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Claimship vs a traditional R&D study firm
A traditional R&D study firm gives you experienced humans: interviews, judgment, and someone to stand behind the claim. You pay for that time. Contingency fees usually run 20 to 30% of the credit, some boutiques charge up to 40%, and a study takes 4 to 8 weeks.
Claimship automates the work those hours pay for. It reads your GitHub, Linear, and Slack, builds the study, and charges a flat $1,500 to $3,000 per year. For a typical software startup the output is the same Form 6765 package at a fraction of the cost, with primary evidence behind every dollar.
| Claimship | Traditional study firm | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat fee. $1,500 to $3,000 per year, published on the pricing page. You keep 100% of the credit. | Usually 20 to 30% of the credit on contingency, with some boutiques up to 40%. Fixed-fee studies run from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands. Hourly work starts around $100 to $250 per hour. |
| Who gathers the evidence | Software reads your GitHub, Linear, Jira, and Slack with read-only access. You confirm edge cases in a short weekly review. No interviews or timesheets. | The firm interviews your engineers, collects time surveys and allocation questionnaires, and writes project narratives by hand. |
| Timeline | First draft study within days of connecting your tools. It updates as your team ships. | About 4 to 8 weeks of study work: eligibility screening, interviews, expense correlation, then report assembly. |
| Audit support | Every qualified dollar links to the commit, PR, or ticket that earned it. Primary evidence, not reconstructed interviews. | Audit defense is usually a separate engagement billed on top of the study, hourly or as a surcharge, though some firms bundle it. |
| What your CPA gets | A finished study and Form 6765 package. Your CPA reviews it and files it with your return. Claimship never files taxes. | A study report and Form 6765 support. Your CPA files it, same as with Claimship. |
| Time from the founder | About 15 minutes to connect your tools, then a short weekly review. | Kickoff meetings plus interview time from your engineers and follow-up on surveys, spread over the engagement. |
Fee ranges and timelines were checked against published industry sources in July 2026, including Swanson Reed's study timeline FAQ and pricing analyses by Kyle David Group and KBKG. Individual firms vary. Get quotes in dollars before you decide.
Sources: Swanson Reed: study timeline · Swanson Reed: contingency fees · Kyle David Group: study pricing · IRS Form 6765 instructions
How Claimship works
From connected repos to cash collected in four steps
Pricing is a flat fee of $1,500 to $3,000 per year based on team size. You keep 100% of the credit. Estimate yours with the credit calculator.
When a traditional firm is a better fit
Sometimes paying for expert humans is exactly right. A traditional firm is the better choice when:
- You have a controlled group or multiple entities. When common ownership crosses 80%, the credit is computed across the whole group and allocated. That analysis is fact-specific and worth expert hands.
- Your R&D is not software. Manufacturing, architecture, engineering, and lab R&D need engineering-based studies with modeling and testing evidence. That is interview and site-visit work.
- The IRS is already examining you. Audit representation is a distinct skill. If you are in an exam, hire people who defend claims for a living.
- You are amending 2022 to 2024 returns. The 2025 tax law lets smaller companies claim refunds by amending prior years for domestic R&D expensing. Elections and Section 280C interplay make this CPA territory.
- Your state situation is complicated. State credits do not always follow federal rules. California, for example, treats the reduced-credit election differently. Multi-state complexity favors a firm.