Freelance developer
Solo SG freelance software developer, S$80-150/hr
Typical SG software company
OTG / TechTIQ / 2359 tier, S$80K-S$250K range
SGBP
Senior engineer-led, Scrum, SG-priced Time to working MVP Time to working MVP 6-10 weeks part-time
Time to working MVP 5-8 months waterfall
Time to working MVP Discovery 2 weeks, MVP 4-6 weeks
SGD price for an MVP SGD price for an MVP S$15K-S$30K depending on scope
SGD price for an MVP S$80K-S$250K
SGD price for an MVP From S$12,800
Methodology Methodology Whatever the freelancer prefers
Methodology Waterfall dressed as Agile
Methodology Scrum with 2-week sprints, sprint review fortnightly
Owner on the build Owner on the build One solo developer
Owner on the build Project manager + junior dev pool
Owner on the build Named senior software engineer end to end
Bus-factor risk Bus-factor risk High — sick day stops the project
Bus-factor risk Low — but team rotates
Bus-factor risk Low — 4-6 person team backing named engineer
Code review + QA Code review + QA None or self-review
Code review + QA Yes, but adds 30% to timeline
Code review + QA In every sprint by default
Change requests mid-build Change requests mid-build Renegotiated each time
Change requests mid-build Change-order paperwork, billed extra
Change requests mid-build Up to 3 free in-sprint, then capped at S$120/hr
PDPA + IRAS + MOM compliance PDPA + IRAS + MOM compliance Asked at end, often missing
PDPA + IRAS + MOM compliance Add-on phase, charged separately
PDPA + IRAS + MOM compliance Baked in by default, audit log included
Production instrumentation Production instrumentation Console.log + hope
Production instrumentation Basic Sentry / GA4
Production instrumentation Full observability, error tracking, alerts
Post-launch support Post-launch support WhatsApp, when available
Post-launch support SLA, often 5-day response
Post-launch support WhatsApp first response under 1 hour, fix in 24h
Ownership of code + repo Ownership of code + repo Yours, depends on freelancer
Ownership of code + repo Often locked to agency-hosted repo
Ownership of code + repo You own everything, repo handover day one
Documentation handover Documentation handover README, if any
Documentation handover Glossy doc, often outdated
Documentation handover Architecture decisions logged per sprint
Hosting + DevOps included Hosting + DevOps included You set it up
Hosting + DevOps included Their managed hosting, locked
Hosting + DevOps included AWS / Cloudflare SG, account in your name
Engineer reachable directly Engineer reachable directly Yes, until they get a new client
Engineer reachable directly No — through PM
Engineer reachable directly Yes, on WhatsApp during SG business hours