Fixed prices, before you commit
Most development companies won't commit to a price until the work is under way. The reason given is that every project is different. The real reason is that the number depends on what they think you'll pay.
So here's how ours works. A free, one-hour consultation sizes the assessment for your system, from £395 + VAT. That gets you real numbers days after we start, and the work is staged, each stage priced before you commit to it.
How the work is structured
Everything starts with the free consultation, which sizes the assessment for your system. The assessment is an in-depth analysis that produces a written report with costed options: stabilise and extend what you have, modernise it in stages, or replace it, each with its own price. Then the work runs in stages, with working software at every stage. You decide whether to continue at the end of each one.
Assessment
A few days inside your current system, with the people who use it. It starts with a free one-hour consultation.
From £395
What your system actually does, where the real risks are, where AI would pay back, and costed options with a price for each, whether or not we work together.
The work
Staged. You decide at the end of each stage
Priced by the assessment
Costed options
Your numbers come from the assessment: a fixed price for each option, days after we start.
The new system grows alongside the old one, sharing the same data, screen by screen. Working software at every stage, and if you stopped tomorrow you'd keep everything.
Care plan
Ongoing
18%
of build cost, per year
On a £20,000 stage, that's £300 a month.
Support, hosting, small changes and priority access. Sold as part of the first stage.
All prices exclude VAT. What moves the price up or down for a given system is on what modernisation costs.
The next step is a free consultation, not a payment.
Free · 1 hour · no obligation
What's included
Included in every build
- Discovery and specification
- Build, testing and deployment
- Data migration from your existing systems
- Works properly on a phone
- 30 days of fixes after launch
- Full source code and ownership. The system is yours
- Handover documentation
Not included
- Third-party licences and hosting
- Changes outside the agreed scope
- Ongoing support beyond the first 30 days. That's the care plan
Payment terms
- Assessment payable in advance
- Each build stage: 40% on signature, 40% at first working version, 20% on handover
- Care plans monthly by direct debit, 30 days' notice to cancel
- All figures exclude VAT
Questions
What people ask before they sign off, including the awkward ones.
Why fixed price rather than a day rate?
A day rate shifts the overrun risk onto you, while a fixed price keeps the risk of delays on us, where it should be. It also makes it easier for you to get approval since there's no uncertain range to consider.
What if it takes you longer than you thought?
You pay the agreed price. The risk is ours to complete what was agreed. Not yours.
What if I want changes partway through?
Minor tasks are included. Any significant changes to the scope are quoted separately or postponed to a later stage. Out-of-scope work is billed at £850 per day, so you'll know the cost of a change before requesting it.
Do I own the code?
Yes. Full source code and ownership transfer to you on final payment. No licence, no lock-in, no charge for leaving.
What happens if you're unavailable in two years?
Bigger builds run as a team working to the lead developer's architecture, so more than one developer knows your system. And whatever the size of the job, you've got the source code and documentation, and the system uses mainstream technology any competent developer can pick up. That's the straightforward truth, and it's a question worth asking anyone you're evaluating.
How does a small firm move this quickly?
As full stack developers, AI engineers and solution architects with hundreds of projects behind us, we knew what good looked like long before AI came along. That matters more than it sounds. These tools will hand you something that looks right whether it is or not, and telling the difference is the work. Years of real deliveries taught us where AI adds value, where it quietly costs more than it saves, and how to verify what comes back. That's where the speed comes from, and it isn't something a subscription gives you. The specification, the decisions about how your business runs, and the review before anything ships stay with us, because those are the parts that go wrong when nobody is watching.
Isn't it cheaper to use an offshore developer?
Cheaper per day, yes. Whether it's cheaper per outcome depends on how much specification and management you're able to do yourself. If you have someone technical who can direct the work, offshore can work well. If you don't, the cost usually reappears as rework.
Why is there a charge for the assessment?
Because it's real work, and it produces something you keep: a written report with the real risks, where AI would pay back, and costed options you can take to any developer. It costs a fraction of the work it prices, and it's the only way to give you real numbers instead of a range. And if the report tells you nothing you didn't already know, we'll refund it.
A fixed price for your system, before you commit
It starts with a free consultation. Then a right-sized assessment, from £395 + VAT: a few days inside your current system, then a written report with costed options and a price for each. The report is yours. Take it to us, another developer, or nobody.
Written by Marc Allington, founder. .