Compare
A traditional dev shop bills by the hour, estimates in months and hands you the code at the end. An AI-native team like Automagic scopes to a fixed price, uses AI in the build itself to ship in weeks, and keeps hosting and improving the system after launch.
Scope, timeline and price fixed before the build starts.
AI in the build, directed by engineers who own the result.
The same team hosts, maintains and improves what it shipped.
AI, software and growth from one team.
Traditional Dev Shop
Hourly or time and materials. The number moves as the work does.
Automagic
A paid scoping session, then a fixed scope and a fixed price.
Traditional Dev Shop
Estimated in months, with discovery and design phases before code.
Automagic
Live in weeks, with working demos on real data along the way.
Traditional Dev Shop
Hand-written by a team sized to the hours in the estimate.
Automagic
AI in the build itself, directed by engineers who own the result.
Traditional Dev Shop
A repository and a handover document. Hosting is your problem.
Automagic
Deployed in your branding on your domain, with your team trained.
Traditional Dev Shop
A separate retainer, often with a different team.
Automagic
The Engine: hosting, maintenance, improvements and growth, same team.
Traditional Dev Shop
Software. AI and marketing are other vendors.
Automagic
AI, software and growth from one team under one contract.
Choose a traditional shop when you want to staff hours against an open-ended roadmap. Choose Automagic when you want a known price, a short timeline and a team that stays.
Hourly billing puts the risk of estimation on the client. Fixed price software development puts it on the builder, which only works if the builder scopes carefully first. That is why every Automagic engagement starts with a paid scoping session, credited toward the project, that ends in a fixed scope, timeline and price.
The dev shop vs AI-native agency difference is in how the work is done. An AI-native development team uses AI across design, code, testing and documentation, with engineers directing it and owning the outcome. The same engineering judgment, applied to far more output per week.
For anyone looking for software development agency alternatives, that is the practical answer: not cheaper hours, but fewer of them.
A faster alternative to a development agency has to answer the question of month two. Automagic's answer is The Engine: the team that built the system hosts it, maintains it, improves it and supports every user around the clock. There is no handover document, because there is no handover.
Pillar
Transform how the business works, not just in a chat window. AI strategy, agents, workflow automation and integrations.
See Automagic AIPillar
Build what the business needs. Custom software, portals, internal tools and SaaS.
See Automagic DevTrack
Fixed scope, fixed price, live in weeks. Then it's yours.
See The BuildTrack
Assess, prioritize, build in waves, and roll out with your team trained.
See The OverhaulTrack
Ongoing hosting, maintenance, improvements and growth programs.
See The EnginePackage
Everything your company knows, in one private AI.
From $25K
See Company BrainPackage
Your whole company, one login. Built from modules, run by us.
From $20K + managed
See Company HQBecause the price follows a paid scoping session that defines exactly what ships. Changes after that are scoped and priced separately rather than absorbed as hours, so the number you agreed is the number you pay.
AI is used across design, code, testing and documentation, with engineers directing it. The judgment is the same; the output per week is far higher, which is why builds land in weeks instead of months.
They ship through The Engine, by the same team, as improvements. Hosting, maintenance and support are part of it, so there is no separate retainer with a different vendor.
Yes. It is deployed in your branding on your domain and it is yours. The Engine is how it stays hosted, maintained and improved, not a condition of ownership.
automagic.agency
Begin with a scoping session
