$ luamere compare --honest
Which one do you actually need?
Delivery feels unpredictable. There are four common ways to get help, and they solve different problems. Here is what each costs, what you get, and when it's the right call, including when it isn't us.
| metrics tool | delivery health check | agile coach | fractional cto | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Examples | Swarmia, LinearB, Jellyfish, Sleuth | Luamere | contractors, agencies | independent senior leaders |
| Typical cost | about USD 20-60 per developer per month; some free for small teams | EUR 750 fixed, one week (free for pilot teams now) | about USD 70-160 per hour | about USD 8,000-25,000 per month |
| Time to first insight | days to weeks, once data is clean | one week | weeks | weeks |
| What you get | dashboards: cycle time, DORA metrics, PR analytics | your top 3 delivery problems, the fix for each as a team agreement, a forecast, and a free re-measure after 30 days | process coaching, ceremonies, ways of working | ongoing technical leadership and decisions |
| Who reads the data | you | we do, then explain it to you | the coach, mostly by observation | the CTO |
| Commitment | often annual | none | open-ended, by the hour | months, often a year |
Sources: Swarmia pricing; third-party estimates for LinearB and Jellyfish; 2026 fractional CTO survey; ZipRecruiter agile coach rates. Checked October 2026; prices change.
// when each one fits
Honest answers.
Pick a metrics tool if
- You already know what's wrong and want to watch it every week
- Someone on the team has time to read the dashboards and act on them
- Your tracker and Git data are fairly clean
- You have under 10 developers: several tools are free at that size
Pick a Health Check if
- Delivery feels unpredictable and nobody agrees on why
- You want an outside view, with data and the team's own voice, in a week
- You want fixes, not more charts
- You'd like to know if a tool, a coach or a hire is worth it before buying one
Pick an agile coach if
- The team is new to working in sprints or Kanban
- You need someone in the room for weeks to build habits
Pick a fractional CTO if
- You don't have senior technical leadership at all
- The problem is architecture, hiring or technical strategy, not delivery flow
They also combine well: a Health Check first shows which of the others you need. If it's a tool, we can help you set up a free one so the gains stick.
// not sure yet?
Start with two minutes.
The free self-check points to your biggest leaks. A pilot Health Check gives you the real numbers.