Buying app builds by the lifetime slot, not the month

Pricing here is not a monthly subscription you cancel when hiring slows. Software Programmer publishes three lifetime tiers, and each one is counted in apps rather than in seats or in time. That shape matters to a recruiter because your workload moves with requisitions: quiet quarters and frantic ones. You are buying a fixed number of builds, so the tier question becomes how many tools you can genuinely justify.

Reading the tiers starts with the brief, not the checkout page. Each app begins as a written description of what you need, and the build includes data, logins and payments where the brief calls for them. For recruiting work that usually means candidate records, a sign-in for your team and a way to take payment if you charge clients for shortlists. Those inclusions are what the tier is paying for.

One thing to hold on to: a lifetime slot covers one app. The tiers stack that unit, so three apps means three separate builds and ten means ten. If you are unsure whether a second tool will earn its place, the smaller tier is the honest starting point. You can describe the next build when the need is real rather than guessing at the outset.

Three tier names are published: one app lifetime, three apps lifetime and ten apps lifetime. The naming is plain and so is the logic. A recruiter sourcing in a narrow specialism often needs one focused tool, such as a searchable record of candidates by role and location. A small agency running several desks may map one app to each desk and take the middle tier.

What you get inside a slot is a shipped web app built from your brief, with the data, logins and payments the brief asks for. You are not assembling components yourself. The work starts from your written description of the problem, which for a recruiter means naming the fields you filter on, the locations you cover and who on the team needs access. Vague briefs produce vague tools.

The store sits alongside the builds. Software Programmer also sells every lifetime deal it runs through that store, so the tiers you compare are the deals on offer rather than a private quote. Treat the published tiers as the list you choose from. If a build turns out to be more involved than a single brief can carry, it goes to review before anything is committed.

Your objection is the right one: a database is only worth paying for if it is current when you search it. Software Programmer does not sell you a pre-filled candidate database, and it does not claim to. What it sells is the build of the tool you describe. Freshness is a property of the data you put in and how you keep it updated, not of the platform tier.

That reframing is useful at the buying stage. If your concern is stale records, the brief should say so: which fields go out of date, how often they are checked, who owns the update. A tool built around those answers will serve you better than a larger tier bought on the hope that volume fixes a data problem. The tier controls how many apps you get, not how accurate they are.

Keep the two questions apart when you decide. One is how many builds you need, which the tiers answer. The other is how your candidate information stays trustworthy, which is your process and your brief. Recruiters who blur the two tend to overbuy slots and underwrite the description. Write the brief first, then pick the tier that fits it.

Compare the tiers on app count and nothing else at first. One app suits a single specialism with one clear search problem. Three apps suits a recruiter or small team running distinct desks, each with its own fields and locations. Ten apps suits an operation that expects several separate tools over time. Beyond that count, the tiers do not differ in what a slot delivers.

Then compare against doing nothing. A spreadsheet costs no tier but ages quietly, and a general job board gives you reach without control over the fields you filter on. The honest comparison is between a purpose-built tool you described and the workaround you already run. If the workaround is adequate, the tier is optional; if it is not, the brief is where your effort should go.

Finally, compare the order of operations. Read the tiers, write the brief, and check whether the build you have in mind is simple enough for a single slot or likely to need review. That last check protects you from buying three slots for one complicated idea. Decide the count after the brief, not before, and the tier choice becomes straightforward.