Simple, predictable pricing
Architecture first. AI with boundaries.
LayrCake is infrastructure for building software that lasts. You pay for structure and governance — not prompt volume.
Builder
For serious founders getting it right from day one.
£499/ month
- LayrCake core architectural framework
- Deterministic system scaffolding
- Pre-built layers (data, services, APIs, UI)
- Override-based business logic injection
- Opinionated, scalable structure
- Single production environment
- Community & async support
Best for
- Pre-revenue startups
- Solo founders and small teams
- Greenfield products that intend to scale properly
Scale
For startups with customers and real risk.
£5,000/ month
- Everything in Builder, plus:
- Multiple environments (Dev / Staging / Production)
- Governance and override controls
- Security, tenancy, and audit layers
- Team collaboration & role-based access
- Priority support
Best for
- Revenue-generating startups
- Internal platforms
- Products under customer, investor, or compliance pressure
Enterprise
For organisations that cannot afford architectural failure.
From £20,000/ month
(Annual contract)
- Everything in Scale, plus:
- Enterprise governance & compliance posture
- Custom deployment topology (on-prem, private cloud, hybrid)
- Private / sovereign AI execution
- Advanced security, audit, and tenancy guarantees
- SLAs & dedicated onboarding
- Architecture review & long-term roadmap alignment
Best for
- Scale-ups (£5m+ ARR)
- Enterprises
- Regulated industries
- Public sector & government
How to think about LayrCake pricing
LayrCake is not priced like a tool. It's priced like architectural responsibility.
Every company pays for architecture eventually:
upfront, deliberately or later, painfully, through rewrites
Pre-revenue startups
£350–£500 / month
to avoid building on sand.
Startups with customers
£5,000+ / month
roughly the cost of a small offshore team.
Scale-ups (~£5m ARR)
£20k–£50k / month
5–12% of ARR on core platform capability.
Enterprises
Variable
Cheaper than failed transformations.
If these numbers feel high, your architecture risk just hasn't surfaced yet. It always does.
ROI Calculator
Estimate your potential savings over 3 years
Your situation
Company Stage
Pre-revenue With Customers Scale-up Enterprise
Team Size 5 developers
150
Avg. Developer Cost (annual) £75,000
£30k £200k
Rewrite Risk: 80%
Industry data suggests with customers companies have a high chance of major rewrites within 3 years.
3-Year Comparison
Traditional Development
£1,575,000
Team: £1,125,000
Expected rewrite: £450,000
With LayrCake (Scale)
£1,305,000
Team: £1,125,000
LayrCake: £180,000
Rewrites: £0
Potential Savings
£270,000
17% less • ~10 months saved
* Estimates based on industry averages. Actual results vary.
LayrCake vs alternatives
LayrCake doesn't remove engineering cost. It removes wasted engineering cost.
| Approach | What You Pay | What Happens | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional dev team | Salaries + churn | Architecture evolves accidentally | Rewrite every growth stage |
| Offshore teams | Lower hourly rates | Slow feedback, brittle systems | Hidden long-term cost |
| Prompt-driven AI tools | Cheap upfront | Context sprawl, fragile output | Cost explosion, loss of control |
| LayrCake | Fixed platform cost | AI inside strict architectural constraints | No rewrites, predictable scale |
AI, explained honestly
AI is inevitable. Chaos is optional.
Every modern team will use AI to write code. The difference is where and how. LayrCake uses AI to generate bespoke business logic, modelled on proven architectural and coding best practices.
What LayrCake does not allow:
- AI rewriting core architecture
- Logic in the wrong layers
- Unbounded prompt chaining
- Context sprawl
AI works inside constraints — not as the architecture itself.
Pricing FAQ
Is LayrCake priced by tokens or AI usage?
Do we still pay for AI models?
Why is LayrCake more expensive than other AI tools?
Isn't £5k/month too much for a startup?
Why does Enterprise start at £20k/month?
Do you offer discounts?
Is LayrCake replacing developers?
If you're optimising for speed today, there are cheaper tools.
If you're optimising to never rewrite again, this is the right price.