Three options, honestly compared
You’ve built a working prototype with AI. Now someone needs to make it production-ready. You have three options. Here’s an honest comparison. including when we’re not the right choice.
Traditional agency
Cost: €5,000-€20,000+ Timeline: 4-12 weeks
Months of meetings before a single line of code is written. Most agencies want to rebuild everything. not because your code is bad, but because their business model depends on large projects. Your prototype becomes a “reference,” not a starting point.
Agencies are excellent for large, complex projects with multiple teams. If you’re building enterprise software with 50+ screens, an agency is the right choice. For a founder trying to get an MVP to market, it’s like hiring a construction company to hang a painting.
Freelancer
Cost: €2,000-€6,000 Timeline: unpredictable (often 1.5-3x the estimate)
Hit or miss. A good freelancer is worth their weight in gold. The problem: most freelancers in 2025/2026 don’t understand AI-generated codebases. They’ll look at your Lovable or Cursor output and want to restructure everything instead of fixing what needs fixing. And if it doesn’t work out, you’ve lost weeks and budget.
LaunchStudio
Cost: €800-€7,500 fixed Timeline: 1-3 weeks
We look at your existing code and keep everything that works. We only fix what needs fixing: security, payments, deployment, performance. Your frontend stays. Your design stays. We build the foundation.
Agency (Amsterdam): “We recommend rebuilding from scratch in Next.js. Quote: €14,500, timeline 8-10 weeks.” They didn’t work with Lovable code and wanted their own architecture.
Freelancer (Upwork): “I can probably do it in 80 hours. €55/h = €4,400, but I can’t start for 3 weeks.” No ownership agreement, no fixed scope.
LaunchStudio: Production Plan within 48 hours. Fixed price: €1,800. Timeline: 12 business days. Contract signed before code access. Frontend remained 100% intact.