Again, doing the application yourself is possible. What it takes is determination, a willingness to learn about the rules and take charge.
For example: you asked about the fees. See, I would have just tried to find this out myself. I googled "cic express entry application fee" and the following page came up:http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/fees/fees.asp#visas_permits. Bam, question answered. It's this kind of independence and drive that you need to complete your application on your own.
If you want to do the application yourself, you'll have to do lots of things like that - read on the CIC website, read forum posts, use google, etc. You will also have to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to posts on this forum.
It this sounds daunting to you, maybe you should stick with the consultant (provided you did your research and found a good one).