Cost comparison
AI Agent Development Cost Comparison: Real First-Year Totals
A build-cost number alone hides the real comparison — a no-code platform's "$0 to start" looks cheapest until the recurring per-seat cost is added up over a year, and a fixed-price build's "one-time cost" looks expensive until it's compared against what an in-house hire actually costs. Here's the first-year total for each real approach, not just the headline number.
| Approach | Build cost | Year-1 running cost | Year-1 total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed-price custom (Tunovix) | $1,150–$4,800 (single-tool agent) | $240–$3,600 (LLM API, usage-based) | ≈ $1,400–$8,400 |
| Fixed-price custom (Horizon) | €998–€2,998 | Not published — LLM API separate, usage-based | ≈ €1,200–€3,500 est. |
| No-code platform (Lindy, team of 3) | $0 (self-build) | $3,600/yr (3 seats × Plus tier) | ≈ $3,600, every year |
| Larger fixed-scope agency (SpeedMVPs) | $8,000–$40,000 | $600–$24,000 (LLM API) | ≈ $8,600–$64,000 |
| In-house hire (Western Europe, senior) | $0 (salaried) | ≈ $55,000–$200,000/yr fully loaded | ≈ $55,000–$200,000 |
Illustrative single-agent scenario, not a quote. LLM API running-cost ranges are the same $20–$300/month-per-agent range used across this site's calculators, scaled to a year; in-house salary figures are Western Europe fully-loaded ranges from public 2026 salary data — actual numbers vary by volume, location, and seniority. See Tunovix vs. Horizon and Tunovix vs. Lindy for each vendor's own sourced numbers.
Why "cheapest to start" and "cheapest overall" aren't the same
A no-code platform has no build cost, but per-seat pricing means the cost resets every month, indefinitely — a team of 3 on a mid-tier plan can cross a fixed-price build's total cost within the first year and keep paying after that. A fixed-price build's cost is front-loaded and then mostly done, aside from ongoing LLM API usage that scales with actual conversation volume, not seat count.
Where a bigger agency's higher price actually buys something
A larger, higher-priced agency build isn't automatically worse value — it usually reflects a larger scope (more integrations, more channels, more custom logic) than a comparably-priced smaller build would cover. The comparison that actually matters is cost-per-scope, not cost alone — see Tunovix vs. Horizon for a same-category, same-scope comparison instead.
Get a real number for your actual case
Run the calculator for your specific channels and integrations, or read the fuller agency-vs- in-house breakdown if the real question is whether to build ongoing internal capability instead. Get in touch to talk through your specific numbers.
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