They will not tell you why they charge what they charge, where the money goes, or what percentage of your payment funds actual product development versus investor returns and sales commissions.
We think that is backwards. You are a business owner. You make purchasing decisions based on value. You deserve to know exactly what you are paying for.
This is our transparency report.
Because we can. When you do not have investors demanding margin targets, you do not have anything to hide about your cost structure. Our pricing is straightforward because our business model is straightforward: charge a fair price, deliver a great product, and let the economics work because we do not carry the overhead that investor-backed companies do.
We also believe that transparency builds trust in a market where trust has been eroded by years of hidden fees, surprise price increases, and bait-and-switch pricing tiers. If we are going to ask you to trust us with your business operations, the least we can do is show you exactly where your money goes.
Here is an honest, approximate breakdown of how each $69 Starter subscription is allocated. (Professional is $109 and Premium is $169; the shape of the breakdown is the same, with more of it going to messaging capacity.)
| Category | Approximate Allocation | What It Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure & Hosting | ~$12-15 | Cloud servers, database hosting, CDN, backups, SSL certificates, uptime monitoring, redundancy |
| SMS & Communication | ~$7-9 | Twilio SMS for appointment reminders, two-way texting, confirmation workflows, email delivery |
| Product Development | ~$21-25 | Building new features, fixing bugs, improving performance, security updates, API development |
| Customer Support | ~$9-12 | Direct support from people who actually understand pet care operations (not outsourced tier-1 script readers) |
| Business Operations | ~$6-8 | Legal, accounting, domain and licensing costs, insurance, payment infrastructure |
| Reinvestment Reserve | ~$5-8 | Retained for future development, scaling infrastructure, and maintaining pricing stability |
Total: ~$60-77 per customer per month.
Yes, you read that correctly. On some customers — particularly those with high SMS volume — we operate near break-even. On others, there is a modest margin that gets reinvested into the product. There is no 30% profit margin being extracted for investors because there are no investors.
The question we hear most often: “How can you possibly sustain this price?”
The answer comes down to cost structure.
That cost has to be recouped from your subscription over 18-24 months. Our customer acquisition cost is near zero because we grow through content, word-of-mouth, and organic search. This article you are reading right now? It is our marketing. It cost us time, not ad spend.
We do not have a C-suite with six-figure salaries. We do not have a VP of Sales managing a team of 12 account executives. We do not have a marketing department producing glossy brochures for trade shows. We do not have a board of directors that meets quarterly to review profit margins. Every person involved in Animal Friends OS is directly building or supporting the product.
This is the big one. When a PE firm buys a software company, they expect 20-30% operating margins to justify the acquisition price. When a VC firm invests $30 million, they expect the company to generate enough revenue for a $300M+ exit. Those expectations get baked into the price you pay. We have zero external investors. Zero. Our only obligation is to our customers and to building a sustainable business.
Cloud computing costs have dropped dramatically over the past decade. What used to require a $50,000/month server infrastructure can now be done for a fraction of that. We leverage modern cloud services, efficient database architecture, and lean deployment practices that keep our per-customer infrastructure cost under $10/month.
Just as important as where your $69 goes is where it does not go:
When you eliminate these costs, $69/month is not just sustainable — it is comfortable. The product is funded by the product, not by financial engineering.
The key insight: investor-backed platforms spend more on engineering in absolute dollars, but a smaller percentage of your payment goes to the product. At $175/month, roughly $30-40 (17-23%) goes to engineering. At $69/month, roughly $21-25 (30-36%) goes to engineering. You are actually getting more engineering investment per dollar with Animal Friends OS.
We will publish an updated version of this transparency report annually. If our cost structure changes, you will know about it. If we ever need to adjust pricing, we will explain exactly why and give you advance notice — not a surprise on your next invoice.
We believe that the pet care software industry has been opaque for too long, and that opacity has enabled the kind of pricing practices that hurt small business owners. Transparency is our antidote.
If you have questions about anything in this report, we will answer them honestly. That is a commitment, not a tagline.