You see it running
before you pay for it.
Products run $4,500 to $45,000 to build, priced by size rather than by seat. The blueprint is free, you pay in stages, and you never pay for a stage you have not approved.
CORE is priced per product, not per seat. Create runs $4,500–$45,000 by size; Re-engineer carries a 30% uplift; Optimize and Evaluate are monthly because that work recurs. Payment is staged 0 / 20 / 40 / 40 — and the 40% build milestone falls due only after your team has logged into the finished system on a live link and accepted it.
How payment works
The market has been burned by AI-generated software that looks right and behaves badly. We do not ask you to take our word for it. You use the system before most of the money changes hands.
The complete design — every screen, the data model, integrations, applicable controls, and the review gates with the role responsible for each.
You have paid nothing.
You review and sign off the architecture and data model. Nothing is generated until you do.
You have paid a fifth, and only after seeing the whole design.
We deploy the finished system to our servers and send you a link. Your team logs in and works through it against your own scenarios. The stage falls due when you accept it.
You have never paid for a system you have not used.
Source code into your repository, with tests, documentation and the full approval trail. From here it runs in your infrastructure.
You pay the balance only when the asset is yours.
Your maximum exposure at any moment is one stage. If the first build stage does not match the blueprint you approved, we refund it in full and you owe nothing further — a bounded, objective commitment rather than an open-ended satisfaction guarantee.
The test link, in detail
It is the real system
Not a video, not a demo we drive. Your team logs in and works through it against your own scenarios, at your own pace, as many times as you like.
Acceptance is objective
The standard is that the system matches the blueprint you approved and passes the agreed test suite — not that someone feels satisfied. Anything beyond the approved blueprint is a change request, re-blueprinted and quoted separately.
Ten business days
From the link going live, to accept or raise specific written defects. After that the stage is deemed accepted, so neither side is left hanging.
Synthetic data only
Test with anonymised or synthetic data, never production records. The system moves into your own infrastructure at handover, and that is where real data belongs.
If we disappear, you still get the code
The build is committed to a private repository from day one and released to you in full if we fail to deliver against the approved blueprint. Holding the code until handover protects the arrangement, not us.
The link stays up for 30 days
After acceptance, so your wider team can look before handover. After that it comes down and the system lives in your environment.
The price list
Size is measured in use cases and database tables, because those drive effort more reliably than lines of code. If you are near a boundary, the free blueprint settles it before you commit to anything.
| Product size | CreateNew build | Re-engineerLegacy rebuild | OptimizePer month | EvaluatePer month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Small One team’s workflow 20–25 use cases · ~20 tables |
$4,500–$8,000 | $6,000–$10,500 | $150–$250 | $100–$160 |
Medium A departmental system 40–45 use cases · ~40 tables |
$8,000–$15,000 | $10,500–$19,500 | $250–$450 | $160–$280 |
Large A cross-functional platform 50–65 use cases · ~80 tables |
$15,000–$25,000 | $19,500–$32,500 | $450–$750 | $280–$480 |
Enterprise A core business platform 100+ use cases · ~120 tables |
$25,000–$45,000 | $32,500–$58,500 | $750–$1,400 | $480–$900 |
All figures in USD. Create and Re-engineer are one-time, per product, paid across the four stages above. Optimize and Evaluate are monthly per live product, because that work recurs as the system changes.
Why each tier is a range
Two products with the same table count can differ substantially in effort. Three things move you from the bottom of a range to the top — and the blueprint tells you which end you are at before you commit.
Regulated data
How many of your tables hold data under SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS or GDPR obligations. Regulated tables need controls designed in at blueprint stage, tighter access rules, and evidence produced alongside the build.
Integration difficulty
Whether the systems you connect to expose documented APIs. An integration against a well-documented API is routine. One against an undocumented internal service is a small project of its own.
Compliance evidence
Whether you need formal artefacts an auditor will accept — control mappings, approval trails, test results tied to requirements — or whether working software is enough.
What the price includes
| Included in every product | Not included |
|---|---|
| The full blueprint, before any code exists — free | Your own cloud costs after handover — the product runs in your account and you pay your provider directly |
| A hosted test link and your acceptance period | Third-party licences and API fees for services you choose to integrate |
| A human approval gate at every stage, with a recorded audit trail | Your team’s time reviewing and approving each stage — deliberately so, the review is the product |
| Source code in mainstream languages, delivered to your repository | Per-user seat licences — there are none, add as many users as you like |
| Unit and integration tests, OpenAPI specs, documentation | A runtime licence to keep the software running — there is none, you own the code |
| Control mappings for the compliance regimes you specify | Work outside the approved blueprint — re-blueprinted and quoted separately |
These rates sit below where we intend to settle.
CORE launched in 2026. We are trading margin for something we need more at this stage: customers who will let us describe the work. In exchange for founding rates we ask for a named case study, or a reference call with a future prospect, once your system is live.
If you would rather stay anonymous, that is completely fine — say so and we quote at standard rate instead. We would rather have the work than the logo.
Pricing questions
How is CORE priced?
Per product, not per seat. Building a product runs $4,500 to $45,000 depending on its size, measured in use cases and database tables. Re-engineering a legacy product carries roughly a 30 percent uplift, because extracting business rules from undocumented code is the hard part. Optimize and Evaluate are priced monthly per live product, because that work recurs as the system changes. Adding users costs nothing — there is no per-user licence.
When do we actually pay?
In stages, and never for a stage you have not approved. The blueprint is free. You pay 20 percent when you approve the design and architecture, before any code exists. You pay 40 percent after you have logged into the working system on a live link we host and confirmed it does what the blueprint said. You pay the final 40 percent at handover, when the source code, tests, documentation and approval trail land in your repository. Your exposure is never more than one stage.
We can test the system before paying for it?
Yes, and we think this is the most important thing on this page. When the build is complete we deploy it to our servers and send you a link. Your team logs in and works through it against your own scenarios — not a demo we drive, not a video, the actual system. Only when you accept it does the 40 percent milestone fall due. The market has been burned by AI-generated code that looks right and behaves badly, and a working link is the only honest answer to that.
What counts as acceptance?
That the system matches the blueprint you approved and passes the agreed test suite. We use an objective standard deliberately, because “satisfied” is unbounded and neither side benefits from an open-ended obligation. Anything outside the approved blueprint is a change request, re-blueprinted and quoted separately. You have ten business days from the link going live to accept or raise specific written defects; after that the stage is deemed accepted.
Who holds the code until we pay?
We do, until handover. That is what allows us to let you test a complete working system before you have paid for most of it. To protect you against the obvious risk, the code is committed to a private repository from the first day of the build, and released to you in full if we fail to deliver against the approved blueprint. You are not exposed to us disappearing mid-project.
What if the build does not match the blueprint?
If the first build stage does not match the design you approved, we refund that stage in full and you owe nothing further. That is a bounded, objective commitment rather than an open-ended satisfaction guarantee — we can keep it, which is why we make it.
What counts as a small, medium, large or enterprise product?
Size is measured by use cases and database tables, because those drive effort more reliably than lines of code. Small is roughly 20 to 25 use cases across about 20 tables. Medium is 40 to 45 use cases across about 40 tables. Large is 50 to 65 use cases across about 80 tables. Enterprise is 100 or more use cases across roughly 120 tables. If you are near a boundary, the free blueprint settles it before you commit to anything.
Why is each tier a range?
Because two products with the same table count can differ substantially in effort. Within any tier, price moves on three things: how many of your tables carry regulated data, whether your integrations expose documented APIs, and whether you need formal compliance evidence such as SOC 2 or HIPAA artefacts. The blueprint tells you exactly where in the range you land, and the quote that follows is fixed.
Do we run CORE ourselves, or does SSDB do the work?
Either. CORE is a platform you log into and drive yourself: you describe what you need, CORE produces the blueprint, your team approves each stage, and CORE builds. If you would rather hand the whole thing over, SSDB Tech can run the pathway for you as a delivery engagement — same platform, same gates, quoted separately.
Why is Re-engineer more expensive than Create?
Because the output is similar but the input is much harder. Building from a requirement starts with a description of what the system should do. Re-engineering starts with undocumented legacy code where the business rules exist only inside the implementation, and often nobody at the company can still explain them. Extracting those rules and proving they were preserved is the real work.
Why are Optimize and Evaluate priced monthly?
Because they are ongoing rather than one-time. Optimize keeps changing a system that stays live, and Evaluate maintains a test suite that would otherwise rot as the application evolves. Optimize lands at roughly 30 to 35 percent of the build price per year, which is above the 15 to 20 percent most enterprises budget for maintenance — deliberately, because this is active development rather than support.
What is not included in the price?
Your own cloud costs, since CORE-built products run in your account after handover and you pay your provider directly. Third-party licences and API fees for services you choose to integrate. And your own team's time reviewing and approving each stage, which is deliberate — the review is the product.
Are there ongoing licence fees to keep running what CORE built?
No. The generated software is standard source code deployed to infrastructure you control, with no runtime dependency on CORE. If you stop using CORE tomorrow, your products keep running and your engineers maintain them. Ongoing cost arises only if you continue using CORE for further work.
What is founding pricing?
CORE launched in 2026 and these rates sit below where we intend to settle. We are trading margin for something we need more at this stage: customers who will let us describe the work. In exchange we ask for a named case study or a reference call with a future prospect once your system is live. If you would rather stay anonymous that is completely fine — we quote at standard rate instead.
Not sure which tier you are in?
Send one requirement. Within 48 hours we return a scoped blueprint that tells you the size, the tier, and where in the range you land. Free, and yours to keep whether or not you work with us.