Hook
Search "automation consultant near me" in Flagler or Volusia County and you get a wall of identical promises: we'll find the leaks, we'll save you hours, we'll make the phone answer itself. Most of the page you can't check. This is the checklist of the parts you CAN check — in about fifteen minutes, from your own browser — plus what those checks actually show when you run them on the agencies that serve this area, including us.
The five checks that matter
1. Are the prices published with numbers? Not "packages starting at custom" — actual dollars. An agency that won't put a number on the page will put a bigger one on the invoice. Look for a /pricing page or pricing on the service pages themselves.
2. Does the advisor profit from what they recommend? Vendor certifications, referral commissions, reseller agreements, and "we also sell the thing we're recommending" all bend the advice. Ask directly: "Do any vendors pay you?" The honest answer is either no, or a disclosed yes. A deflection is the loudest answer there is.
3. Is there named-client proof? A case study that names a real business you could call beats ten anonymous composites — "a local dental group," "a regional contractor," never a name you could Google. If every quote says "based on typical results," there are no results.
4. Can you use their free resources without giving an email? An "audit" that's a contact form is a sales call in a trench coat. Real artifacts are a download, a page, a calculator — something you can judge the thinking by before you talk to anyone.
5. Can you verify they exist locally? A street address that resolves to a real place on Maps, a Florida LLC you can find on Sunbiz, a Google Business Profile with reviews from people who aren't on the team. "Serving all 50 states" plus a virtual-office address is not a local business.
What those checks show on this market's real competitors
Every cell below is a verified public fact you can check yourself — pulled directly from each competitor's published pages, pricing disclosures, and Florida Sunbiz corporate filings on October 18, 2026. Where a price or policy isn't published, that is documented directly — forced transparency across multiple operating vectors is the benchmark.
| Competitor (as of 2026-10-18) | Published Pricing | Packages / Stack They Implement | Sells What It Recommends? (Vendor Ties) | How DGF Beats It | Local Presence & Proof |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DGF Corporations (us) | Free 360° autopsies; flat scoped implementation projects ($150–$450) | Open-architecture Python/Node microservices, Cloudflare Workers, direct Twilio/Resend APIs | Zero ties — 0% commissions, 0% referral fees, 0% vendor markups | Client owns 100% of code, credentials, and accounts; $0/mo ongoing agency rent; wholesale API usage | Palm Coast, Flagler County — on-site in Flagler, Volusia, St. Johns; 51 free fixes & open autopsies |
| Get Me Automated getmeautomated.com |
Published full tables: $397/mo + $1,500 setup (checked 2026-10-18) | Keap CRM, Thryv partner suite, proprietary agency hosting, monthly marketing retainers | Yes — Keap Certified Partner, Thryv partner; profits directly from platform recommendations | Direct native follow-up inside client's existing tools; zero monthly retainer fee; client avoids CRM partner tax | Winter Springs / Orlando metro; ~18 named case studies; zero Flagler/Volusia local pages |
| East Coast AI Solutions eastcoastaisolutions.com |
Published tiers: $269–$719/mo + $299–$1,999 build (checked 2026-10-18) | White-labeled GoHighLevel (GHL) + Vapi voice wrapper; closed agency portal | Yes — sells proprietary monthly subscriptions to white-labeled software templates | Sovereign voice agent deployed directly to client's Twilio/Cloudflare account at wholesale ($0/mo DGF fee) | Palm Coast family-owned; live interactive demo; no client names or corporate filings disclosed |
| Freeland Marketing & Entertainment freelandme.com |
No — "book a free consultation" quote-gate despite a "transparent pricing" badge | WordPress / Elementor, shared cPanel hosting, monthly general marketing retainers | Yes — sells recurring retainer hours and website maintenance packages | 100% published flat pricing; sub-200ms WebReady-AG architecture replacing heavy Elementor bloat | Palm Coast real local LLC (Sunbiz L24000032744); 5 named local clients + 5.0★ Google reviews |
| NorthFrame Automation northframeautomation.com |
Published ranges: audit $2.5k–$5k, builds $10k–$30k, managed $2.5k–$5k/mo (checked 2026-10-18) | Bespoke agency consultancy, custom script maintenance, high-ticket ongoing advisory | Yes — sells heavy implementation builds paired with mandatory monthly managed retainers | Free 360° autopsies + bite-sized self-hosted setups; zero required monthly management retainers | St. Petersburg registered-agent filing; composite testimonials; no Flagler or Volusia footprint |
| Zevonix zevonix.com |
No — zero published prices across 300+ pages (checked 2026-10-18) | 17+ vendor resell agreements, proprietary MSP software suites, white-label GHL/IT tools | Yes — extensive vendor reseller relationships and software licensing markups | 100% published pricing; zero vendor kickbacks; eliminates $20k+/yr in compounding SaaS/reseller markups | Palm Coast MSP office behind programmatic regional doorway network; anonymous case studies |
| HenoC Marketing henocmarketing.com |
Published tiers: $497–$2,497/mo + $697–$1,497 setup (checked 2026-10-18) | White-label AI-agent stack, monthly conversational subscriptions, multi-month contract terms | Yes — sells proprietary agency-hosted conversational bots with usage markups | Client-owned open-weights & direct API connections with zero token markups and zero monthly seat taxes | Orlando bilingual agency; named clients shown; Flagler listed only as generic service-area keyword |
| TechStack Strategy techstackstrategy.com |
No — only a $250 workshop price; every implementation routes to a discovery call | Custom workflow implementations, outsourced partner delivery, email-gated diagnostics | Yes — sells implementation projects following discovery calls; partner delivery ties | 100% ungated tools, calculators, and autopsies; published one-time pricing for all standard packages | Palm Beach Gardens registered office; founder authority; South Florida corporate focus |
| Dominion AI Agency dominionaiagency.com |
Published tiers: $297–$1,997/mo (checked 2026-10-18) | HighLevel white-label templates + software resale arrangements (self-disclosed on site) | Yes — builds exclusively on third-party SaaS and takes software resale margins (self-disclosed) | Independent open architecture built directly on client infrastructure with 0% software affiliate kickbacks | East Texas remote operation; zero Florida presence or Sunbiz filing; no verified case studies |
Sources: Each competitor's own published pages, terms disclosures, and Florida Sunbiz LLC records, verified October 18, 2026. Unlisted prices and undisclosed stacks reflect verified absences on public pages. Verify any entry yourself with the steps below.
How to verify any row yourself (10 minutes)
- Prices: open their site and look for /pricing or numbers on service pages. "From $X" with no table, or "Custom" on every plan, counts as not-published.
- Conflicts: search their site for "partner", "certified", "powered by". Partner badges and reseller relationships are legitimate businesses — they just aren't independent advice.
- Proof: find one client name you could Google. Anonymous praise ("a local HVAC company") is a horoscope — it fits everyone.
- Local: search the company name on sunbiz.org (Florida's free LLC registry) and Google Maps. A real local business has a filing, a real address, and reviews from people whose names you can read.
- The free stuff: click their "free audit/checklist" — if it asks for your email before giving anything, it was built for their funnel, not for you.
The honest read on us
We fail one of our own checks today: named-client case studies are thin while this library is young — so judge us by the published work (every wall check on this site links to its evidence screenshot, and our full patient zero forensic autopsy is published in the open). We're also the only row where the advisor takes zero kickbacks: independent diagnosis is free, and if the right answer is a native low-cost tool you turn on yourself, that recommendation costs us an engineering contract and we make it anyway. That's the whole pitch — and it's checkable, which is the point of this page.
Related
- Is that "AI agency" page for your town even a real company? — the doorway-farm checklist
- Wall check: the vendor wall library — same method applied to the tools themselves
- What an AI receptionist actually costs — verified vendor pricing table