--- title: "Polargate FAQ: prices, contracts, AI and support" description: "Straight answers on working with Polargate: what a project costs, what a Discovery Sprint is, who owns the code, how support works and where your data lives." url: https://polargate.ai/faq locale: en publisher: POLARGATE S.L. --- Frequently asked questions # The questions buyers ask before they sign Prices, contracts, ownership, technology, AI and support, answered the way we answer them on a call. If something you need is missing, ask for it in the brief at /start and we will answer it here. In short Polargate is a senior-led, AI-native digital studio in Madrid and Amsterdam that builds, grows and maintains software for mid-market companies in English, Spanish and Dutch. Every engagement starts with a paid Discovery Sprint from 4,900 EUR that ends in a fixed price. Maintenance runs on a monthly retainer from 850 EUR, with a three-month minimum and then 30 days of notice, and the code, the data and the accounts are yours from day one. ## Working together ### What kind of companies does Polargate work with? Mid-market companies, roughly 50 to 500 employees, in Europe and the Americas: hotels, industrial manufacturers, event businesses, retail and corporate groups. ### How does a project start? With a paid Discovery Sprint: two weeks of senior work that end in a scope, an architecture, named risks and one fixed price. ### How long does a build take? The first iteration reaches production four to eight weeks after Discovery, with real data behind it. A version, not a prototype. ### Who actually does the work? Senior engineers, led by founder and CTO Pedro Ciordia. Specialisms outside our core come from a network of specialists, named before you sign. ### Do you work in English, Spanish and Dutch? Yes, natively in all three, including multilingual sites with translated URLs, per-language rendering and reciprocal hreflang. ## Pricing and contracts ### How much does a project cost? The Discovery Sprint is from 4,900 EUR. As references: a multilingual site with its own backend from 7,600 EUR, an internal platform's first phase from 12,000 EUR. ### Why do I have to pay for the proposal? Because free scoping is selling, not scoping. Paid discovery goes where the risk is, and half the fee comes off the build if it starts within 60 days. ### How much is the monthly retainer? CARE from 850 EUR per month for maintenance and evolution. GROW from 690 EUR per month bundled with CARE. A standalone technical and AI-search audit from 1,500 EUR. ### Am I locked into a long contract? No. Retainers are monthly and rolling, with a three-month minimum and then 30 days of notice and a written handover. ### Who owns the code and the accounts? You do, from day one: repository, Supabase project, hosting, domains, secrets and store developer accounts. ## Technology ### What do you build on? Vite, React and TypeScript on the front, Supabase behind it (Postgres, row level security, Edge Functions), Vercel hosting, Capacitor for iOS and Android. ### Can you connect to the systems we already run? Yes. Integrations run server side against real APIs, with credentials in a vault, idempotent jobs, logged calls and a sync that fails closed. ### Do you take over software another team built? Yes, after a takeover audit of the live product and the repository. If the state is bad, remediation comes first. ### Do you build mobile apps? Yes, with Capacitor from the same codebase, including App Store and Google Play submissions and over-the-air updates. ## Artificial intelligence ### How do you actually use AI in the work? Two ways. Inside delivery: agents triage tickets, propose fixes as pull requests and run audit passes. Inside your product: assistants grounded in your own data. ### Do you train models on our data? No. Your data stays in your database and is read at query time through retrieval. We host in the EU by default. ### Can you get our company mentioned in ChatGPT? We can make it possible, not guarantee it. Answer engines read raw HTML and do not run JavaScript, and most sites serve them an empty shell. ### Is it safe to let an agent change production code? The agent never touches production. It opens a pull request and a person reviews the diff. Two limits live in the database: nothing deploys alone, nothing reaches a client unreviewed. ## Support ### How fast do you answer when something breaks? First response within 48 business hours. Urgent work comes from its own pool of hours, so one incident does not eat your improvement budget. ### Do you offer 24/7 support? No, and we will not pretend otherwise. Coverage spans European and American business hours, from UTC minus 5 to UTC plus 1. ## Legal and data ### Where does our data live? In your own Supabase project, in the EU by default, with row level security on every table, so a query only reaches what its user may see. ### Is Polargate ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certified? No, and we do not claim to be. What we commit to is in the contract: security headers, row level security, secrets in a vault and an audit report you can read. ### Who are we signing a contract with? POLARGATE, S.L., CIF B24895005, registered at Calle Electronica 6, 28027 Madrid, Spain, serving clients across Europe and the Americas. Contact: the brief at /start on polargate.ai. FAQ ## Questions, answered How much does a website or software project cost with Polargate? It starts with a Discovery Sprint from 4,900 EUR at a fixed price, which ends in one number for the build. As references from past work, a multilingual site with its own backend starts from 7,600 EUR and the first phase of an internal platform from 12,000 EUR. Maintenance afterwards runs on a separate monthly retainer from 850 EUR. What is a Discovery Sprint and why do I have to pay for it? A Discovery Sprint is two weeks of paid senior work that turn an intention into a decision: scope module by module, architecture and data model, named risks with mitigations, a fixed price and a recommendation, which is sometimes not to build. It costs from 4,900 EUR and half the fee comes off the build if it starts within 60 days. Free scoping is selling, and you pay for it later anyway. Who owns the code when Polargate builds our software? You do, from day one. The GitHub repository, the Supabase database, the hosting, the domains, the secrets and your App Store and Google Play developer accounts are all in your company's name. If you stop working with Polargate you leave with the whole stack and a written handover, and the next team has nothing to rebuild. How much does monthly website maintenance and support cost? Polargate CARE starts at 850 EUR per month. It covers a contracted pool of senior hours split between planned maintenance and urgent work, ServiceDesk and client portal access, a monthly audit of the live product and a written monthly report. Above the entry level the price depends on how many applications, languages and integrations are covered. It is monthly and rolling, with a three-month minimum and then 30 days of notice. Do you train AI models on our company data? No. Your data stays in your own database and is read at query time through retrieval, never used for training. Polargate hosts in the EU by default, on Postgres with row level security, so a query can only reach the data its user is entitled to, and the model receives only the passages needed to answer the question in front of it. Do you offer 24/7 support? No. Polargate is a senior-led studio, not a call centre, and promising round the clock cover would be dishonest. Urgent tickets have their own pool of hours and are picked up ahead of planned work, with a first response within 48 business hours as the standing commitment. Coverage spans European and American business hours, from UTC minus 5 to UTC plus 1. Do you work in English, Spanish and Dutch? Yes, natively in all three, for clients in Europe and the Americas. That includes multilingual sites with translated URLs per language, reciprocal hreflang and separate rendering for each language, which is where multilingual sites usually break without anyone noticing. AI assistants are evaluated in every language you launch in, because one that behaves in English can still drift in Dutch. Can you take over a website or app another agency built? Yes, if it can be taken over properly. CARE starts with an audit of the live product and the repository, so both sides know the real state before anyone commits hours. Stacks we do not work in, or code we cannot get access to, are not a fit and we say so. If the state is bad, a remediation project comes first and the retainer starts after it. INITIATE ## Start the engine Tell us what you are building in a few short questions. A senior engineer answers in writing within 48 business hours, with a first take on scope, timeline and price. [Start your project](https://polargate.ai/start) ยท [Talk to us](https://polargate.ai/start#static-brief-heading)