Melta
Compare
An agency alternative for building your app: Melta
For founders and businesses who are collecting quotes from agencies right now. Here you see what an agency delivers, what Melta delivers and when each one is the better choice.
Two ways to the same goal
An agency is a team of people: consulting, design, development, project management. You get a quote, milestones and a handover at the end. Melta is a platform that builds your product and then operates it. You describe the product you want. Melta builds it, puts it online and connects payments, legal pages and your domain. You own what runs.
The difference is not only the price. An agency delivers a project and hands it over to you. Melta delivers a product that runs and stays responsible for it. If you are looking for an agency alternative for building your app, you are not comparing two quotes for the same service but two models.
Agencies vary widely in size, specialisation and way of working, and their offering may change at any time. This comparison describes the category, not a single company. Where there are numbers, they are Melta's numbers.
Agency alternative for building your app: the overview
| Feature | Agency | Melta |
|---|---|---|
| First build | quote by effort, usually a five-figure sum, often six figures | see pricing |
| Running costs | hosting, maintenance contract and hourly rates for adjustments | see pricing |
| Time to a first version | usually weeks to months | concept in minutes, full build in up to about a day |
| Operation | your own hosting or a maintenance contract; payment provider, domain and legal pages handled separately | hosting, payments, email, domain, legal pages, support inbox, analytics and error monitoring included |
| Changes | change request, estimate, invoice, slot in the next sprint | one chat message in plain language, change runs included in every plan |
| Ownership | depending on the contract, code and usage rights pass to you | the product that runs is yours |
| Design | bespoke, designed by people | derived from the concept, adjustable by chat |
| Integrations | as complex as needed, by effort | payments, email, domain and analytics built in; connections to legacy systems are agency territory |
Cost and time in detail
An agency charges by effort: concept phase, design, development, testing, project management. For a simple web app, quotes are usually a five-figure sum; for a larger product with logins, payments and several roles, often six figures. Running costs for hosting and maintenance come on top and are rarely part of the quote.
At Melta the model is shorter: a concept, then a plan per organisation with monthly credits that pay for builds and changes at fixed prices. What it costs and how the price is made up is on the pricing page.
Once, for the build
The build is paid from your credits when you confirm the concept, and its fixed price includes the complete first build up to a finished preview. The concept before that costs only a few credits.
One plan per organisation
Hosting, payments, email, domain, legal pages, support inbox, monitoring and analytics run within the plan, as do all change runs. A share of your sales applies only when you sell.
No hidden items
Every plan includes a monthly AI quota; you need no account with an AI provider. Card processing is deducted from each payment and never invoiced separately.
The biggest gap is speed. An agency project needs a kickoff, design rounds, sprints and acceptance, and the agency schedules you alongside other clients. Weeks to months are the rule. With Melta, you describe your product in plain language, get a concept, confirm it, and a full build takes up to about a day. Then you test in your own preview with test accounts and seeded demo data. The product only goes live when you say so, on a melta.ai subdomain or on your own domain.
Ownership, operation and changes after launch
With an agency, the contract decides what belongs to you at the end: source code, design, usage rights. That should be put in writing; this is general information and not legal advice. After the handover, operation is usually up to you or needs a maintenance contract: hosting, updates, payment provider, email delivery, domain and legal pages.
Melta builds and operates. The product that runs is yours, and the platform keeps it running: hosting, payments with one-time purchases, subscriptions and checkout, transactional email, your own domain that you buy through Melta or connect, legal pages generated from your operator data and ready for Switzerland, Germany and Austria, a support inbox, cookieless analytics and error monitoring. That is the core of Melta as an agency alternative for building your app: after the build, nobody has to set up operations.
The difference shows most clearly with changes. With an agency, you write a change request, receive an estimate and an invoice and wait for a slot in the next sprint, even for a new text or an extra field in a form. With Melta, every change is a chat message in plain language. It lands in the preview first, and you decide when it goes live. Preview and live are separate environments. Change runs are included in every plan.
An agency delivers a project. Melta delivers a product that runs and stays responsible for it afterwards.
When an agency is the better choice
Melta is not the right path for every project. In these cases you are better served by an agency:
Bespoke design
When brand and visual design are the centrepiece and every detail should be designed and signed off by people.
Complex integrations
Connections to existing inventory, accounting or legacy systems with their own logic. Melta brings payments, email, domain and analytics, not the interface to your warehouse system.
Regulated industries
Where rules on testing, documentation and approval apply, for example for medical devices or financial services, you need people who know and take responsibility for those requirements. General assessment, not legal advice.
Large teams and many stakeholders
When departments, procurement and IT all have a say, you need workshops, project management and acceptance processes. An agency provides that, a chat does not.
Melta fits when your product can be described clearly: a booking system, a member area, a directory, a shop, an industry tool or a SaaS with subscriptions. And when budget and time are limited, you do not want to organise operations, and you want to change small things without an invoice each time. You will find examples under Solutions and among the example products.
Frequently asked questions about the agency alternative
Do I get a concept from Melta the way I would from an agency?
Yes. You describe your idea in plain language and get a concept you can read without any technical background. You can have it revised as often as you like.
What do changes cost after launch?
Each change is a chat message in plain language. It lands in the preview first, and you decide when it goes live.
Who looks after hosting, payments and legal pages after the build?
Melta does. Hosting, payments, transactional email, domain, legal pages, support inbox, analytics and error monitoring all run on the platform. You need neither a contract with a payment provider nor a maintenance contract.
Can I combine Melta with an agency?
That is possible. Some people get advice from an agency on brand, positioning or design and then describe those requirements in plain language in the concept for Melta. Melta takes care of the build and the operation.
Early access to Melta
Melta is opening step by step. Sign up and we will invite you in the order of registration. The first concept uses only a few credits.
Get early access