Operating software
Once your software is live, someone has to keep it running: deploying it, watching it, backing it up, and answering when something goes wrong. You can do that yourself, or Exalynt can do it for you. This page explains both choices and exactly what Exalynt charges when it does the work.
At a glance
- Engineering is bought in blocks, at the same price whoever runs the software.
- If Exalynt runs it, you pay $150/month for the Production Foundation, plus $75/month for each production Feature we agree to keep running, such as Customer Scheduling or Reporting.
- Improving a Feature doesn't raise the fee. Adding a new Feature does.
- Infrastructure is billed at cost, with no markup.
- Nothing recurring starts until it's live, and we try to flag new Features early.
You pay for the product Features Exalynt agrees to keep running, not for the number of technical components used to build them.
What's on your bill
Three things, never bundled together:
Who operates your software
You choose, and you don't have to decide before we start building. Capacity costs the same either way.
| Self Operated | Operated by Exalynt | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs production (deployments, monitoring, backups, patching, incidents) | Your team | Exalynt, including at night |
| Operations fee | None | $150/month + $75/month per Feature |
| Infrastructure | You pay providers | Billed to you at cost |
| Engineering Capacity | Same price | Same price |
| Who owns the software and source code | You | You |
| Available for | Any software | Software Exalynt builds |
With Self Operated software, Exalynt is still available through Engineering Capacity to change, improve, or troubleshoot it. There's no recurring Exalynt charge just because the software exists.
How the operations fee works
The fee has two parts, and nothing else: no tiers, complexity pricing, per-Capability fees, percentages, or infrastructure markups.
The Production Foundation
$150/month. The shared work of running a production system at all, whatever Features run on it:
- deployments and releases,
- monitoring and alerting,
- backups and recovery,
- access, secrets, and configuration,
- domains and certificates, and
- incident handling and routine platform care.
You pay for it once for your production system, not again for every Feature. Most clients have one. None of it is a Feature itself.
Your Features
$75/month per Feature.
Operated Scope is the set of production Features Exalynt agrees to keep running.
A Feature is a distinct job your product does, like Customer Scheduling or Online Payments. Each Feature can do many things, its Capabilities, and those never change the fee. Neither do the databases, servers, and services behind it.
| A Feature: in Operated Scope | A Capability: no fee change | Implementation: no fee change |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Scheduling | Reschedule, cancel, calendar sync | A database, a calendar API |
| Automated Notifications | Send SMS, retry failures | A queue, a worker |
| Reporting | Filter, export CSV | A cache, a scheduled task |
Every Feature costs the same, however many Capabilities it has. Features and Capabilities explains how Exalynt tells them apart.
Who decides what's a Feature
Exalynt determines Feature boundaries using a published standard, because Exalynt is responsible for operating that scope. We try to make close calls fairly, and you can always ask us to explain or reconsider a classification.
Classification never holds up a release, and we never reclassify past work to bill for past months. See Who decides.
Work out a fee
Infrastructure and third-party services are billed separately, at cost.
These are Exalynt's starting operations prices. If they change, this page and exalynt.com will say so.
What changes your fee
Most engineering work changes nothing: it adds Capabilities to Features you already have, or changes how they're built. If we consolidate two Features into one, your fee goes down. That's on purpose: Exalynt should be rewarded for making systems simpler, not for keeping complexity alive.
How much engineering went into something doesn't matter either. A Feature that took one block to build and one that took twenty each add $75 a month.
When you're billed
- 1. BuildingNo operations feeYou buy capacity as usual. Development, preview, QA, and staging environments never start a fee.
- 2. Goes liveFee startsWhen a Feature enters real production use and Exalynt agrees to keep it running. Never retroactively.
- 3. RunningChanges only with FeaturesWe add Features as they go live, flagging them early where we can, and remove Features that are retired or consolidated.
- 4. Handed offFee stopsWhen Exalynt no longer operates it, whether it's retired, or you or another operator take it over.
A new Feature becomes billable when it enters real production use and Exalynt agrees to keep it running. "Production" doesn't have to mean public: an internal tool your team relies on, a scheduled job, or an automation doing real work all count.
We try to tell you about a new Feature as early as is practical, though to keep releases moving, that can be at or after go-live rather than before. For example:
Feature impact
This work adds Online Payments as a new Feature.
Because it introduces the distinct product job of collecting and managing payments, it's added to Operated Scope once Exalynt operates it in production.
Operations impact: +$75/month.
If you spend a year building before launch, you pay for capacity (and any infrastructure, at cost) during that year, and the operations fee starts at launch. There's no back-charge for the build.
What the fee covers
Capacity funds change. Operations funds keeping production Features running.
| Covered by the operations fee | Bought as Engineering Capacity |
|---|---|
| Monitoring and responding to alerts | New Features and new Capabilities |
| Handling incidents and getting service back | Changing how a Feature works |
| Deployments, backups, certificates, and routine patching | Bug fixes and reworking code |
| Ordinary maintenance that keeps each Feature healthy | Larger upgrades, migrations, and performance projects |
The fee doesn't buy unlimited engineering, and it isn't pure profit: it funds the continuing engineering work of running production software well.
Why it isn't based on your cloud bill
We do not profit from unnecessary infrastructure or complexity. We charge for the Features we agree to keep running.
The fee isn't tied to cloud spend, traffic, data size, servers, containers, or the number of technical components. If it were, Exalynt would earn more as your system got bigger and more complicated, and less when we made it smaller.
Because it isn't, the incentives point the right way. If we replace five components with one and the Feature stays the same, your infrastructure bill may fall and your operations fee stays the same. So we have every reason to cut unnecessary spend, remove unused resources, choose sensibly sized services, and keep things simple.
Changing who operates the software
You can take over operating your software at any time. The operations fee stops when Exalynt stops operating it.
- No lock-in: no minimum term, exit fee, or software buyout.
- Handoff included: source code, data, and the normal deployment and configuration artifacts. Substantial migration work uses Engineering Capacity.
- One way: Exalynt operates only software it builds, so it doesn't take operations back once you've taken them over, or take on software built elsewhere. We can still help through Engineering Capacity.
Capacity costs the same whoever operates the software, so no one is kept on Exalynt operations by a discount they'd lose by leaving.
Frequently asked questions
How much will operations cost me?
$150 a month for the Production Foundation, plus $75 a month for each Feature in Operated Scope. A system with four Features is $450 a month. Infrastructure is separate, at cost. Try the calculator.
What counts as a Feature?
A distinct job your product does, like Customer Scheduling, Online Payments, or Reporting. The things a Feature can do, like rescheduling or exporting a CSV, are its Capabilities, and they don't add to the fee. See Features and Capabilities.
Who decides whether something is a new Feature?
Exalynt does, using the published standard, because we're the ones agreeing to keep that scope running. We try to make close calls fairly. If you think we got one wrong, ask: we'll explain our reasoning, and correct it going forward if we applied the standard poorly.
Do I have to approve a new Feature before it's released?
No. We don't hold releases for a classification sign-off. We tell you when work adds a Feature and what it does to your fee, as early as is practical, but not always before it goes live.
If you add something to a Feature I already have, does my fee go up?
No. New Capabilities, such as SMS for Automated Notifications or CSV export for Reporting, don't change your Operated Scope. Only a new Feature does.
Do I have to decide who operates the software before you start?
No. Capacity costs the same either way, so you can decide when the software is close to going live.
Will I know before my fee changes?
Usually, but not always. We try to flag new Features early, but we ship and iterate quickly, so a note can come at or after go-live. Nothing new is billed until it's live under Exalynt's care, and nothing is back-billed for the build. See When you're billed.
Can I see what I'm paying for?
Yes. Your Operated Scope is a short list of Features in plain terms, like Customer Portal, Customer Scheduling, Automated Notifications, and Reporting. Ask us about any Feature you don't recognize.
If something breaks, is fixing it extra?
Responding to the incident and getting your software working again is part of operations. If the real fix needs meaningful engineering, such as changing code or reworking how something works, that's Engineering Capacity, and we'll tell you before you buy it. See What the fee covers.
Does my fee go up as I get more customers or data?
No. Your infrastructure bill may grow with real usage, and you pay that at cost, but the operations fee follows your Features, not your usage. See Why it isn't based on your cloud bill.
Does every block I buy add to the fee?
No. A block can add a Feature, but most add Capabilities, fix things, or change how things are built, and those add nothing. See What changes your fee.
Can my fee go down?
Yes. Retiring a Feature, taking it over yourself, or consolidating two Features into one each lower it by $75 a month per Feature removed.
Do development and staging environments count?
No. Local development, development, preview, QA, testing, and staging environments never start an operations fee. Their infrastructure may still be passed through at cost.
Does capacity cost more or less if Exalynt operates my software?
Neither. There is one price for each block, whoever operates the software. See Engineering Capacity.
What happens if I decide to operate the software myself later?
The operations fee stops when Exalynt stops operating it. There's no exit fee or buyout, a standard handoff is included, and your capacity price stays the same. Exalynt won't take operations back later. See Changing who operates the software.
Can Exalynt operate software it didn't build?
No. Exalynt only operates software it builds. It doesn't take on operating software built by someone else, or software that has been Self Operated. Exalynt can still help with that software through Engineering Capacity.
Does Exalynt mark up infrastructure?
No. Infrastructure and third-party services are billed at cost, with no markup, resale margin, or percentage. They aren't Exalynt revenue.