Common questions, plain answers.
General
What does Official Byte do?
We're an engineer-led software studio that builds custom software, mobile apps, AI systems, web platforms, and cloud infrastructure for ambitious teams. We combine product, design, and engineering across short, focused engagements.
Where are you based?
Remote-first with hubs in London, New York, and Singapore. Our team works across 12 countries.
How big is your team?
Around 60 engineers, designers, and product managers. We deliberately stay small enough to keep our delivery bar high.
Pricing
How much does an engagement cost?
Starter projects begin at $45k. Growth retainers start at $28k/month. Enterprise programs are custom — see the pricing page for details.
Do you offer fixed-bid pricing?
Yes, when scope is stable. We invest heavily in discovery before quoting fixed-bid work, so you'll always know what's in and what's out.
Can we start with a smaller engagement?
Absolutely. Many of our long-running clients started with a 2–4 week discovery or audit engagement.
Process
How quickly can you start?
Most engagements start within two to four weeks of contract. We keep a small fast-start bench available for urgent timelines.
How do you communicate?
Weekly demos, Slack-shared with your team, and a written status update every Friday. No surprises.
Do you work with our existing team?
Always. Our engagements are designed to augment in-house teams, not replace them. We pair on every PR by default.
Engagement
Who owns the IP?
You do. All work product is assigned to you on payment. We retain rights to general methods and reusable patterns.
Do you sign NDAs and DPAs?
Yes. We sign mutual NDAs before sensitive discovery and have standard DPAs for clients with EU or California data subjects.
What if we need to pause or stop?
Retainer engagements have a 30-day notice. Fixed-bid projects can be paused with mutual agreement at milestone boundaries.
Technology
What tech stack do you work with?
TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust on the backend; React/Next.js on the web; Swift, Kotlin, React Native on mobile; AWS, GCP, Azure on the infra side. See the tech page for the full list.
Do you work with our legacy systems?
Yes. We specialize in strangler-fig migrations and have shipped projects against SAP, Oracle, and decades-old internal systems.
Do you do AI / ML work?
Yes — and we're opinionated about it. Eval-first, observability built-in, no shipping LLM features without a harness.
Confidentiality
Will you reference us publicly?
Only with explicit consent. Many of our case studies are anonymized at the client's request.
Can you sign our NDA?
Yes. We've signed hundreds of mutual NDAs. We can also send you ours within an hour of asking.
Where is our data hosted?
In your cloud, by default. We work as full members of your accounts — no Official Byte data lake, no shadow systems.
Still have questions?
The FAQ is a starting point. Tell us what you're trying to figure out and we'll come back within one business day.