FounderizerA hosted platform runs your agents for you. Founderizer runs them on a machine you own.
What it is, fairly
A hosted agent platform gives you agents without a server to look after. You sign up, connect what they should reach, and the platform runs them, updates them, scales them and bills you for what they use. For most teams that is the right trade: you buy away the whole operating problem, and somebody whose job it is keeps the thing running.
The dividing line
The dividing line is where the work runs and who holds the keys. On a hosted platform your work runs on their machines, which means your credentials have to be reachable from their machines. Here the work runs on a machine you own, your keys sit in a vault on it, and we hold an email address, a payment and an entitlement.
| Hosted AI, as it is usually sold | Founderizer |
|---|---|
| Your work runs on their servers | Your work runs on a machine you own |
| You pay them for model use, on top of the plan | It signs in to the Claude plan you already pay for |
| Your keys sit in their vault, because their machines need them | Your keys sit in a vault on your machine. We never see one. |
| Your code reaches their machines | Your own GitHub App, in your own organisation. We hold no token. |
| Cancel, and it stops | Cancel, and your fleet keeps running. Our updates stop; nothing of yours does. |
| The record of what an agent did is theirs to show you | The record is a git history on your machine, which you can read and revert |
Which one is yours
Hosted AI, as it is usually sold is better when
- You do not want a server. That is a real cost and a real responsibility, and buying it away is a sound decision.
- You want somebody else to be on call when it breaks at three in the morning.
- You need it to scale past what one small machine can do, without you thinking about the machine.
- Your model use is bursty and you would rather pay per use than hold a subscription.
Founderizer is better when
- The credentials your agents need are ones you will not hand to a third party.
- You already pay for Claude and would rather not pay twice for the same tokens.
- You want the record of what an agent did to be yours, in a form you can read and revert.
- You want the thing to survive you cancelling. Nothing of ours is in your fleet’s path — no licence check, no call home, no expiry.
Choose a hosted platform when you do not want to own a machine and you are content for your credentials to be reachable from somebody else’s. That is the honest trade, and for many businesses it is the better one.
Questions
Is this cheaper than a hosted platform?
It depends on your model use, and there is no honest universal answer. What this does not do is bill you for tokens: the agents sign in to the Claude plan you already pay for. Your own costs stay yours — the server, about €5 to €20 a month, and that plan.
What do you hold about me?
An email address, a payment record at Stripe, an entitlement for a fleet id derived from nothing about you, and — only if you switch it on — a heartbeat carrying version numbers and check results.
What happens if Founderizer disappears?
Your hub keeps running exactly as it is. The updates, the app builds and the notifications to your phone stop. Your agents carry on until the day a platform changes under them.
How this was written
These pages describe the product as its own code and terms describe it. Where a page compares Founderizer with another way of working, it compares the way of working, not a named product’s current plan. A page that quotes another company’s price goes out of date the week that company changes it, and a one-person shop cannot keep a shelf of them true. So the comparisons here are about who carries what — the machine, the keys, the hours, the upkeep — which does not change when somebody edits a pricing page.
The other comparisons
Claude Code on your laptop
The dividing line is attendance. A session you drive needs you present, and ends when you close the lid. This is the same model, on a machine that is never shut, holding work it keeps without being asked, and reaching your phone when the next step is yours.
Hiring an engineer
The dividing line is what the work needs. An engineer is for work that needs judgement and ownership. A fleet is for work that needs doing at a volume or an hour a person cannot cover, inside limits you drew in advance.
Wiring it yourself
The dividing line is the week after. Claude, Codex and Apple move every week, and a provider session on a machine lasts weeks, not years. The build is a weekend; the upkeep is a standing obligation. That is what the fee pays for.
What it costs, what the agents actually do, and what you carry before you pay. Disagree with a line here? support@founderizer.com.