Reviewed by Dr. Dmytro Nasyrov, Founder and CTO • Last updated April 24, 2026
Payment Solutions Development
Custom payment processing platforms, mobile wallets, P2P transfers and payment gateway integrations.
- 15+ FinTech projects
- 12+ years in business
- 90+ Clutch reviews
Reviewed by Dmytro Nasyrov
Founder and CTO
23+ years in custom software development. Led 70+ projects across FinTech, healthcare, Web3 and enterprise. ISO 27001 certified team.
What is payment solutions development?
Authoritative citations 12 sources
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PCI DSS v4.0 Standard
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard v4.0 is the binding specification for any system that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data, and we design every payments build against its 12 requirement families from day one of discovery.
pcisecuritystandards.org
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European Banking Authority PSD2 RTS
The PSD2 Regulatory Technical Standards on strong customer authentication and secure communication define the EU rules for payments, account information and dedicated interfaces, which govern every open banking integration we ship in the EEA.
eba.europa.eu
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FATF Recommendations on AML/CFT
The Financial Action Task Force 40 Recommendations are the global AML and counter-terrorism financing baseline that our screening, customer due diligence and transaction monitoring designs implement in every regulated FinTech engagement.
fatf-gafi.org
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Stripe Engineering Blog
The Stripe engineering blog publishes deep-dive posts on idempotency, ledger design, distributed counters and payment lifecycle that inform how we architect money movement systems and idempotency keys across our custom FinTech builds.
stripe.com
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Plaid Reliability Post-mortems
Plaid engineering publishes detailed post-mortems and reliability reports on the infrastructure behind bank connections, which we read closely because our payment and account aggregation flows depend on similar third-party reliability envelopes.
plaid.com
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Bank for International Settlements CPMI Reports
The BIS Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures publishes authoritative reports on cross-border payments, CBDC and fast payment systems, which inform every FinTech engagement touching international money movement or central bank rails.
bis.org
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NIST Digital Identity Guidelines SP 800-63
NIST SP 800-63 defines authenticator assurance levels and identity proofing that we map to KYC flows, step-up authentication and regulated account opening journeys in FinTech platforms subject to US regulators.
pages.nist.gov
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ISO 20022 Payments Messages
ISO 20022 is the global messaging standard replacing legacy MT and ACH formats across Fedwire, SWIFT, SEPA and instant payment rails, and we design ledger and integration layers for ISO 20022 first with legacy adapters rather than the reverse.
iso20022.org
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Basel III Framework
The Basel III regulatory framework governs capital, leverage and liquidity requirements for banks, which cascades into our build decisions when platforms integrate with regulated institutions needing reporting, stress testing and risk data pipelines.
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SWIFT Customer Security Programme
The SWIFT Customer Security Programme mandates security controls for institutions connecting to the SWIFT network, which shape our reference architecture whenever a client integrates FIN, gpi or the ISO 20022 SWIFT rails.
swift.com
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OWASP Application Security Verification Standard
OWASP ASVS provides a ranked control set for application security verification that we map against PCI DSS, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 requirements when building the control baseline for new FinTech platforms.
owasp.org
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FSB Financial Stability Reports
The Financial Stability Board publishes reports on FinTech, crypto-asset regulation and cross-border payments that shape our regulatory risk posture for client platforms operating across multiple jurisdictions.
fsb.org
- Basic card acceptance where Stripe Checkout or Adyen hosted page would ship in 2 days
- Crypto payment products without legal counsel on jurisdiction analysis
- Lending products that use "payment" terminology without regulatory review
- Projects without sponsor-bank or processor relationships (we build software; you hold licenses)
Payment solutions at Pharos Production at a glance
- Payment systems: 15+ production payment systems handling real money since 2018 (cards, ACH, SEPA, wire, crypto, Open Banking)
- Compliance: PCI DSS architecture, SOC 2 controls, GDPR, ISO 27001 certified, PSD2-compliant
- Stack: Elixir/Phoenix, Java/Spring, Node.js, PostgreSQL ledger, Kafka event bus, AWS with VPC isolation, CloudHSM for PCI-scoped operations
- Integrations: Stripe, Adyen, Checkout.com, Spreedly, Plaid, TrueLayer, Tink, Circle, Ramp, Sumsub, Onfido
- Pricing: Payment MVP from $40,000-$120,000; full platform $120,000-$500,000+; retainers from $8,000/month
- Timeline: Discovery + PCI scope 3-5 weeks; MVP 3-6 months; full platform 6-12 months with sponsor-bank integration
- Sponsor-bank model: We integrate with your sponsor bank or BaaS (Synapse, Treasury Prime, Column, Unit); Pharos does not hold licenses
- Honest scope: We recommend Stripe/Adyen for basic acceptance and decline crypto payments without legal counsel
Custom payments platform vs Stripe Connect: which is better?
Custom payments gives you direct sponsor-bank pricing, regulatory ownership and custom orchestration across multiple rails, while Stripe Connect (and Adyen for Platforms, Unit) ships in days at a vendor markup. According to a 2024 a16z FinTech report, 63% of growth-stage FinTech founders eventually move at least one core flow off PaaS to capture margin — typically when monthly processing volume exceeds $5-10M.
| Factor | Custom payments platform | Stripe Connect / PaaS |
|---|---|---|
| Unit economics | Direct interchange + sponsor-bank rates; margin captured by you | Vendor markup of 1-3% + fixed fees; margin capped |
| Regulatory model | You hold (or partner with) the licensed entity; full compliance ownership | Vendor holds the license; you operate as a sub-merchant |
| Rail orchestration | Multi-rail (cards + ACH + wire + crypto + Open Banking) with unified reconciliation | Limited to vendor-supported rails |
| Dispute handling | Custom dispute workflows, chargeback recovery, merchant protection | Vendor handles disputes; you see a dashboard |
| Data residency | Your VPC, your region, your retention rules | Vendor regions; subject to vendor data flow |
| Time to launch | 3-6 months for production-grade build | 1-5 days for basic acceptance |
| Cost (year 1) | $40,000-$500,000+ build cost amortized over volume | 0.3-3% of GMV in perpetuity |
| Best fit | High-volume processors, cross-border, regulated FinTech, proprietary rails | Marketplaces, subscription SaaS, early-stage, low-volume |
How we build payment systems that pass audits
Payment projects follow Pharos Verified Delivery with payments-specific additions: discovery includes PCI scope modeling and sponsor-bank integration planning; build includes idempotency on every state-change path plus reconciliation tests; production readiness covers dispute handling, reporting and regulator-ready audit logs; support includes 4-hour SLA and monthly reconciliation reviews.
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Phase 01 / 04 Paid Discovery
2-4 weeks- Technical validation
- Architecture proposal
- Scope refined estimate
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Phase 02 / 04 Iterative Build
2-week sprints- Working demos every sprint
- CTO review at milestones
- ADRs documented
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Phase 03 / 04 Production Readiness
- Monitoring and alerting
- Security audit Pen test
- Runbooks and rollback
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Phase 04 / 04 Support
Ongoing- Security patches
- Performance tuning
- 4h SLA response
Pharos Verified Delivery applied to 70+ production applications since 2013
Payment platforms in production
Three payment engagements across card, bank and Open Banking rails with the reconciliation and compliance details that mattered.
Manual reconciliation of 12,000 daily transactions across 4 payment providers. 3 full-time analysts. 18-hour delay between transaction and matched status. Monthly reconciliation errors cost $80K-$140K.
Automated reconciliation in under 2 minutes with a provider-agnostic ledger and deterministic matching rules. Zero unreconciled balances in 12 months post-launch. Analysts reassigned to dispute handling and chargeback recovery.
We built a provider-agnostic reconciliation engine with a canonical ledger format, deterministic matching rules and an exceptions queue for the 0.3% of transactions that need human review. The ledger became the system of record for all four providers.
Card data stored in-app via a custom integration. PCI scope covered 40% of the codebase. Annual SAQ D audit cost $65K and blocked 2 weeks of engineering.
Stripe Elements + Spreedly tokenization. PCI scope reduced to 3% of codebase. Annual SAQ A-EP audit cost $12K and takes 2 days of engineering. Engineering team unblocked.
We moved cardholder data capture to Stripe Elements on the client and replaced every in-app card reference with a tokenized pointer. The code that actually sees a PAN is now a thin integration layer, not the entire product.
2.9% + €0.30 per transaction on card rails. $4.2M annual processing fees. High chargeback rate on card-not-present transactions.
Open Banking (PSD2 payment initiation) via TrueLayer for domestic EU transactions. Fees down to 0.3% flat on Open Banking paths. Annual processing cost dropped to $1.1M. Chargebacks down 94% (Open Banking is a push payment, not a pull).
We A/B tested Open Banking vs cards at checkout on 10% of traffic for 4 weeks. Conversion was equivalent; fees dropped 90%. We ramped to 100% for eligible merchants over 3 weeks with no conversion regression.
Client names anonymized under NDA. Full case studies at /cases/.
When custom payment solutions are not the answer
We decline roughly 30% of RFPs we receive. Forcing a bad fit costs both sides 3-6 months and damages outcomes. Here is how we think about scope:
- Basic card acceptance where Stripe Checkout or Adyen hosted page ships in 2 days
- Subscription billing where Stripe Billing covers 95% of use cases
- Crypto payments without jurisdiction analysis from qualified legal counsel
- Payment products where the client has no sponsor-bank or processor relationships
- Lending products dressed up as "payments" to avoid licensing
Custom payment solutions make sense when you need direct sponsor-bank pricing at scale, jurisdictional compliance, proprietary risk models, multi-rail orchestration or unit economics that packaged products break. For most subscription products and marketplaces, Stripe, Adyen or Checkout.com deliver faster at lower total cost. We have recommended Stripe over custom builds on many engagements.
Pharos payment portfolio
Pharos payment solutions delivery portfolio observations, 2018-2026
Ranges we consistently see across 22+ payment engagements.
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Card-not-present settles T+1 to T+3 business days standard; real-time rails (FedNow, SEPA Instant) settle sub-60 seconds on 98%+ of transactions[6].
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False-positive decline rate ranges 1.8-4.5% on mature segments after 6-9 months of ML model tuning with business feedback.
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0.02-0.08% typical discrepancy rate on daily reconciliation; above 0.1% triggers root-cause investigation within 24 hours.
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Tokenization and provider-hosted fields typically cut PCI scope from 60-80% of codebase to 5-15%, saving 4-7 months of annual audit time[1].
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10-18 weeks for production payment integration including tokenization, 3DS2, idempotency and reconciliation. Multi-provider routing adds 4-6 weeks.
Payment solutions outlook 2026-2027
Three shifts are reshaping payment infrastructure engineering.
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PCI DSS v4.0 future-dated requirements became mandatory April 2025. Teams without targeted risk analysis, customized approach documentation and enhanced MFA will fail 2026 audits[1].
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SWIFT MT-to-MX migration completes November 2025. Domestic payment rails (FedNow, SEPA Instant) follow ISO 20022 by default. Teams still emitting legacy ISO 8583 or proprietary formats face integration cliff[8].
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FedNow, SEPA Instant and UK FPS settle within seconds, shrinking fraud reversal windows from days to sub-minute. ML-based real-time fraud scoring becomes baseline not premium[6].
Our four-dimension payment delivery evaluation template
Every payment engagement we ship runs against the same four-dimension readiness evaluation before handover.
Production post-mortem
When idempotency keys collided across retry windows
A merchant processor retried failed card authorizations with a deterministic idempotency key derived from order ID in August 2025. When a legitimate customer retried a stalled checkout 48 hours later, the provider still honored the cached response from the original failed attempt, but the cached response referenced an expired card. 340 legitimate transactions declined before we caught the pattern.
Idempotency key generation now includes retry-window timestamp, not just order ID. Provider-specific idempotency window behavior documented per rail. Replay and cache-hit testing added to QA suite.
Published record
Published Pharos research
Technical articles, comparison guides and methodology deep-dives we write from our own delivery experience.
Platforms We Work With
Trusted by Coinbase, Consensys, Core Scientific, MicroStrategy, Gate.io and 10+ more Web3 and enterprise platforms
16+ partnersOur 16 technology partners include:
- Consensys
- Gate Io
- Coinbase
- Ludo
- Core Scientific
- Debut Infotech
- Axoni
- Alchemy
- Starkware
- Mara Holdings
- Microstrategy
- Nubank
- Okx
- Uniswap
- Riot
- Leeway Hertz
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Consensys
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Gate Io
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Coinbase
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Ludo
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Core Scientific
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Debut Infotech
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Axoni
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Alchemy
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Starkware
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Mara Holdings
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Microstrategy
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Nubank
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Okx
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Uniswap
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Riot
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Leeway Hertz
Payment solutions we build
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Payment gateway integrationCustom payment processing with multi-currency support, PCI DSS compliance and real-time transaction monitoring. Integration with Stripe, Adyen, PayPal and banking APIs. -
Mobile wallet developmentDigital wallet applications with P2P transfers, NFC payments, biometric authentication and multi-currency balance management.
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Payment reconciliation systemsAutomated reconciliation platforms that match transactions across multiple sources, detect discrepancies and generate regulatory reports.
About Founder and CTO
I design and build reliable software solutions — from lightweight apps to high-load distributed systems and blockchain platforms.
PhD in Artificial Intelligence, MSc in Computer Science (with honors), MSc in Electronics & Precision Mechanics.
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12 years in architecture of great software solutions tailored to customer needs for startups and enterprises
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23 years of practical enterprise customized software production experience
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Lecturer at the National Kyiv Polytechnic University
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Doctor of Philosophy in Artificial Intelligence
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Master’s degree in Computer Science, completed with excellence
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Master’s degree in Electronics and precision mechanics engineering
Choose your cooperation model
Feature-scoped regulated module with audit trails, logging and readiness for SOC 2 or PCI.
Production platform with KYC, AML, PCI-DSS compliance, secure payments and observability.
Multi-region, multi-tenant platform with full compliance, fraud detection and 24/7 incident response.
Prices vary based on project scope, complexity, timeline and requirements. Contact us for a personalized estimate.
Or select the appropriate interaction model
Request staff augmentation
Need extra hands on your software project? Our developers can jump in at any stage – from architecture to auditing – and integrate seamlessly with your team to fill any technical gaps.
Hire dedicated experts
Whether you’re building from scratch or scaling fast, our engineers are ready to step in. You stay in control, and we handle the code.
Outsource your project
From first line to final audit, we handle the entire development process. We will deliver secure, production-ready software, while you can focus on your business.
Technologies, tools and frameworks we use
Our engineers work with 187+ technologies across blockchain, backend, frontend, mobile and DevOps - chosen for production reliability and performance.
AI and Machine Learning
LLM Providers 8
AI Frameworks 15
Vector Databases 7
MLOps and Infrastructure 11
AI Agent Tools 4
Blockchains
Private and Public Blockchains 33
Cloud Blockchain Solutions 4
DevOps
DevOps Tools 15
Clouds
Clouds 6
Databases
Databases 15
Brokers
Event and Message Brokers 7
Tests
Test Automation Tools 6
UI/UX
UI/UX Design Tools 12
Partnerships & Awards
Recognized on Clutch, GoodFirms and The Manifest for software engineering excellence
An approach to the development cycle
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Team Assembly
Our company starts and assembles an entire project specialists with the perfect blend of skills and experience to start the work.
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MVP
We’ll design, build, and launch your MVP, ensuring it meets the core requirements of your software solution.
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Production
We’ll create a complete software solution that is custom-made to meet your exact specifications.
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Ongoing
Continuous Support
Our company will be right there with you, keeping your software solution running smoothly, fixing issues, and rolling out updates.
FAQ
Quick answers to common questions about custom software development, pricing, process and technology.
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A production payments MVP typically takes 3-6 months: 3-5 weeks discovery and PCI scope modeling, 10-14 weeks build (ledger, rail integration, dispute handling, reporting), 4-8 weeks integration testing with your sponsor bank or processor and regulator-aware UAT. Full platform with multi-rail orchestration, Open Banking and crypto rails runs 6-12 months.
Pharos has shipped 15+ payment systems handling real money since 2018.
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No. Pharos Production builds the software; the client (or a sponsor bank partner) holds the regulatory license. We integrate with your sponsor bank or BaaS provider (Synapse, Treasury Prime, Column, Unit, Increase) and design the compliance program with your legal counsel, but we do not hold money transmitter, banking or broker-dealer licenses ourselves.
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PCI scope minimization is the first conversation. We tokenize cardholder data at capture (Stripe Elements, Spreedly, PCI Proxy) so the primary account number never enters the client backend.
This drops most engagements from SAQ D ($50K+ annual audit) to SAQ A or SAQ A-EP ($8-15K annual audit). Pharos infrastructure is PCI DSS architected with CloudHSM for any operations that touch PCI-scoped data.
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Payment MVP $40,000-$120,000 (single rail, single region, basic reporting). Full platform $120,000-$500,000+ (multi-rail, multi-region, dispute workflows, reconciliation, compliance reporting).
Ongoing support retainer from $8,000/month for SLA and reconciliation reviews. The crossover point where custom pays for itself vs Stripe is typically around $5-10M/month in processing volume - below that, Stripe is usually cheaper.
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Yes. We integrate with TrueLayer, Tink, Plaid (UK), Yapily and GoCardless for payment initiation and account information services across EU/UK.
Open Banking typically drops processing fees 80-95% vs card rails for domestic EU transactions. We A/B test Open Banking vs cards at checkout to validate conversion parity before ramping.
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Yes, with legal counsel in the loop. We integrate Circle, Ramp, MoonPay, Transak for on/off-ramp; Chainlink and Chainalysis for compliance screening; and build custom smart contract settlement for USDC/USDT flows.
We do NOT provide jurisdictional legal advice - clients must engage qualified counsel before launching crypto payments in regulated markets (MiCA in EU, state-level money transmitter in US).
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Every payment system ships with a canonical ledger (PostgreSQL with event sourcing) that is the system of record. Reconciliation runs as a separate process: pull provider reports, match to ledger entries using deterministic rules, surface exceptions to a review queue.
Typical target: 99.7%+ auto-match rate with a
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We decline basic card acceptance where Stripe Checkout would ship in 2 days, subscription billing where Stripe Billing covers 95% of needs, crypto payments without legal counsel, projects without sponsor-bank or processor relationships, and “payments” products that are actually lending without licensing review. We walk away from projects where the regulatory foundation is not in place - forcing a payments build without that foundation damages everyone.
The Pharos takeaway on payment solutions
Payment infrastructure rewards teams that treat PCI scope, reconciliation and idempotency as first-principles engineering not afterthoughts[7]. PCI DSS 4.0 readiness, ISO 20022 migration and real-time fraud scoring are the three areas separating payment systems built for 2026 from systems running on 2018 assumptions.
Book a 30-minute payment readiness call
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What happens next?
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Contact us
Contact us today to discuss your project. We’re ready to review your request promptly and guide you on the best next steps for collaboration
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NDA
We’re committed to keeping your information confidential, so we’ll sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement
1 day -
Plan the Goals
After we chat about your goals and needs, we’ll craft a comprehensive proposal detailing the project scope, team, timeline and budget
3-5 days -
Finalize the Details
Let’s connect on Google Meet to go through the proposal and confirm all the details together!
1-2 days -
Sign the Contract
As soon as the contract is signed, our dedicated team will jump into action on your project!
Same day
Our offices
Headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada. Engineering office in Kyiv, Ukraine.