Pricing
One number: how many screens
Custom software is usually priced by the hour or by a fixed bid built on early guesses. Lathe Software prices by screen count. Estimate your screens, and you get a monthly fee plus a one-time deposit. The minimum term is 12 months for an app with dynamic screens, or 6 months for a static-only site.
Content that reads the same for every visitor: home, about, services, help articles, legal pages.
Anything backed by data: a login, a list, a form, a record detail, a dashboard, a settings screen. If unsure, count it as dynamic.
$1,059 per month plus a one-time $2,900 deposit for 3 static pages and 8 dynamic screens.
Platform
$49
App platform (API, database, login)
$100
Static pages (3 x $10)
$30
Dynamic screens (8 x $110)
$880
Monthly total
$1,059
One-time deposit
$2,900
How the calculator works
Count the screens in your app. Mark each one static or dynamic. The calculator adds them up and shows your monthly fee and deposit. That is the whole model. We confirm the count before the proposal, and adding screens later adds to the monthly fee at the same rates.
- 01
List your screens
A screen is anything a user lands on: a page, a form, a list, a dashboard. Rough is fine. We confirm the count together before the proposal, and anything discovery adds is priced at the same per-screen rate.
- 02
Mark static or dynamic
Static pages show content. Dynamic screens read or write data. Each type has its own price per screen, and that is the only distinction the calculator makes.
- 03
Read your price
The calculator shows a monthly fee and a one-time deposit. The monthly fee covers development, hosting, and maintenance through the minimum term and beyond. The minimum term is 12 months for an app with dynamic screens, or 6 months for a static-only site.
Static pages and dynamic screens
A static page shows the same content to everyone and has no database behind it. A dynamic screen is backed by data: it shows records, takes input, or changes based on who is signed in. Complexity within each type is ignored on purpose. A simple form and a busy dashboard are both one dynamic screen.
Static page examples
- Home page. Your public front door. Headline, offer, and calls to action.
- About page. Who you are, what you do, and how to reach you.
- Services overview. One page per offering, with descriptions and images.
- Pricing page. Plans, tiers, and what each one includes.
- Help article. A how-to page that reads the same for every visitor.
- Legal page. Privacy policy, terms of service, or an accessibility statement.
Dynamic screen examples
- Login screen. Sign-in through your identity provider, with password reset and session handling.
- Order list. A searchable, filterable table of records pulled from the database.
- Record detail and edit form. One record, its fields, and a validated form to update it.
- Booking calendar. Available slots, reservations, and confirmations backed by live data.
- Dashboard. Charts and totals that update as the underlying data changes.
- Admin settings. User management, roles, and configuration for your team.
What the subscription includes
Every plan includes the same scope. The only variable is screen count.
- Discovery. Working sessions to define screens, data, users, and integrations.
- Interactive prototype. A click-through mock, built with AI assistance, that you review and approve before engineering starts.
- Development. Iterations of 1 to 3 weeks, each producing testable software on staging.
- QA verification. Every change is linted and fully type-checked before it can merge, then verified by QA before it ships.
- Deployment. One click to production once staging passes, into an AWS account you own.
- Hosting. Static hosting for pages. A containerized Node API with managed Postgres for dynamic apps. A managed identity provider for login.
- Maintenance plan. Continuous dependency scanning with weekly triage, cloud advisory tracking, urgent escalation, encrypted backups with retained snapshots, and a quarterly audit with a written report.
- Code and account ownership. The source code and the cloud account are yours from day one.
What is not included
A few things sit outside the subscription. We will tell you up front if your project needs any of them.
- Cloud provider charges. AWS bills your account directly for compute, storage, and data transfer. We size the environment to keep this modest and review cost in every quarterly audit.
- Third-party service fees. Identity provider, email delivery, payment processing, and similar services bill you directly on their own terms.
- Native mobile apps. We build web applications that run in a browser. App store apps are out of scope.
- Content and data entry. You supply the copy, images, and records. We build the screens and the import tools.
- Domain registration and email hosting. You keep your domain registrar and email provider. We set up the DNS records the app needs.
- Changes inside your existing systems. If an integration needs work inside a system you already run, such as a FileMaker script, your team or vendor owns that piece. We define the interface and test against it.
Example builds
Six typical scopes with their screen counts. Load one into the calculator and adjust from there.
Customer portal
Welcome page, Help and contact, Sign in, Order history, Order detail, Documents, New request, Account settings
2 static + 6 dynamicOperations dashboard
Overview, Jobs by status, Late items, Team utilization, Filters and saved views
0 static + 5 dynamicScheduling and booking
Booking landing page, Availability, Book a slot, Confirmation, Staff calendar, Booking detail, Customers, Settings
1 static + 7 dynamicQuote-to-order workflow
Quotes, Quote builder, Approval queue, Quote PDF, Orders, Order detail, Price list, Customers, Reports
0 static + 9 dynamicJob and field tracking
Job board, Job detail, Assign crew, Field update, Photos, Customers, Locations, Reports
0 static + 8 dynamicBack office replacing spreadsheets
Records list, Record detail, Import, Export, Users and roles, Audit log
0 static + 6 dynamicCommon questions
Straight answers to the questions we hear most.
What counts as a screen?
Anything a user navigates to as its own view: a page, a list, a form, a detail view, a dashboard. If you are unsure, list what you have and we will sort it together in the proposal.
Why does complexity not affect the price?
Because arguing over complexity is where fixed bids go wrong. Across a whole app, simple and hard screens average out. Ignoring complexity keeps the quote honest and makes scope changes easy to price.
What is the deposit for?
It is paid once, at the start, and reflects the concentrated work of discovery, prototyping, and the first builds. It is not refundable and is not credited against the monthly fee: you receive the discovery work and the prototype whether or not engineering continues. After that, the monthly fee is the only recurring charge from Lathe Software.
What is the minimum term?
The minimum term is 12 months for an app with dynamic screens, or 6 months for a static-only site. It gives the project enough runway to reach production and settle in. Terms beyond that are spelled out in your proposal.
Can I add screens later?
Yes. Adding a screen adds to your monthly fee at the same per-screen rate. No new proposal and no renegotiation. The one exception: adding the first dynamic screen to a static-only site also adds the app platform fee and moves the site to the longer minimum term.
Who owns the code and the cloud account?
You do. The application runs in an AWS account in your name. The source code is yours. If you end the subscription, you keep both.
How is this different from a fixed-bid project?
The work is the same: discovery, build, deploy, support. The packaging changes. A fixed bid front-loads the cost and ends at launch. The subscription spreads the cost, keeps us engaged after launch, and includes maintenance.
What happens when something breaks?
Report it and we triage it. Defects in what we built are handled under your subscription. For urgent issues from outside the app, such as a package vulnerability or a cloud provider change, you get a recommended action and a cost estimate before any work starts.
Make the number real
Send a short description and a rough screen count. We reply with questions, confirm the count on a call, and send a written proposal.