PRICING

What this actually costs.

Most development sites make you book a call just to find out whether you can afford them. Here is the day rate, how long this kind of work actually takes, and the honest version of what makes a project longer or shorter.

Illustration of a project being scoped and launched
// THE RATE

One rate, and how long things take.

Most development sites will not give you a number because every project is different — which is true, and also not an excuse. The rate does not change with your requirements. Only the number of days does, so here are both.

  • Day ratefrom $200 / day
  • Ongoing retainerfrom $1,000 / month
  • Smallest project$1,200

A retainer reserves roughly five days a month, booked for you whether or not you use all of them. Most one-off engagements run two to twelve weeks. Below $1,200 you are better served by someone charging hourly for small tasks, and I will say so on the call rather than take the work.

How long these usually take

From work actually shipped, not estimates. Multiply by the day rate for a rough budget, then read the next section for what pushes it up or down.

  • Website or web app1 – 3 weeks
  • Shopify store build1 – 4 weeks
  • Shopify app or admin panel3 – 8 weeks
  • Booking engine / travel portal3 months and up
  • .NET backend & API build3 – 8 weeks
  • Database audit & tuning3 – 10 days
  • Legacy .NET rescueAudit first, from 1 week

A fixed-scope quote is still a fixed price, not days billed as they go — the days are how the number is arrived at, not how you are charged.

// WHAT MOVES THE NUMBER

Four things decide how long it takes.

BIGGEST FACTOR

How many systems you connect to

One supplier API is a feature. Four is an architecture — normalisation, fan-out, failover and reconciling results that disagree. This moves a quote more than anything else on this page. How multi-supplier integration works →

MONEY

Whether money moves

Taking a payment is simple. Refunds, partial refunds, retries, wallets and making sure nothing is ever charged twice are not — and that is where the real cost of a booking or commerce build sits. Payment gateway work →

EXISTING DATA

What you are migrating

A clean start is cheap. Moving live data out of an old system — with its inconsistencies, its duplicates and the records nobody can explain — is often a phase of its own.

ROLES

How many kinds of user

One admin is straightforward. Agents, sub-agents, finance and support — each with different permissions and their own view of the same data — multiplies both the build and the testing.

// HOW IT IS QUOTED

Fixed scope, or a retainer.

FIXED SCOPE

A defined build, a set price

We agree exactly what is in — and what is not — and that is the price. Split across phases with a deposit up front and the balance per phase, never one payment at the end. Best when you know what you want built.

RETAINER

Ongoing capacity, monthly

An agreed number of days a month for continuing work, support and the things nobody can specify in advance. Best after a launch, or when a live system needs someone who already knows it.

Every engagement starts with a free scoping call and a written scope and quote. If the work is not a good fit — wrong stack, a timeline that guarantees problems, or a budget that will not produce something worth having — you will hear that on the call rather than after an invoice. The services page covers what is in scope, and the about page covers how projects are run.

// QUESTIONS

The things people actually ask.

Why publish a day rate instead of project prices?
Because the same words mean very different builds. "A booking engine" can be one supplier and one market, or four suppliers, multi-currency wallets and refund rules. A menu price would be wrong in both directions. The rate does not change with your requirements -- only the number of days does -- so publishing the rate and the typical durations lets you work out a budget without either of us pretending a package price is meaningful.
What makes a project take longer?
Usually integrations and edge cases rather than screens. Every external system you connect to -- a GDS, a payment gateway, an ERP -- brings its own failure modes, and handling those properly is most of the real work. Migrating existing data, supporting several currencies, and anything involving money moving both directions all push a project up.
What makes it shorter?
A clear scope, one integration rather than four, and a willingness to ship a first phase and then decide. Nearly every expensive feature can be added later to a system that is already live and earning.
Do you charge for the scoping call?
No. The first call and the written scope and quote that follow it are free. If the project is not a good fit you will be told on that call rather than after an invoice.
How do payments work?
Fixed-scope work is split across phases, with a deposit up front and the balance on delivery of each phase -- never one payment at the very end. Retainers are invoiced monthly in advance. Invoices are in USD by default, or AED, GBP or EUR if that is simpler for your accounts.
What if the scope changes mid-project?
It usually does. Changes within the agreed shape of the work are absorbed. Anything that genuinely adds scope is quoted separately before it is built, so the number never moves without you agreeing to it first.
Do I own the code?
Yes, outright, on final payment. It lives in your repository and deploys to your own cloud account from the first commit, so nothing depends on a service only I have the login to.

Want a real number for your project?

Tell me roughly what you need. You will get a written scope and a fixed quote, and an honest answer if it is not a fit.

Get a quote →