You ask for a quote and get back three words: “about 40 hours.” That number tells you nothing useful, and it is the only figure the other side will be held to. The largest cost of any software project is not the code — it is the disagreements about what was agreed. Hourly billing hides that cost. Fixed-price does not.
How hourly pricing hides surprises
On an hourly engagement, every ambiguity gets billed. The same project can legitimately cost 20 or 60 hours depending on how the scope is read, and often the buyer only discovers the difference when the invoice arrives. The favorite hiding places:
- “Quick question” calls and meetings that are still billable time.
- Small changes made “while I’m in there” — each one tiny, none approved.
- Testing, fixes, and deployment, which mysteriously appear at the end.
How fixed-price removes the risk
A fixed price forces one thing to happen first: the scope is written down. You see the deliverables, the price, and the line between them before a single line is coded. Anything outside that line becomes a separate, transparent quote that you approve before it is built. No surprises, no “hourly” imagination.
The one case where hourly is actually fine
Genuinely open experiments — “we don’t yet know what this becomes” — are legitimately hard to price. Even then, cap it: a weekly budget and a stop clause. Those two sentences keep “open-ended” from becoming “open invoice.”
FAQ
Won’t a fixed quote just be inflated to cover their risk? Padding certainly happens, but a fixed quote is at least a visible, comparable number. Two fixed quotes for the same written scope are directly comparable; two “hour estimates” are not.
What if we change our mind mid-project? It becomes a change order with its own clear price, approved before the work starts — never a surprise line added to an invoice.
How do I know the price is fair? Fixed prices tie cost to deliverables you can inspect, not to how a day was spent. Scope-to-scope comparison beats hour-counting every time.
That is exactly how we run every service — scope first, price second, work third. Proof lives in our portfolio, with honest numbers and real reviews. For more context, see how much a website actually costs.
Next step
Send us your scope and get a fixed price within 48 hours: softsandila.com/contact.
Which have you been burned by — vague scope, or a surprise invoice?