About BudgetForge
BudgetForge is an independent publication for people who would rather check the math than trust the pitch deck.
What we make
BudgetForge is an independent publication that builds free, embeddable calculators paired with pragmatic-money editorial for indie founders and agencies. The tools cover the decisions that usually live in a spreadsheet you keep rebuilding: SaaS pricing, the true cost of running an AI workflow, build versus buy, and the effective hourly rate behind a freelance or agency invoice. Every calculator is interactive, free, and embeddable on any site with a single line of HTML. No account, no script tag, and no tracking is added to your readers.
Who it serves
Our readers are indie founders pricing a product, agency leads scoping a build, and operators deciding whether to write something themselves or pay for SaaS. The editorial voice is deliberately plain: tactics over adjectives, figures over hype. We show the math so you can change the inputs and disagree with the conclusion. Nothing here is financial advice. It is a faster way to reason about the trade-offs you already face, with the assumptions written down where you can audit them.
Everything we publish is free to read and free to embed. There is no paywall, no gated download, and no account to create. If a calculator saves you an afternoon of spreadsheet wrangling, or stops you from mispricing a feature, it has done its job. We would rather be the page you bookmark than the funnel you escape.
How we work
Every calculator ships with the reasoning that produced it. When we quote a number, we show where it came from and what we assumed to get there, so a result you can reproduce beats a result you have to trust. We update the models when the underlying costs move, and we write up the change rather than editing the figures silently. Where we compare tools or platforms, we name them and link the source, and we keep those mentions to what the analysis actually needs.
Editorial
BudgetForge was founded and is written by Camille Forster and Diego Aguirre. Camille leads the pricing and freelance-economics coverage; Diego leads the AI-cost and build-versus-buy breakdowns. Together they run the editorial desk, build the calculators, and keep the numbers honest. If you spot a figure that looks wrong, tell us and we will check it in public. Our promise is simple: show the working, name the sources, and update the page when reality moves.