I build and operate the same class of system I am advising you on. That constrains what I am willing to recommend, which is the entire point. Every engagement is a fixed question with a fixed fee, and it ends in a document you own.
Each one is scoped to a question and ends when the question is answered.
You have quotes from three suppliers and no way to compare them. I read the contracts, test the claims, and tell you which one survives contact with your operation.
The most expensive decision in a software project is made before anyone writes code. I cost both paths honestly, including the one that loses me the build work.
For teams that have decided to build. What the pieces are, how they connect, what order to build them in, and which parts are not worth building at all.
If a proposal brought you here, consulting is the lowest-risk first engagement: one fixed-price milestone, one written deliverable, and you decide what happens next with the answer in hand.
The conversation stays where it started: reply to the proposal with the question you need answered and I will scope it there.
A single call, a block of hours you can spend on development or consulting, or a standing monthly arrangement. Every one starts with the question written down.
$250one call
Bring the question. Leave with an answer.
A working session, not a sales call. One decision, talked through.
Most start here
$2,500block of hours
Development and consulting, on the clock.
Budget in hand, a defined piece of work, no long commitment.
$5,000per month
A standing technical lead, without the hire.
Operations with decisions in flight every week and no one to own them.
Month to month
The call is credited toward a block or a month if you continue. Prefer written answers only? Counsel starts at $99 a month at pushbuttonai.com/counsel.
On Upwork or Freelancer these are contracted as fixed-price milestones at the same rates, through the platform.
An engagement is a fixed question with a fixed end. If it turns into ongoing work, that is a separate conversation we both agree to.
When the answer is build it, the architecture goes straight into a PushButton Build quote. When the answer is keep going, the block and the month are already priced. Either way you are free to take the document elsewhere.
The architecture document becomes the brief. PushButton Build quotes it at a fixed price, runs the build in a client portal, and hands over the source at the end.
The same rates carry on: a ten-hour block for the work that follows the recommendation, or a monthly arrangement when the decisions keep coming.
Bring the question. A thirty-minute call for $250, a written summary afterwards, and the fee credited if it turns into a block or a month.