$ cat FAQ.md
The honest answers.
Pricing, AWS, IP ownership, the 80/20 Hybrid™. The questions every founder actually asks before signing — answered straight.
# general
How AppsTango works.
What does a fixed-price package actually cover?+
A scoped deliverable with a fixed dollar amount, agreed in Week 1 after the Lehi strategy session. If the scope grows, we write a new fixed-price addendum rather than running an open meter. No hourly billing, ever.
Why $10k as the entry point?+
It's the floor for a genuine production MVP with real auth, a real AWS backend, and an App Store release. Below that number, what you're buying is a prototype someone else will have to rebuild. We don't sell that.
What does "50% lower cloud cost" mean?+
We pre-build reusable AWS components — auth, billing, observability, API scaffolding, cost guardrails — from 100+ prior engagements. Your project doesn't pay for us to reinvent them. Typical infra bill lands ~50% below greenfield builds.
Do we own the code?+
Yes, from the first commit. Your GitHub org, your AWS account, your App Store / Play Store listing. No vendor lock-in, no "managed service" wrapper you can't turn off.
What if you disappear, get acquired, or we want to leave?+
You already own everything. Code, IaC, runbooks, AWS account ownership, accounts on every tool. A decent senior engineer can pick up where we left off because we document for that scenario.
Are you remote or local?+
HQ in Lehi, Utah. Face-to-face strategy sessions are available there (or SLC). Engineering is distributed across Lehi, San Diego, Phoenix, and Denver. We fly to you when it matters.
Do you work with founders, or only funded companies?+
Both. The MVP Launch tier is sized for pre-seed / seed founders. Full Cycle and Enterprise land with funded companies. We care more about whether the product should exist than what line in a cap table pays for it.
# offers
By productized offer.
Each offer has its own follow-ups. Open the group, then jump to the full page if you want the comparison and process.
Pay on delivery
full offer →How can you afford to do this?+
Two reasons. One: senior engineers ship faster, so the cycle time is genuinely short. Two: our AWS components library means most of the infra is already built. We're not gambling on perfect estimates — we're repeating work we've done a hundred times.
What if my project is over $75k?+
Same shape, slightly different math. Larger engagements get a structured per-milestone schedule that still ties payment to shipped work. We'll write the schedule into the SOW so there are no surprises.
What if I want to pay something upfront so I feel committed?+
You can. We treat it as a credit against the first invoice. Most clients don't bother — the model works without it.
Production-ready MVP
full offer →Is this a prototype or a real app?+
Real app. Auth, billing if needed, observability, AWS-architected. The kind that survives an Apple reviewer.
Why $10k specifically?+
It's the floor below which production-quality work isn't possible. We've tried lower; the math doesn't work for senior engineers.
What if scope grows mid-engagement?+
We write a fixed-price addendum for the new scope. We never shift to hourly billing, ever.
Stop launching apps
full offer →Why Bedrock specifically?+
Multi-model in one API. Inference stays in your AWS VPC. Bedrock Guardrails on output. Cost lives in the same bill as the rest of your infra. For most regulated workloads, that combination is the only one that survives compliance.
What about Devin / Cursor / Lovable?+
Great tools — we use them on every engagement to accelerate the build. But none of them runs your production agent in your AWS account with SOC 2 evidence. That's where we live.
When is the wrong answer "agent"?+
About 80% of the time. If a state machine works, we ship a state machine. We kill more agent ideas than we ship — see the blog post.
Stuck with an agency
full offer →I signed a contract — am I stuck?+
Probably not as stuck as the agency wants you to feel. Most agency contracts have for-cause termination clauses if deliverables aren't shipping. Bring it to the call; we'll read it.
Can you finish what they started?+
Sometimes. We'll review the existing code and tell you honestly whether to fork it or restart. We've done both — the answer depends on the codebase, not on what's easier for us to bill.
Is the call really free?+
Yes. 30 minutes, no obligation, no upsell pressure. The worst case for you is you leave with a clearer picture of where you stand.
Execution is rare
full offer →I haven't raised money — can I afford this?+
The $10k MVP tier exists specifically for pre-seed founders. We accept payment plans, and the pay-on-delivery model means no upfront deposit.
I'm worried I'll get a cookie-cutter app.+
Look at the case studies. Adobe got an iPad creative tool. UVU got a 40,000-student platform. Aptive got a five-summer field-sales system. Different problems, different shapes — same senior team.
Can we do a one-week proof-of-concept first?+
No. POCs hide the hard parts. We do a free 30-min strategy session instead — same information, no wasted week.
Your dedicated dev team
full offer →Can you embed in our existing team?+
Yes. We routinely sit in your standups, use your project tracker, and follow your code-review conventions. We adapt to you, not the other way around.
What happens to the code if we end the engagement?+
Nothing. It's already in your GitHub. Your AWS account. Your App Store listing. We were never the bottleneck.
Can we hire your engineers directly later?+
Yes — and there's no conversion fee. We'd rather you hired one of our team than a stranger. The good engineers usually stay with us though.
# services
By practice area.
Technical questions sit on the service pages they belong to. Tap through for the full stack and deliverables.
iOS development
full service →Do you build SwiftUI or UIKit?+
SwiftUI by default for new apps. We reach for UIKit when a specific control, performance profile, or legacy integration calls for it. Both, if a mixed approach serves the product better.
How fast can an iOS MVP ship?+
A focused MVP — core flow, auth, one paid tier, analytics — ships in 30 days on our standard fixed-price package. Full 6-week cycles ship production-ready apps with polish.
Do you handle App Store review?+
Yes. We submit on your developer account, handle reviewer feedback, and stay on-call through approval. ~95% of our submissions clear on the first try.
Android development
full service →Compose-only, or mixed with Views?+
Compose-only for greenfield. We do mixed Compose + Views when integrating with an existing app that still has Fragment-based flows. We don't rewrite what already works.
Do you support tablets and foldables?+
Yes. We design with WindowSizeClass from the start so the same codebase adapts across phone, tablet, and foldable form factors.
AWS cloud infrastructure
full service →Can you migrate us off another cloud?+
Yes. We've moved products off Vercel, Heroku, GCP, and on-prem to AWS. Migration paths include parallel run, blue/green, and clean-cut depending on risk tolerance and traffic.
Do you use AWS CDK or Terraform?+
Both. CDK for application-centric stacks where we want TypeScript + AWS-native abstractions. Terraform when you're already invested in it or need multi-cloud.
Will we be locked into you after launch?+
No. Your AWS account is yours. All code, IaC, runbooks, and docs live in your GitHub org. You can fire us at any time and pick up where we left off.
UI/UX design
full service →Can you work with our existing design system?+
Yes. We often extend an existing system rather than replace it. We'll audit first, flag gaps, and propose the minimum new primitives needed to support the roadmap.
Do you do brand identity too?+
Light brand work (logo, palette, type system) is included for greenfield projects. For deeper brand strategy, we pair with brand studios we trust.
Amazon Bedrock + AgentCore agents
full service →Do we need a dedicated LLM vendor?+
No — we treat models as interchangeable where possible. Bedrock gives you multi-vendor access on AWS. For specific workloads we'll recommend the best fit and keep the integration swappable.
How do you prevent prompt injection and data leaks?+
Structured tool definitions, schema-validated outputs, input/output filtering at the MCP layer, and a defense-in-depth review for every tool that touches PII or executes side effects.
Web development
full service →Next.js App Router or Pages Router?+
App Router + RSC for new projects. Pages Router when we're maintaining or extending an existing app — we don't migrate for migration's sake.
Do you host the site, or do we?+
You host it, we deploy it. Typical targets: Vercel, AWS Amplify, Lightsail with PM2 + Nginx, or self-managed on ECS. We'll recommend based on your team and traffic.
$ still have a question?
Ask us on a free 30-minute call.
The Lehi strategy session is the fastest way to get a real answer. You leave with a fixed-price quote, an AWS architecture sketch, and a clear next step.