Resources · Budget
Realistic budget band, based on real Kivolaro projects. Not a quote — a starting point.
Ranges based on real Kivolaro projects. Useful for pre-quote budgeting, not as a substitute for a quote.
Project scope
Workflow complexity
AI usage in the workflow
One-time build
$10,100 – $19,700
3–5 calendar weeks
SaaS + tooling/mo
$960 – $3,100
Year 1 total
$21,620 – $56,900
What a Kivolaro build includes
It's a budgeting band, not a quote. Real quotes after a 30-min diagnostic land within the range about 80% of the time. The 20% that move outside the band do so because of factors a calculator can't see — legacy system quirks, compliance work, or stakeholder count.
Most automations sit on SaaS (Make, n8n, OpenAI API, Airtable). Ignoring monthly cost is how SMBs build something that 'pays for itself in 4 months' and then bleeds budget for 18. Year-1 total is the honest number.
Two reasons: (1) API costs scale with usage; (2) AI workflows need eval and monitoring infrastructure that traditional automation doesn't. Light AI (classification, parsing) is +$1.5K build, +$80/mo. Heavy AI (agents, RAG) is +$5K build, +$350/mo.
Tell us the budget on the discovery call. We'll scope the highest-leverage workflow that fits and stage everything else. We don't do 'just try to fit' — we'd rather ship one thing well than overrun on two.
