A team we build for you,or a project at a fixed price.
Neither is billed by the hour: a team is priced by its size, and a project by its scope.
We form a pod of forward deployed engineers for your work, for example four engineers or whatever machine learning, software, DevOps and MLOps talent you need. Or, when the work has a clear scope, such as an integration or a smaller project, you hand it to us and we fix the price after a free audit. Either way our engineers work with Steer by Pento, the platform we built, and the code lives in your GitHub from the first commit.
Illustrative client view of a fixed-price Steer project. The terms agreed in writing stay at the top: five goals in scope, a fixed price and the code in the client's GitHub. The goals move from Ready through a session and review to Merged and Verified, each with its evidence. Midway the client asks for refunds to store credit. The request becomes a new goal with its own criteria and its own price and waits for the client's approval, while the agreed scope and price stay unchanged.
How an engagement runs
01Free auditA written report, yours to keep
02Scope and quoteIn writing, before any work starts
03A team or a fixed priceA monthly fee by pod size, or one price for the scope
04Evidence on every pull requestIn your GitHub from the first commit
How does AI software factory pricing work?
Pento sells its AI software factory two ways, and both start with a free audit of the systems you run and the work around them. A team we build for you is a pod of forward deployed engineers, for example four engineers or whatever mix of machine learning, software, DevOps and MLOps talent you need, billed as a monthly fee that depends on the pod's size. A fixed-price project suits work with a clear scope, such as an integration or a smaller build: the price is set once the scope is agreed after the audit. In both, Pento's engineers work with Steer by Pento, the platform we built, and the code lives in your GitHub from the first commit.
From the free audit to the handoff, with the work split up
01Audit
02Scope
03Quote
04Build
05Handoff
You
Keep the written report, whatever you decide
Agree the scope, or the shape of the team
Get the number in writing before work starts
Follow the work from your seat in the workspace
Keep the code, the spec and the evidence
Forward deployed engineers
Review your systems, the manual work and the code
Write goals with acceptance criteria, or shape the team
Quote a monthly fee by pod size, or a fixed price
Steer the agents and judge each change
Hand off, or stay on as your team
Steer + AI agents
Order the goals by what depends on what
Build in parallel, on branches in your GitHub
Review + checks
Evidence on every pull request
01Audit
YouKeep the written report, whatever you decide
Forward deployed engineersReview your systems, the manual work and the code
02Scope
YouAgree the scope, or the shape of the team
Forward deployed engineersWrite goals with acceptance criteria, or shape the team
Steer + AI agentsOrder the goals by what depends on what
03Quote
YouGet the number in writing before work starts
Forward deployed engineersQuote a monthly fee by pod size, or a fixed price
04Build
YouFollow the work from your seat in the workspace
Forward deployed engineersSteer the agents and judge each change
Steer + AI agentsBuild in parallel, on branches in your GitHub
Review + checksEvidence on every pull request
05Handoff
YouKeep the code, the spec and the evidence
Forward deployed engineersHand off, or stay on as your team
↺A change to a fixed-price scope becomes a new goal with its own price, and you approve it before work on it starts.
Two ways to work
Pay monthly for a team we build for you, or a fixed price for a scoped project.
Both start with a free audit, and in both our engineers work with Steer, the platform we built. Neither is billed by the hour.
Monthly fee · set by pod size
A team we build for you
Pento forms a pod of forward deployed engineers and staffs it for your work. A pod of four engineers is one example, and the mix is whatever talent you need: machine learning, software, DevOps and MLOps. They deliver your projects with Steer, our platform, alongside.
What you get
A pod of Pento engineers working your roadmap in your GitHub, with the spec and evidence on every pull request.
Best for
An ongoing roadmap, a large project such as a migration, scope that will change as you learn, or work that needs machine learning, software and infrastructure people together.
For work you can scope up front, such as an integration, a Shopify app or an internal tool. We write the scope with you as goals with acceptance criteria, fix the price, and our engineers build it on Steer, our platform.
What you get
Working software in your GitHub, evidence on every pull request, a seat in the workspace for your team and a handoff.
Best for
Integrations and smaller projects with a clear scope. First projects ship in weeks.
✳ If you want engineers to join your own process under your management, we still offer classic staff augmentation: AI team augmentation.
What sets the price
The pod sets the monthly fee. The scope sets the project price.
Both are written down before work starts, and both come after the free audit.
A team we build for you
Sets the monthly fee
Pod size
The number of engineers we allocate to your work.
The talent you need
Machine learning, software, DevOps and MLOps engineers, in the mix your roadmap calls for. The mix is written down with the fee.
Always included
Pento engineers, with Steer
The pod works on Steer, our platform, with specs and evidence on every pull request.
Your GitHub from the first commit
Branches, pull requests and the full history live in your repositories.
A seat in the workspace
Your team follows goals, sessions, reviews and the weekly numbers from day one.
A fixed-price project
Sets the price
Scope
How many goals the scope holds, and how much each one asks for.
Integrations and external systems
Every API, ERP, payment provider or third party the software has to talk to.
Environments and data migration
Where the software has to run, and what moves over from the old system.
Risk classes
Changes that touch data or external systems get more review than low-risk ones.
Always included
The written spec
Goals with acceptance criteria, approved before the build starts.
Evidence, your GitHub and a seat
Tests, logs and screenshots on every pull request, code in your repositories, and a workspace seat for your team.
The handoff
The code, the spec, the evidence and the record of every decision.
Quoted separately
Running it after launch
Ongoing work has no end date, so it never hides inside a project price.
New requests during the build
Each one becomes a new goal with its own acceptance criteria and price.
Who carries the risk
On a team, you steer and we deliver. On a fixed-price project, overruns are ours.
Neither offer is billed by the hour. A team puts you in charge of the priorities and Pento in charge of how the work is built and proven. A fixed-price project puts the cost of the agreed scope on Pento.
A team we build for you compared with a fixed-price project
Compared on
A team we build for you
A fixed-price project
Who carries delivery risk
A team we build for youSharedYou set the priorities, and we own how it's built and the evidence that it's done.
A fixed-price projectPentoThe price is fixed in writing, so an overrun is ours.
If the scope changes
A team we build for youA team suits a scope that will change as you learn, and you set the priorities.
A fixed-price projectA change becomes a new goal with its own acceptance criteria and its own price, and you approve it before any work on it starts.
Time to first result
A team we build for youOnce the pod is onboarded to your repositories
A fixed-price projectA free audit, then first projects ship in weeks
FAQ
What people ask before the first quote
Not covered here? Bring the question to a discovery call. An engineer reads every request.
No. A team's monthly fee depends on the size of the pod, and a project's price depends on its scope, so both are quoted after the free audit. A number before the audit would be a guess. After it, you get the number in writing before any work starts.
Pento forms a pod of forward deployed engineers and staffs it for your work. A pod of four engineers is one example, and the mix is whatever talent you need across machine learning, software, DevOps and MLOps. The pod delivers your projects with Steer, our platform, alongside, in your GitHub, with evidence on every pull request.
By the size of the pod, meaning the number of engineers we allocate. The fee is written down before the team starts. We don't bill by the hour.
After the free audit, we write the scope with you as a set of goals with acceptance criteria. Once you agree to it, the price is fixed. That only works when the scope can be written down up front, which is why fixed prices suit integrations and smaller projects.
Pick a team for an ongoing roadmap, a large project such as a migration, a scope that will change as you learn, or work that needs machine learning, software and DevOps people together. Pick a fixed-price project when the scope is clear and contained: an integration, a Shopify app, an internal tool. You can also start with a project and keep the same engineers on as a team when it ships.
Yes. The audit is free, and the written report is yours to keep whatever you decide. We review the systems you run, the work people do by hand around them and the code behind them, and the report is what the scope of a first project or the shape of a team is built from.
A change becomes a new goal with its own acceptance criteria and its own price, and you approve it before any work on it starts. Nothing in the original scope or price changes silently.
Yes. A first fixed-price project can be one bounded piece of work: a single integration, an internal tool or one subsystem of a migration. It shows you how our engineers work on your code, with your team in the workspace, before you commit to anything larger.
You do. The code lives in your GitHub repositories from the first commit, and the work happens on branches and pull requests there, so you keep the full history, the spec and the evidence on every pull request. If we stop working together, all of it stays with you.
Running and maintaining the software after launch is a separate line on the quote, because it is ongoing work with no end date. New requests that arrive during the build are quoted as new goals. Everything inside the written scope is included: the spec, the build, evidence on every pull request, a seat in the workspace for your team and the handoff.
Hours no longer measure the work. AI agents do much of the implementation in parallel, so the time an engineer logs says little about what you get. A team is priced by its size, and a project by its scope, so what you pay is tied to what you approved.
Staff augmentation sells time: engineers join your team and your process, and you carry the delivery risk. A Pento team is a pod we build and staff for you, working on Steer with evidence on every pull request. A fixed-price project hands Pento the whole delivery of a scoped piece of work, at a price set before the build starts. If classic staff augmentation is what you need, we offer that too.
We review the systems you run and the work around them, and the written report is yours to keep. Then you get a monthly quote for a team, or a fixed price for a scoped project. An engineer reads every request.