Hire a software architect?

A software architect designs the structure of a system: how the parts, the data and the teams relate to each other, and which technical choices sit underneath. Those choices cover scalability, security, cost and maintainability, and are best made early in a project. A good architect translates business goals into a technical design that a development team can build on for years.

You usually need a software architect at an inflection point: building a new product meant to last for years, scaling a system that is hitting its limits, or connecting several systems that have drifted apart. It is also the moment to choose your architecture deliberately when a quickly built prototype has to become production-ready. Architectural mistakes are expensive to reverse later, so the value lies in making the right calls early.

A senior developer builds features and solves problems within an existing structure. A software architect sets that structure and looks at the whole system over the long term: which technology, which boundaries between parts, and which trade-offs between speed now and maintenance later. In small teams one person often holds both roles, and as a system grows the distinction starts to matter more.

A freelance software architect in the Netherlands charges roughly 100 to 130 euro per hour, excluding VAT, depending on experience and the complexity of the problem. Many organisations do not need a permanent hire, because an architect who thinks along for a few days at the start of a project often delivers the most value. At 010 we fill the role flexibly, so you buy architecture expertise for the moments that count.

The titles overlap, but in practice a software architect looks at the design of a single application or system, a solution architect at how several systems together solve a business problem, and a technical architect at the concrete technology and infrastructure underneath. For most SME projects it is the same person combining these levels. At 010 we match the depth of the architecture to the scale of your project, so you do not pay for structure heavier than you need.

At 010 architecture is handled by someone who still writes code, so the advice and the build stay connected. We make the important choices about structure, data and technology explicit at the start, so a product can grow without being rebuilt for every new feature. That can be a short architecture engagement, part of a build project, or a fractional CTO steering in the background.