An agency spent an hour in the code, never logged in, and priced a takeover at $140,000. How much does it cost to take over existing software? Checkout on the live product still worked. They had written a second product into the appendix anyway.
I price this for products that already have users. If you still haven't decided whether to keep the one you have, that's taking over an existing product. A product that doesn't exist yet is how much a web product costs. A generated trial nobody pays inside is an AI-generated app or a developer. This page is the bill once people already use it.
How much a product takeover costs
Dollars, from briefs where someone could already log in. The first invoice is a read. The next one is a repair, if the read says that's the job. A quote that swaps in a new product belongs on the other page.
| What they asked for | What it costs | What the fee covers |
|---|---|---|
| A paid read of the live product | $2,500 to $6,000 | I log into the product, the host, the domain, and the payments account. The note says who uses it, what I must not break, and which line on this table you're on. Buy that before a rewrite. The hour behind the $140,000 PDF was not this. |
| Repair what hurts, leave Monday up | $10,000 to $24,000 | I move the logins into an account you can open, fix the deploy nobody wants to run, and repair the flow that actually hurts. The URL stays. So does checkout. This is the number I mean when the last developer left. |
| Replace one dead piece, the rest stays live | $22,000 to $48,000 | The host is closing, or a one-line fix can take checkout down. I replace that piece and leave the rest of the product up. A new repo with a new name is the last line on this table. |
| A new product sold as a takeover | The other receipt | A second build beside one that already has users. That fee is how much a first version costs. The live product still has to charge people while the new one doesn't exist yet. I leave that number off this table. |
Their appendix was a data migration into a new repo, a second folder of the same code. I would have billed the read, then the repair line, because checkout already worked. They billed a company that didn't exist yet. An agency on the repair line is often twice the figure, since you're paying for a room to write the PDF. That gap is a freelance developer or an agency.
People look at $18,000 next to $140,000 and assume I missed the mess. They trust the big number for being big. Nobody who wrote it had opened checkout.
What a product takeover read has to name
A read takes a few days. You get a note. I don't draw a new architecture in it. The note names the line you're on and the logins I couldn't open. When checkout works and one screen is the actual complaint, the next invoice is the repair line. When a piece is dead, I say so, and that decision is rewrite or take it over. I have watched that sentence get buried under a build quote so the rewrite still looks inevitable.
I write a brief before I quote when nothing exists yet. This product does, so the note has to match what I could log into. A slide is a wish. What one person owns on this job is the screens and the deploy, on software people already use. A messy database is a bad reason to add a second one.
The note has to name a person
If I can't say who logged in last Tuesday, I'm guessing, and the PDF will still say takeover. I need the person at checkout, or the person who opens that weekly report. Without a name, I don't know what I'm allowed to break, and I shouldn't be naming a fee.
A missing password stops the read
I write down what was locked. You get those keys, and I finish the read. A zip file plus a story about the person who left is not enough to price the repair, and neither is a screen recording with a promise that the passwords show up in week three. No deposit on that.
What a rewrite quote leaves off the invoice
Rewrite quotes are easy to print. Nothing in them has to keep taking payments while the new repo is empty. The figure on the cover is only the new product. It skips the weeks you have to run both, and it skips the odd orders the old checkout already knows how to handle. Someone still has to answer those customers on Thursday.
Both systems on one invoice
If one piece is dead, you want the replace-one-piece line in the table, and the live product keeps running while that piece gets replaced. A quote that switches the live product off until launch day is the last line, plus whatever it costs you to go quiet. How long a first version takesis the calendar for software that doesn't exist yet. This one has customers this week. I won't quote you a blank-build calendar for them.
Knowledge transfer with no keys
Knowledge transfer, as a line on the PDF, is usually a call. The domain is still in the last developer's email. The call doesn't move it. Who owns the product after launchis what that line should have been. Inside the repair, the logins land in an account you can open. I won't bill the call and name it a takeover.
When a product takeover is the wrong fee
I send the PDF back when it needs the product to sit still for a quarter. The number can be real and still be the wrong job.
You wanted a retainer and no repair
They want a monthly fee to watch it, and they still haven't named the flow that hurts. That agreement is who owns the product after launch. A monthly line is also how a rewrite you haven't earned waits around without anyone having to defend it.
The product is a website with a password
Five pages, a form, and a login so the team can edit copy. Nobody comes back tomorrow to finish a job. You're buying how much a custom website costs, or how much a website redesign costs when those URLs already send people. A takeover price on that is how the quote got to $140,000 in the first place.
If the quote is already in your inbox, send it with a login. I'll mark the line. A few products that started this way are in selected work.
