Alva Imobiliária is a national real estate group with 9 offices across Lisbon (real case — data altered under NDA), Porto, Coimbra, Braga and the Algarve. It generates about €7M/year in commissions, has about 90 consultants and a central structure of 12 people — administration, marketing, back-office and IT. The CFO, António Fernandes, was facing a dilemma common in mid-sized companies: the constant need for small and medium digital projects (listing page, landing page for acquisition, portal integration, dashboard of office performance, event microsite) was large enough to justify an internal team, but pipeline variability made permanent developer hiring hard to justify. The usual compromise was ad-hoc freelancers — and it was costing a lot.
The Scenario Before: The Chaos of Ad-Hoc Freelancers
At year-end, António did the sums. In 2024, Alva Imobiliária had spent €118,400 on external web development, design, automation and integration services. The money had gone to 14 different vendors, spanning individual freelancers, small agencies and occasional consultants. The distribution was clearly uneven: three projects alone had consumed over €45,000, while several smaller projects ranged from €1,500 to €5,000.
The problem wasn't just financial. It was operational. Every new project started with a briefing from scratch because the previous vendor "was no longer available" or "had become more expensive". Every new person took weeks to understand the business, the brands, the processes, the voice. And quality varied enormously — some deliveries were brilliant, others mediocre, some simply incomplete when the vendor disappeared mid-project.
António identified another less-visible cost: the cost of management. He or the marketing head spent between 8 and 12 hours a week managing these vendors — sourcing new ones, briefing, gathering feedback, paying invoices. Valued internally at a conservative €60/hour, this represented a further €30,000/year hidden. The real total bill was around €148,000/year.
The Strategy: Replacing Ad-Hoc with a Flexible Dedicated Team
Phase 1: Request Pipeline Diagnostic
Before proposing any model, we analysed with António the effective pipeline of the past 12 months: project types, volume, urgency, complexity. We categorised the 37 projects executed in 2024 by type: 14 listing pages, 6 acquisition landing pages, 4 portal integrations (idealista, imovirtual), 5 internal dashboards, 3 email automations, and 5 larger projects (institutional microsite, main site redesign, agent apps).
The analysis revealed that the volume was predictable: around 3 requests per month on average, with peaks of 5–6 ahead of semi-annual campaigns. This regularity made the monthly subscription viable — unlike a company with violent peaks and months of zero activity.
Phase 2: Migration to Unlimited Subscription
Alva Imobiliária subscribed to the Pro Digital Key PRO plan (€2,800/month, with the first month at €2,000). The model: unlimited requests, one active request at a time, priority delivery, dedicated team. No lock-in — cancel at any month's end.
The first week was intentionally dedicated to onboarding: our team got to know the nine offices, regional brands, internal processes, aesthetic preferences, the KPIs that mattered. This upfront investment (~12 hours) was amortised across every subsequent project — because from there, each new request already starts with context.
Phase 3: Queue Management and Predictability
We set up a shared request management platform between Alva and our team. The CFO, marketing head and regional managers can submit requests directly, with urgency, objectives, references and stakeholders. The queue is visible to everyone — each person sees what's in progress, what's queued, what's been delivered.
This transparency transformed the internal dynamic. Before, regional managers competed for António's attention (the single point of contact with external vendors), which created chaotic prioritisation. Now they see the shared queue and can negotiate priorities with each other based on facts — "this Algarve request can wait 2 weeks, let's bump the Braga one up".
Spending more than €30k/year on digital freelancers?
Do the maths: the unlimited subscription costs €33,600/year and delivers a dedicated team, no lock-in.
View Unlimited Subscription →Phase 4: Deliveries, Rhythm and Consolidation
In the first 6 months, we delivered to Alva: 9 new listing pages (one per office), 8 acquisition campaign landing pages, 3 integrations (idealista, imovirtual, internal CRM API), 2 dashboards (one operational per office, one executive for António), 4 lead nurturing automations, and 1 full rebuild of the main site. At 12 months, the total output volume exceeded 2024 — with visibly more consistent quality.
Results After 12 Months
The numbers closed the case:
• Direct cost: from €118,400 (2024) to €34,000 (2025) — a 71% reduction. The €34,000 corresponds to 11 months × €2,800 + 1 month × €2,000 of the PRO plan with launch discount.
• Hidden management cost: from 8–12h/week to less than 2h/week — about 82% reduction. António and the marketing head recovered time equivalent to one full month of work per year.
• Total savings (direct + hidden): €84,000/year compared with the previous structure. Over three years of continuous subscription, projected cumulative savings of €252,000.
• Delivery volume: 38 projects in 2025 (vs 37 in 2024) — slightly higher, with higher average complexity.
• Average delivery time: simple projects dropped from 14 days (average time with freelancers) to 6 days. Medium projects from 6 weeks to 3 weeks. Large projects from 4 months to 2 months.
• Quality: internal post-delivery ratings rose from an average 3.6/5 (with freelancers) to 4.7/5 (subscription). Consistency is the most cited factor.
Lessons for Companies with Continuous Medium Volume
The first lesson is that ad-hoc freelancers are the most expensive option when volume is predictable. The hourly or per-project price seems attractive, but hidden costs — re-briefings, lost context, management, inconsistency — easily inflate total cost by 40–50%. The maths favours freelancers only when pipeline is truly sporadic (1–2 projects per quarter).
The second lesson is that subscription works better for companies that can decide internal priorities. If every request is "super urgent", the queue model collapses. Alva was able to adopt precisely because António and the marketing head internalised the discipline of priority negotiation — decision, not urgency.
Conclusion
Alva Imobiliária not only saved €84,000 in the first year but gained something even more valuable: an external team that knows the business in depth, responds with consistent quality, and is present indefinitely (or as long as the subscription continues). António describes the model as "having a fractional CTO without hiring a CTO". For a company growing faster than its capacity to recruit senior talent would allow, this is an ideal compromise — total flexibility, zero commitment, maximum quality.
