The Real Cost of Transparent Pricing

There's an open secret in outsourcing: clients pay $150/hour, developers receive $40. (These are industry averages, not our pricing.) Where does the other $110 go?

Most people assume the owner keeps it. Actually, the profit is probably $15–20. The rest is real cost.

Sales teams take 15–20%. Project managers add another layer — charged directly to you. Office, operations, and idle time between projects take another 20–25%.

Owner's net margin? Probably 10–15%.

None of this is dishonest. It's just that the model requires these middle costs to function. Which is why traditional outsourcing can't be transparent — the numbers don't survive scrutiny.

What we changed at Core70

Sales runs at 3–5% of revenue, not 15–20%. Google Ads brings the first lead. After the first contract, growth comes from developers helping clients succeed — not more salespeople chasing logos.

Project managers: gone. Our developers talk directly to your decision-makers. They understand your business, set priorities, make product calls. AI handles what PMs used to do. You don't pay for a translator.

Idle time: near zero. Our core model is long-term Dedicated engagement, renewed monthly. We forbid developers from taking short-term gigs between projects — short-term work never lines up with the next long-term client. We'd rather have a developer wait than lose responsiveness.

Office: yes, we have one. Remote-first doesn't mean office-less. But we don't need a CBD tower to impress visiting clients.

Add it up and 70/10/20 works. 70% to the developer, 10% to the account owner, 20% covers everything else.

If your current vendor can't tell you where every dollar goes, it's probably not because they're cheating you. It's because their model doesn't hold up when you take it apart.

The trade-offs are real

We grow slower. We're selective about clients — if you need three layers of procurement and two departmental reviews, we may not fit. Our scaling is deliberate: three developers in a week, five in two weeks, more in a month. We don't pull bodies from a bench to pad numbers.

This model doesn't suit everyone. But for clients who want transparency, efficiency, and developers who participate directly in business decisions — we're fundamentally different.

The question isn't whether they want to do right by you. It's whether their structure allows it.

Ours does.

If this resonates — see how it shows up in our work.

See the pricing Read case studies