step by step
It's how we get to know your business before anyone talks about a build. The report is yours, whether or not you go further.
$250 or $500, depending on the size of the system. You'll know which on the call. If you go ahead within 60 days, the full fee comes off the first work from the proposal.
Access
You give us read access to your database, or a copy of it. Nothing in your system gets changed.
The survey
We go through all of it: what's in it, how it's built, what it's connected to, where records are thin or doubled up, and what's fragile.
The interview
About an hour with you, or whoever knows the system best: what you have in mind, where it hurts, and the question we always ask. If you could have anything, what would it be? Sometimes it's simpler than you think.
The report
What you have, what works, what's at risk, and what's possible. Laid out like a morning brief, calm and easy to read, with the full findings underneath for anyone who wants the detail. No judgments, and no sales pitch.
The walkthrough
We go through the report together. If you want to go further, the proposal is written from it.
About a week from your go-ahead to the walkthrough.
The proposal
Written from what the discovery found. Choices, not a single take-it-or-leave-it number.
- Three options, good, better and best. Each says what's included and what it costs.
- Each price is worked out from the hours we expect the work to take, and it's in writing before anything starts.
- Blockers are named plainly: anything that could delay your project goes on the table up front.
- Where one addition would make an option more complete, we say so.
- Then you decide. No follow-up pressure.
What a build can include
Capsule
- You ask, it answers: your records copied into one place on your machine, and every answer cites the records it came from.
- Connected to wherever your records live: your database, accounting system, CRM, or a folder of spreadsheets you export.
- 10 to 15 starter questions, tuned to your records.
- Delivered working on your hardware, or on a server you own, with a walkthrough on your real data.
Tend8, everything above plus
- A morning brief: what changed, what's due, what's at risk, what slipped. Tuned to what matters to you.
- A live board: a screen or a browser tab that shows where today stands.
- Ask it, or tell it: "What's overdue?" "Move the Henderson install to Thursday."
- Triggers: when an invoice hits 30 days, or a lead sits for 48 hours, it says so.
Signal Mornings, an add-on to Tend8
- It watches outside the business: your industry, your competitors, the sources you care about.
- Managed for you: we run it and keep adjusting what it watches as your market and your focus change.
- In your morning brief if you want it there, next to what changed inside the business.
Most Capsule builds are working within a week. Tend8 takes about two, because the first few days go to learning how your business runs.
Start with Capsule and add Tend8 later. It extends the same install, so nothing gets rebuilt.
After it's built: the Care Plan
Optional, and it isn't part of the proposal. Once the build is running, it keeps the answers current as the business changes.
- When your system changes, a new field or a renamed table, the connection follows.
- New questions get added as you think of them.
- Better AI as it comes out, a move to another AI company if you want one, and its search kept up to date.
- A daily check that the data is fresh.
What you pay someone else
The machine
A small computer for about $300, or a server for about $5 a month. Yours either way.
AI usage
The AI company you pick bills your own account, at their rates. The account is in your name.
Questions
Why no price list?
Because no two systems are the same size. One database can be a single table or hundreds of them, and a sales dashboard needs far more of it than a fleet board does. The discovery shows what yours needs, and the proposal prices it.
How is a build priced?
From the hours we expect it to take. Each option in the proposal carries its price, in writing, before any work starts.
Does the discovery fee count toward the build?
Yes. If you go ahead within 60 days, the full $250 or $500 comes off the first work from the proposal.
What if I don't go ahead after the discovery?
That's fine. The report is yours, and so is the decision.
Do I need the Care Plan?
No. Without it, the system keeps running on your machine; it just won't get the updates.
Who owns it?
You do. Capsule's code is free for anyone to use or change (MIT license), so it's yours outright. A Tend8 install runs on your machine for as long as you like, with or without the Care Plan, and the setup made for your business, its brief, triggers and board, is yours.
Where does my data go?
It stays on your machine or your server. To answer a question, the question and the records it needs go to the AI company you picked, on your own account. If the AI runs on your own machine, even that stays in the building.
Tell us what you run and where it gives you trouble. The first call is free. Text or email.