Transparent, commonsense, fixed pricing, or competitive hourlies, with protections like price locks, spend limits, and pace controls.

No hidden fees. No surprise invoices. Pricing practices that build confidence and peace of mind instead of uncertainty or buyer's remorse.

How Pricing Works Here

Everything we deliver is assembled from Features (discrete packages of functionality that are scoped in consistent, declared, and predictable ways).

This applies across Web, AI, Marketing, Product Management, DO/IT and Coaching. Some projects fit entirely within just one of these Area of Interest, some are a mix. Either way, the pricing logic is the same:

We price the actual Feature set required to do the work properly when the work is highly predictable. This is where our fixed pricing comes from.
When the work is less predictable or time bound, we apply our hourly pricing.

Even less predictable production and delivery plans often have predictable areas or deliverables. Applying our fixed pricing practices to the predictable portion of your project allows more stable and budget-friendly pricing, even for the most challenging or speculative plans.

Pricing Pairs

Modern projects often require software licenses, paid memberships at online services, complex patches and updates, and more. Some of these special expenses are only incurred during initial implementation leading up to launch, but many of these requirements actually need to be funded continually throughout the life of the project.

Rather than burden stakeholders with unexpected and often steep renewal fees and unplanned charges arising from sporadic or unplanned maintenance labor, we guarantee transparency and predictability by pricing in a manner that eliminates surprises. These are our Pricing Pairs:

Every feature has an Implementation Cost which covers all labors and licenses that are required to implement the feature in your project according to the agreed scope.
Every feature has a Care and Continuity Cost, which applies if a Care and Continuity program is included, and covers all labors associated with patching and updating the feature, as well as continued funding of all applicable licenses, memberships, and other recurring obligations.

Since some features don't cost us anything to implement or support, the Implementation Cost or the Care and Continuity cost will sometimes be $0.

Competitive Hourlies

Though the vast majority of our work is delivered at fixed prices, some duties must be charged hourly. Tasks such as live event support, repair of breakage caused by third parties, custom engineering where discovery is still underway, and various R&D engagements cannot always be scoped accurately, so fixed pricing is not available.

In such cases, we charge $120/hour for work that can be completed during work hours (weekdays between 7am and 7pm). The discounted rate of $90/hour is applied automatically until your allotment of discount hours is used up.

After hours hourly work (weekdays between 7pm and 7am) is invoiced at $180/hour, and weekend work is invoiced at $220/hour.

Work performed in our environments and under our administrative and operational control (all of the numbers listed here thus far) is priced more favorably than external work (work performed outside our environments, or under outside operational control).

External work carries higher rates because the risk, friction, and loss of automation are higher: $180 per hour until first milestone and $120 per hour thereafter for weekday work between 7am and 7pm ($240/hour and $180/hour for after hours weekday work between 7pm and 7am, and $300/hour and $240/hour for weekends and holidays).

No hourly work is ever performed without prior approval.

Spending Limits and Pace Controls

Fixed prices give you a great deal of control over spending, but hourly work can still complicate planning if it is not managed properly.

To offset that risk, all approved hourly work can be managed by two controls that you may set in advance:

You can set spending limits on the work you approve. If a task is likely to take between 6 and 10 hours, for example, you can instruct us to stop at 8. If more work remains, we pause, report status, and let you decide what happens next (continue immediately, continue at a later date, stop with work as-is, etc).
You can also set pace controls on the work you approve. If you approve 8 hours, for example, you can ask that the work be performed at no more than 2 hours per week, 3 hours per month, or any other maximum pace that makes sense for your planning.

No hourly work is ever performed without prior approval. If a restrictive spend limit or pace control introduces risk, delay, or operational side effects, we disclose that before work begins.

Price Locks and Price Increase Caps

Current and quoted prices are locked for no less than 1 year, and as many as 3 years. That said, we have never experienced an across-the-board price increase, and the few narrowly applied increases that we have implemented have been far less frequent than every 3 years. Nevertheless, economic volatility increases the likelihood that our own costs will go up, and this is why a few of our prices can only be locked for 1 year.

When we are finally forced to raise prices, we reset the lock period and cap increases at the following maximum rates:

Features and extensions: 10%
Design packages: 8%
License plus related testing and deployment: Provider cost change + up to $5/month
Hourly rates: 16%

To date, we have never raised any prices by these amounts for any existing projects. New projects for existing clients are also protected by the same price locks, but increase caps are not applicable unless there is an overage retainer on file.

Pricing that helps you plan instead of breaking your plans

Ongoing investment in your technology projects increases their value to your mission.

However, of course, you also have a long list of other important investments you must make to continue and grow your achievements. And the combined volume and complexity of all these endeavors and their costs can significantly complicate plans for your core objectives.

Understanding this risk, as we have to contend with the very same challenge ourselves, is the reason we have developed the pricing practices you are now reviewing, the sum total of which is arguably one of our most important guarantees: Never a surprise invoice. Ever.

Start the Pricing Conversation

You do not need a finished specification before reaching out. If you already know what you need, good. If you only know what is hurting, that is enough to begin.