Why we charge fixed prices.
Hourly billing pays us to be slow. Here's the alternative — and why it's better for both sides.
Most engineering work is billed by the hour. The longer a project takes, the more the agency makes. The shorter, the less. The incentives are pointed in the wrong direction — and everyone knows it.
We charge fixed prices instead. Not because it's trendy. Because it aligns our interest with yours.
What changes when the meter stops
Hourly billing rewards thoroughness in the wrong places. It rewards meetings, ceremony, and the appearance of progress. It punishes ruthless scope-cutting — because every hour of work you don't need is an hour the agency doesn't get paid for.
When the price is fixed up front, the calculus flips. We're paid to ship the smallest version that creates value. We're paid to push back on scope creep. We're paid to finish — and finish well — so we can move on to the next engagement.
You also get something hourly billing rarely gives you: a number you can plan around.
What it requires from us
Fixed prices only work if we know the work. That means more time spent in discovery before a single line of code is written. It means an opinionated brief — scope, success criteria, architecture, and the smallest version that creates value — before we quote. It means saying no to engagements where the brief is too vague to commit a number to.
It also means being honest when something falls outside scope. Most fixed-price agencies pad the quote to absorb scope creep. We'd rather under-quote, do the agreed work, and have an honest conversation about anything else as a separate engagement.
What it requires from you
A clear answer to one question: what does success look like?
If you can articulate that, we can quote. If you can't, the engagement we should run is a discovery sprint to figure it out — fixed price, three weeks, ending in a brief specific enough for the build phase to be quoted reliably.
That's the model. It's not new. It's just rare. And it's the only way we know how to consistently ship software that's worth the money it cost to build.