Pricing
Goldstone scopes serious custom software, so a final number depends on what the work actually turns out to involve. That is not a reason to hide the order of magnitude until after a sales process. Everything below is real, and every service has a configurator that will price your version of it before you speak to anyone.
The model
A Goldstone engagement is a build, sometimes a software license, and sometimes an ongoing plan. They are priced separately because they are different things, and blending them into one monthly figure is how people end up surprised in month three.
1
The implementation itself, priced by what it has to do. Every project has this one.
2
Only where the system runs on Goldstone-owned software. A custom-only build has no license at all.
3
Maintenance, development hours, or search work after launch. Always optional.
Layer 1
Three levels per service. The floor of each pricing range is a real floor: no configurator on this site will produce a quote below it. What moves a project into a higher range is not ambition, it is the number of systems that have to agree with each other.
Focused Premium Website
A premium marketing site with lead capture, booking, and the content and design work to make it credible.
Advanced Website / Digital Platform
CRM connection, customer accounts, e-commerce, advanced integrations, complex content, or a portal experience behind the public site.
Complex / Enterprise
Multi-brand, multi-region or high-volume platforms, and anything with enterprise security or data requirements.
Custom
Focused Business System
One operational problem solved properly: CRM workflow, lead management, scheduling, reporting, or a defined set of automations.
Connected Operational Platform
Several workflows connected into one system, with customer portals, document workflows and the integrations between them.
Complex / Multi-Location / Enterprise
Multi-location operations, franchise structures, and systems that have to reconcile data across several existing platforms.
Custom
Focused Application
A single-purpose application with accounts, a working data model, and the screens the job actually needs.
Full Custom Application
A complete application with payments, dashboards, file handling, third-party integrations and a real permissions model.
Complex Software Product / SaaS / Multi-Tenant / Enterprise
Products sold to your own customers, multi-tenant architecture, white-label delivery, and anything you intend to license.
Custom
Core Operating System
The public site and the workflows behind it as one system, rather than a website and a pile of disconnected tools.
Growth Operating System
The core system plus the layers a scaling business adds: multi-location support, reporting depth, automation and AI inside the workflows.
Complex / Multi-Location / Enterprise Operating Platform
Franchise and multi-entity operations, and platforms that have to serve several businesses from one system.
Custom
AI Workflow Automation
AI doing a defined job inside an existing workflow: classifying, drafting, extracting, routing or summarizing, with a person still approving the output.
Operational AI / Agent Systems / Custom AI Applications
Agents that act across several systems under explicit permissions, and applications built around a model rather than merely calling one.
Enterprise AI Platforms / Multi-System Implementations
Implementations spanning multiple business systems, with the evaluation, access control and oversight an enterprise rollout requires.
Custom
Four of those are things you hire Goldstone to build: a website, a business system, a custom app, or a full operating system. AI is a capability that lives inside one of them, which is why it has bands of its own but no configurator. Automation, integrations and the Goldstone Intelligence platform work the same way.
Complex projects are scoped individually based on technical complexity, integrations, security requirements, data migration and business impact.
A complex or enterprise tier shows no figure on purpose. Publishing a ceiling for work that has not been scoped would be inventing one, and the number that matters at that size comes out of discovery rather than a pricing page.
Rush delivery, where we prioritize your build over other work, is 25% of the implementation subtotal. It is not discounted by a credit, because it pays for capacity rather than scope.
Layer 2
Licensed Goldstone operational software commonly starts around $1,000 to $3,000 per month. Multi-location, franchise, high-volume or more complex licensed systems may be higher.
Not every Goldstone project has a software license. A build made entirely from scratch for you carries none at all. A license applies only where your system runs on a platform Goldstone already owns and maintains, which is usually faster and cheaper than rebuilding it.
How ownership and licensing workLayer 3
Every build can end at launch. Most don't, because software nobody tends degrades quietly and the failure usually shows up as lost leads rather than an error.
/mo
Everything stays up, patched, backed up, and current.
/mo
We keep building. You get hours every month and someone who knows the system.
/mo
The build stays current and the site actively works on getting found.
from /mo
We function as your product and systems team, without you hiring one.
Not three lengths of the same document. One tells you what is wrong, one defines the system, one specifies the build.
Diagnosis
Free
Understand the problem and see the direction we recommend.
A written read of your operation and the direction we would take, generated from what you describe and reviewed by us.
Architecture
$3,500
Define exactly what your business system should include.
Discovery sessions, then the architecture: the systems, the data, the workflows, the integrations and the order to build them in.
Implementation specification
$7,500
Create the implementation architecture and detailed specification required for a complex build.
Everything in the Blueprint taken to build depth: detailed specification, interface and data contracts, permissions, and acceptance criteria.
Dimension by dimension, including where an engagement does not cover something. That is worth knowing before you choose.
| Dimension | Diagnosis Goldstone Systems Plan | Architecture Goldstone Systems Blueprint | Implementation specification Goldstone Advanced Systems Blueprint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $3,500 | $7,500 |
| Purpose | Diagnosis and direction | Architecture | Implementation specification |
| Discovery depth | What you describe, in your own words | Working sessions with the people who do the work | Extended sessions across every stakeholder group and location |
| Workflow depth | The workflow that is breaking, named | Each workflow mapped end to end, with the decisions in it | Every workflow mapped, including the exceptions and handoffs |
| Module architecture | The direction we would take | The systems that make up the build, and what each one owns | Module boundaries, interfaces and the contracts between them |
| Users and roles | Who is affected | The roles the system serves and what each one needs | Role-by-role capability mapping, down to the screen |
| Integrations | What you already run | What connects, what replaces, and what stays as it is | Integration design per system, including the data that moves |
| Automation | Where automation would help | What should and should not be automated, and why | Automation design with the failure cases worked through |
| Technical depth | None. It is a business read, not a technical one. | Enough for us to build from and for you to judge | Enough for another firm to build from |
| Data architecture | Not covered | The data the system holds and where it comes from | Entity model, ownership, retention and reporting needs |
| Permissions | Not covered | Who should see what, in principle | Permission model per role, written to be implemented |
| Acceptance criteria | Not covered | What "done" means for each part of the build | Testable acceptance criteria per module |
| Implementation planning | A direction and a rough range | Build sequence and an estimate you can budget against | Phased plan with dependencies, risks and staging |
| Intended complexity | Any business, at any stage | One complex operational problem | Multi-workflow, multi-location or custom application work |
Scroll the table sideways to compare all three.
Before you commit
Paid discovery, for when the problem needs more than a conversation. One Blueprint was being asked to scope both a single workflow and a multi-location platform, and those are not the same amount of architecture.
One complex operational problem. Maps the workflow, defines what should and should not be automated, and produces an architecture and a build estimate.
Credited against implementation
Multi-workflow, multi-location or custom application work, where several stakeholder groups and existing systems have to be reconciled before anything is designed.
Custom
Major enterprise or highly complex systems, where the architecture work is itself a project. Scoped individually.
100% of a Systems Blueprint fee is credited toward a Goldstone implementation of $25,000+ signed within 30 days. If we conclude software is not the answer, you keep the roadmap and owe nothing further.
Advanced Systems Blueprint and Enterprise Architecture Engagement work is scoped individually, so commercial terms are agreed in that scope rather than promised here. The first Fit Call is free in every case.
A credit is a refund of a fee you paid. Where a Blueprint is waived or run at no charge, the fee is $0 and so is the credit — nothing is credited twice.
How the Systems Blueprint worksPutting it together
Four shapes, all normal. Which one you are is settled before anything is signed, not discovered afterwards.
A build, delivered, and you run it. No license, no plan.
The most common. A build, then a monthly plan that keeps it healthy and improving.
Your system runs on Goldstone-owned software. You pay to build your version and to license the platform under it.
A licensed platform, configured for you, with an ongoing team behind it. Usually multi-location or franchise operations.
Impact
Goldstone reserves limited capacity for organizations creating exceptional positive impact. Qualifying organizations may be considered for reduced implementation pricing, flexible commercial terms or other support based on the project and available capacity.
There is no published discount and no automatic qualification. It depends on the project, the mission, the fit and what capacity Goldstone actually has when you ask. Telling us about your mission does not change the estimate you are quoted; it starts a separate conversation about terms.
Apply for Impact ConsiderationScope, mostly: how many workflows the system touches, how many other systems it has to integrate with, and whether the data model already exists or has to be designed. The number of users rarely moves the price much; the number of distinct things the software must do moves it a great deal. Rush delivery is the only surcharge, at 25%. Everything else is scope, and scope is settled in writing before anything is signed.
Because it buys capacity, not scope. Rush means your build moves ahead of other work, so the 25% is calculated on the implementation subtotal before any credit, and a credit never reduces it. On a $20,000 implementation with a 30% credit, that is $19,000 rather than $17,500. Recurring charges are excluded from the calculation entirely. Rush is also not available on every project. Some work cannot be compressed without damaging it, and we say so rather than take the fee.
Most clients do not. Every project has an implementation. A software license applies only where your system runs on Goldstone-owned software. A build made entirely from scratch carries none. An ongoing plan is always optional. Which of the three apply to you is settled before anything is signed rather than discovered in month three, and each one is quoted as its own line.
Not as a negotiation. Published prices are the real prices, which is why they are published at all. Where a credit does exist it is defined in writing before signing. A Systems Blueprint fee credits in full against an implementation of $25,000 or more signed within 30 days, for example. Any credit applies to implementation only. It never reduces recurring charges, software licenses or rush.
An implementation is not one invoice. It is a deposit and then a series of invoices against the milestones in your agreement, each one as that part is delivered.
01
Signed scope, agreed price, deposit invoiced. Nothing starts before that, and the deposit comes off the total rather than sitting on top of it.
02
The rest is invoiced at the milestones written into the agreement, as each one is delivered. You are never invoiced for work that has not happened.
03
Where operation and support continue after handover, that is a separate monthly fee with its own start date, stated before you sign. Some projects have none.
Goldstone does not offer or arrange financing, and there is no credit application. Everything above is billed directly by us, on the terms written into your agreement before you sign it.
Every service has a configurator that produces a real estimate and a timeline. If the number is wrong for your situation, a Fit Call is the fastest way to find out why.