The problem with the hourly meter

Hourly billing has a quiet, perverse incentive: the slower the work, the bigger the invoice. The developer who takes twice as long earns twice as much. You, the client, carry all the risk of every delay, every rewrite, every "we hit something unexpected." You're buying time, and time is exactly the thing you can't verify from the outside.

We think that's backwards. So we don't do it.

Fixed-price moves the risk to where it belongs

When we quote a project, we quote a number, itemised, for a defined outcome. If it takes us longer than we estimated, that's our problem — not a bigger bill for you. That single change realigns everyone: now it's in our interest to be fast, to reuse what we've already built, to avoid scope creep. Our incentive and your interest point the same way.

It also forces a healthier conversation upfront. Fixed-price only works if the scope is clear, so we do the hard thinking about what you actually need before money changes hands — which is exactly when that thinking is most valuable.

Why deposit-first

Every engagement starts with a deposit. This isn't about cash flow — it's about commitment, on both sides. A deposit means you're a client, not a maybe, and it means we start immediately with real skin in the game. Projects that begin deposit-first finish. "Let's start and sort out payment later" projects drift, because nothing anchors either party to the timeline.

The balance is tied to milestones you can see. You're never paying ahead of delivered work, and we're never building ahead of commitment. Everyone knows exactly where they stand at every stage.

What you actually get

  • A price, not an estimate. You can budget against it.
  • Milestones you can see. Progress is visible, not a black box.
  • Aligned incentives. We're rewarded for finishing well, not for taking long.
  • Ownership at the end. The code and accounts are yours.

The honest catch

Fixed-price means we say no to vague briefs and endless scope changes — because we can't put a firm number on a moving target. If your project genuinely needs open-ended exploration, we'll tell you, and we'll structure it as clearly-bounded phases instead. What we won't do is put you on a meter and hope. You deserve to know what it costs before you commit.