Commercials & Pricing

Backend Performance, Priced by Scope

Fixed-scope backend audits, launch readiness verdicts, and CI performance gates. Every engagement runs on our own tooling and leaves it in your repo.

Why PerfOps

We ship the tooling, not a slide deck

Most performance consultants run a test, write a report, and leave. We install the same engine we run in production: SLOs as code, k6 scenarios, and a release gate that keeps checking after we’re gone.

LaunchGate
Deterministic GO / CONDITIONAL / NO-GO from k6 results + slo.yaml. Go CLI, GitHub Action, API.
Saturation detector
Finds the degradation onset across ramp stages and explains it: p95, error rate, long tail, hotspots.
k6 + chaos library
Ramp, spike, soak, and breakpoint scenarios, plus dependency-failure experiments.
NFR / SLO templates
Per-stack SLO baselines and a traffic model that turns DAU into avg, peak, and spike RPS.
Cost per request
Monthly infra spend mapped to RPS, so capacity decisions come with a price.
Grafana as code
Dashboards, datasources, and alert rules provisioned into your stack.
Tooling Stack

The Engine Stays in Your Repository

Every project runs on our own tooling and delivers it directly to your infrastructure. No vendor lock-in, no SaaS subscription for exit codes.

  • βœ“slo.yaml format for performance requirements
  • βœ“k6 test scenarios with automated thresholds
  • βœ“LaunchGate CLI and GitHub Action CI gates
  • βœ“Grafana dashboards and alert rules as code
Fixed scope

Backend packages

Starting prices for a single product backend. Calculate return in the ROI calculator or scope in the Enterprise quote calculator; the final number is fixed in the SOW.

Diagnostic

Signal & Bottleneck Scan

Fast external diagnostic across APM, traces, and metrics before a release or infra decision. You get a ranked bottleneck shortlist and an actionable priority plan.

from$9,5001 week Β· fixed
βœ“Critical bottleneck shortlist from APM, logs & traces
βœ“Risk map for hot user flows, queues, and dependencies
βœ“Database headroom & connection pool saturation check
βœ“Prioritized fix roadmap by impact, urgency & effort
βœ“Executive decision memo backed by telemetry
Next Stepfrom $14,500
Backend Performance Audit or CI Performance Gate
1–3 weeks
3 Exit Outcomes (Clinic Model)
  • 1.Healthy: Telemetry confirms healthy SLOs; diagnostic closed with no follow-up needed
  • 2.Nurture: Quarterly baseline re-evaluation
  • 3.Paid Next Step: CI Gate ($14,500) or Backend Audit ($18,000)
CI / CD

CI Performance Gate

LaunchGate installed in your pipeline. Every pull request runs k6 against your SLOs and is blocked on regression, with dashboards and alerts wired to the same numbers.

from$14,5001–2 weeks Β· fixed
βœ“slo.yaml as the single source of truth for SLOs
βœ“k6 thresholds exported from slo.yaml
βœ“LaunchGate GitHub Action blocking PRs on regression
βœ“Grafana dashboards & alert rules provisioned
βœ“Runbook, team handover, and maintenance cadence
Next Stepfrom $15,000 / mo
Fractional Performance Engineer
Monthly Β· cancel anytime
3 Exit Outcomes (Clinic Model)
  • 1.Autonomous: CI pipeline fully self-sufficient, team owns operations
  • 2.Nurture: Monthly SLO budget review
  • 3.Paid Next Step: Fractional Performance Engineer retainer ($15,000/mo)
Performance

Backend Performance Audit

Profiling under load across API, database, queues, and caches. You get a ranked fix list with expected gains, then a re-test with verified before/after telemetry delta.

from$18,0002–3 weeks Β· fixed
βœ“CPU, memory & GC profiling under load (pprof, async-profiler, py-spy)
βœ“Database: slow queries, lock contention, connection pools, N+1
βœ“Queues & caches: Kafka consumer lag, partitioning, hit ratio
βœ“p50 / p95 / p99 baseline per endpoint
βœ“Re-test after fixes with verified before/after telemetry delta
Next Stepfrom $14,500
CI Performance Gate or Fractional Retainer
1–2 weeks or monthly
3 Exit Outcomes (Clinic Model)
  • 1.Healthy: Audit completed, system stable, no immediate paid step needed
  • 2.Nurture: Quarterly baseline re-evaluation
  • 3.Paid Next Step: CI Gate setup ($14,500) or Fractional Retainer ($15,000/mo)
FinOps

Cloud Cost & FinOps Architecture

Engineering-led unit economics and telemetry audit across AWS/GCP/K8s and observability. We eliminate idle compute, high-cardinality waste, and right-size autoscaling to cut cost per request by 25–45%.

from$19,5002–3 weeks Β· fixed
βœ“Cost-per-request model & service-level cloud bill decomposition
βœ“Kubernetes HPA/KEDA right-sizing, resource requests & commitment strategy
βœ“Observability cardinality cut & OpenTelemetry pipeline optimization
βœ“Verified 25–45% infra spend reduction roadmap without SLO degradation
βœ“Automated FinOps budget guardrails and cost-anomaly alerts
Next Stepfrom $15,000 / mo
Fractional Performance Engineer
Monthly Β· cancel anytime
3 Exit Outcomes (Clinic Model)
  • 1.Healthy: Target unit-cost reduction achieved; team operates guardrails
  • 2.Nurture: Quarterly unit-economics and commitment review
  • 3.Paid Next Step: Fractional Performance Engineer retainer ($15,000/mo)
AI Infra

AI & LLM Inference Efficiency

Latency (TTFT / TPOT), GPU throughput, and cost-per-token optimization for production AI/LLM pipelines, RAG architectures, and multi-agent workloads under concurrency.

from$22,0003–4 weeks Β· fixed
βœ“TTFT, inter-token latency (TPOT) & concurrency benchmarking under load
βœ“vLLM / TGI / Triton tuning: continuous batching, KV-cache & quantization
βœ“Semantic caching, model routing & upstream 429 rate-limit resilience
βœ“RAG vector index & agent tool-call tail-latency optimization
βœ“Production AI SLO guardrails + verified cost-per-1k-tokens reduction
Next Stepfrom $15,000 / mo
Capacity & Launch Readiness or Retainer
3–5 weeks or monthly
3 Exit Outcomes (Clinic Model)
  • 1.Healthy: Target TTFT and token unit-economics verified in production
  • 2.Nurture: Re-benchmark upon foundation model upgrade or traffic jump
  • 3.Paid Next Step: Launch Readiness ($28,000) or Retainer ($15,000/mo)
Most popular
Launch

Capacity & Launch Readiness

Before a launch, campaign, or partner integration. We model real traffic, find the saturation point, break dependencies on purpose, and hand decision owners a LaunchGate verdict.

from$28,0003–5 weeks Β· fixed
βœ“Traffic model from DAU: avg, peak & spike RPS
βœ“k6 ramp, spike, soak & breakpoint scenarios up to 100k+ RPS
βœ“Saturation point and bottleneck map per service
βœ“Chaos & quotas: upstream rate limits (LLM/Stripe/CRM 429), timeouts, cascade retries
βœ“GO / CONDITIONAL / NO-GO verdict + production release gate
Next Stepfrom $15,000 / mo or $45,000
Peak Event Coverage or Fractional Retainer
Event-bound or monthly
3 Exit Outcomes (Clinic Model)
  • 1.Ready: Launch verified, system handles peak load autonomously
  • 2.Nurture: In-house remediation with scheduled review
  • 3.Paid Next Step: Peak Event Coverage (from $45,000) or Retainer ($15,000/mo)
Reliability Β· Monthly

Fractional Performance Engineer

Staff+ performance and SRE ownership for teams without one in-house. Every major release goes through load review and a LaunchGate verdict.

  • βœ“Pre-release load & architecture review
  • βœ“LaunchGate verdicts on your pipeline
  • βœ“Capacity planning & cost per request tracking
  • βœ“Priority incident triage & deep RCA
Platform Evolutionfrom $60,000
End-to-End Performance Program
Quarterly cadence
3 Exit Outcomes (Clinic Model)
  • 1.Target SLO met: Transition to lightweight monitoring
  • 2.Steady state: Continue monthly fractional retainer
  • 3.Paid Next Step: End-to-End Performance Program (from $60,000)
from$15,000 / moper month Β· cancel monthly
Discuss Retainer
Market Benchmark Β· September 2026

Tooling Subscription vs. Engineering Verdict

Traditional load testing platforms bill for computing Virtual Users (VUs) and leave your team with raw metrics. Between $499/mo SaaS and $25k/yr Enterprise lies an empty tier. We deliver a verified release decision and code in your repo, not billed VU-hours.

Layer 1 Β· Self-Serve SaaS
$19 – $499 / mo

Grafana Cloud k6 Pro ($19/mo + $0.15/VUh), Artillery Business ($499/mo), LoadForge ($67–$200/mo), Azure Load Testing.

  • β€’Billed by test load volume (VU-hours)
  • !Engineers must find bottlenecks and DB locks alone
  • !No verified release GO / NO-GO verdict
Empty Tier Β· Decision
PerfOps Engineering
$9.5k – $28k fixed

Signal & Bottleneck Scan ($9.5k), CI Performance Gate ($14.5k), Backend Audit ($18k), FinOps ($19.5k), AI Infra ($22k), Launch Readiness ($28k).

  • βœ“Deterministic GO / CONDITIONAL / NO-GO verdict
  • βœ“Root-cause localization: slow DB queries, locks, CPU, queues
  • βœ“LaunchGate GitHub Action permanently in your repo
Layer 2 Β· Enterprise & Agencies
$25,000+ / yr

Grafana Cloud k6 Enterprise (from $25k/yr), Gatling Enterprise (on request), traditional QA agencies ($15k+/sprint).

  • β€’Multi-month procurement and annual commit
  • β€’High overhead and static PDF decks
  • β€’Too slow for targeted release launches in 2–3 weeks
Market benchmark verified against public vendor pricing as of September 2026 (gatling.io/pricing, grafana.com, artillery.io, loadforge.com).
Per-Decision Pricing Β· Not VU-Hours

LaunchGate Subscription: Release Gates in CI

Traditional load platforms bill for Virtual User hours (VUh), charging you for raw compute and noise. LaunchGate bills strictly for authoritative release verdicts (GO / CONDITIONAL / NO-GO). Your load generator (k6, Gatling, Locust) remains your own replaceable tool.

Customer Portal (/cabinet) β†’
350 gates/mo
202501,0002,5005,000+
3 services
15102030+
Billing Cycle-20% on Annual
Recommended PlanTeam Gate
$79/ mo
Saves $240/yr with annual billing ($948/yr)

350 gates/mo on 3 services. Zero overage.

  • βœ“500 gates included
  • βœ“Up to 5 services
  • βœ“90 days baseline retention
Active plan in Portal: Team GateOpen in /cabinet β†—

Developer Starter

$0/ mo
50 gates included
  • β€’Up to 50 release gates / month
  • β€’1 service / repository
  • β€’14-day history & baseline retention
  • β€’Local & CI CLI (k6 x gate)
  • β€’Deterministic GO / NO-GO markdown & JSON reports

Free community open-core tier for solo developers.

Team Gate

FitActive
$79/ mo
500 gates included Β· $0.25/overage
  • β€’500 release gates / month included
  • β€’Up to 5 services / repositories
  • β€’90-day history & baseline retention
  • β€’Noise-resistant majority voting baseline engine
  • β€’Automated PR merge-blocking on SLO regression
  • β€’Slack & webhook notifications with action hints

Billed strictly per release verdict, not per VU-hour. €99/mo monthly or €79/mo billed annually.

Scale Platform

$239/ mo
2 500 gates included Β· $0.15/overage
  • β€’2,500 release gates / month included
  • β€’Up to 20 services / repositories
  • β€’1-year history & baseline retention
  • β€’Native OpenTelemetry metric correlation
  • β€’Cross-service latency regression detection
  • β€’Priority engineering support & policy review

Designed for growing multi-service engineering teams. €299/mo monthly or €239/mo billed annually.

Enterprise Governance

$799/ mo
10 000 gates included Β· $0.08/overage
  • β€’10,000+ release gates / month included
  • β€’Unlimited services & repositories
  • β€’Unlimited history, audit trail & baseline retention
  • β€’Custom compliance policies (DORA, SOC 2 audit readiness)
  • β€’Single Sign-On (SAML / OIDC) and centralized RBAC
  • β€’Dedicated performance architect & custom SLA

Vendor-independent compliance and multi-team scale. €999/mo monthly or €799/mo billed annually.

Enterprise quote

Estimate scope, scale, and speed

Larger systems and compressed timelines cost more: faster delivery means a bigger squad working in parallel, off-hours windows, and a reserved calendar. The estimate is indicative; the final number is fixed in the SOW.

01 Β· PACKAGE
02 Β· SYSTEM SCALE
03 Β· URGENCY
04 Β· CONSTRAINTS

Programs scoped after intake

When the work doesn't fit a package. Pick the closest starting point; scope and price are calibrated after intake.

  • Critical bottleneck shortlist from your APM and traces
  • Top next actions by impact, urgency, and effort
  • Actionable decision memo with telemetry-backed priorities
Next Stepfrom $14,500
Backend Performance Audit or CI Performance Gate
1–3 weeks
3 Exit Outcomes (Clinic Model)
  • 1.Healthy: Telemetry confirms healthy SLOs; diagnostic closed with no follow-up required
  • 2.Nurture: Periodic review before peak traffic or quarterly planning
  • 3.Paid Next Engagement: Deep Backend Performance Audit ($18,000) or CI Gate ($14,500)
Request this package β†’
  • Audit stream across every revenue-critical service
  • LaunchGate rolled out to all pipelines
  • Delivery oversight with continuous engineering governance
Next Stepfrom $15,000 / mo
Ongoing Platform Governance Retainer
Monthly or quarterly
3 Exit Outcomes (Clinic Model)
  • 1.Autonomous: All teams self-sufficient with LaunchGate gates installed across all repos
  • 2.Nurture: Bi-annual architecture and cloud spend audit
  • 3.Paid Next Engagement: Ongoing Fractional Platform SRE ($15,000/mo)
Request this package β†’

FAQ

What do we keep after the engagement?

Everything we build runs in your repo: slo.yaml, k6 scenarios, the LaunchGate CI step, Grafana dashboards, and alert rules. No license lock-in.

Do you need production access?

Not at the start. We begin with read-only APM, traces, and metrics, and run load against staging or an isolated environment with controlled test data.

Why "from" prices?

The starting price covers a single product backend on a standard timeline. Service count, multi-region, urgency, and compliance constraints raise the scope; the calculator shows how. The final number is fixed in the SOW before work starts.

Do you implement the fixes?

The audit ships a ranked fix list and a re-test. CI Gate and Readiness include hands-on setup in your repo. Larger code changes are scoped separately once the ownership model is clear.

How quickly do we get useful output?

The first ranked bottleneck list lands within the first week, once access and telemetry context are in place.

Ready?

Ship safer launches without slowing the team

Twenty minutes. Bring a system and a question. Leave with a signal, a number, and an owner.