Fixed price versus hourly: the honest math
Hourly billing sells you the one thing you don't want to buy — uncertainty, metered by the minute.
Hourly billing aligns incentives badly and everyone knows it. The slower the work goes, the more the vendor earns. Even honest teams feel the pull. You end up paying for the learning curve, the rework, and the meetings about the rework — all at the same rate as the work itself.
What a fixed price actually transfers
When we quote a fixed price, we're absorbing the estimation risk so you don't have to. If we're wrong about how long something takes, that's our problem, not a line item on your next invoice. You get to plan, budget, and decide with a real number instead of a hopeful range.
- You know the cost before you commit, not after.
- Scope changes are explicit decisions, not silent overages.
- We're paid to finish, not to linger.
- The estimate is our risk to manage, not yours to absorb.
A range is a way of being wrong on purpose and billing you for it.
The honest objection is that fixed pricing tempts vendors to cut corners to protect margin. True — for vendors whose margin depends on it. We solve that with the Try-First Guarantee: if the fixed-price build isn't good, you don't pay. The two policies only work together. Each one keeps the other honest.