The method
How we price
Every number on a quote traces back to an input
01
Your scope
Platforms, features, integrations, AI features, design depth. The inputs you would type into the model.
02
Hours by category
The model's AI-native column: design, build, integrations, review, testing, release, project time.
03
× day rate
One rate, printed on the quote next to the hours it multiplies.
04
Phase price
Fixed for a signed scope, or time and materials with a monthly cap.
Separate lines, at cost
AI model and API usage, app store fees, hosting. Billed at the provider's price with their invoice behind it, or billed to your own accounts.
At phase sign-off
Hours used against hours quoted. Unused hours on a fixed-price phase become a credit at the same rate, off the final invoice or into the next phase.
What they mean on your invoice
01
Hours come from a model you can run
The quote lists hours by category and links to the model inputs that produced them. If you change an input, you can see what moves before we discuss it.
On the invoice
Each phase shows hours × rate. No lump sums.
02
AI and API usage at cost, on its own line
We add no margin to model or API usage. During a build it runs on our account and is billed at the provider's price with their invoice attached. In production it runs on your own account.
On the invoice
A pass-through line, separate from our fees, wherever usage occurred.
03
Scope delivered early is credited
A fixed-price phase is quoted as hours × rate. If it closes with hours unused, the difference is credited at the same rate. On capped time and materials you pay only for hours worked.
On the invoice
Hours used against hours quoted at every sign-off, and the credit line where there is one.
04
No exclusivity
You can work with other firms alongside us, before, during and after an engagement. Advice from us is written to be shared with them.
On the invoice
No exclusivity clause in the engagement terms.
Because AI moved the hours, not the rates
Day rates for software work have held roughly steady through the arrival of AI coding tools. What changed is the number of hours a given scope takes. In our model, AI-native builds come to 54% to 61% of the hours a typical agency quote assumes for the same scope.
Under a conventional fixed price, those saved hours become the supplier's margin, and the buyer cannot see them. Pricing from published hours, crediting unused ones and passing usage through at cost puts the saving where the buyer can see it and keep it. The essay The code got cheaper. Who keeps the difference? works through the arithmetic.
Questions people ask us
Why don't you publish a price list?
A price list prices a menu, and your project is a scope. Two apps described in one sentence can differ by hundreds of hours. We publish the model that turns a scope into hours instead, so the number on our quote can be checked against something you can run yourself.
What is your day rate?
It is printed on every quote, next to the hours it multiplies, and we discuss it on the first call. What we publish openly is the part buyers usually cannot see: how the hours were counted.
Is the model independent of you?
No, and we say so. We built and run appdevelopmentcostcalculator.com. Its figures are sourced and dated, its method is published, and on 3 October 2026 its engine passed an 87,048-assertion check of its facts, its arithmetic and the example figures its pages print. It names Digital Signet as its builder and carries no sales pitch for this consultancy.
Fixed price or time and materials?
Both, by phase. A scope that can be written down and signed is quoted at a fixed price. Work that will change as you learn is quoted as time and materials with a monthly cap. Both are priced from the same hours, so the choice decides who carries the risk, not the arithmetic.
What happens if the scope changes mid-phase?
We rerun the changed inputs through the model and send a change note with the hours added or removed, before doing the work. You approve it or keep the original scope. Removed scope reduces the price the same way added scope increases it.
Start a conversation
Send us a scope, or a link to your numbers in the model. We reply with questions or a quote.