Pricing & Engagement Models

Three ways to work with us — each transparent and agreed in writing, so you always know what you are paying for.

engagement models

three models, one path

Most clients move through them in order: assess first, fix what is urgent, then keep the system in reliable hands — and keep building on it.

1

System Risk Check

A fixed-scope technical audit of your application — code, infrastructure, database, jobs, integrations and access — delivered as a written, prioritised risk report plus a walkthrough call.

Fixed price, agreed up front. The report is yours to use with us or anyone else. What it covers →

2

Time & materials projects

Stabilisation work, version upgrades, modernisation phases and new feature development — from a single integration to a major new module — with an estimate agreed before each phase.

You pay for time actually worked, see transparent time reports, and set the budget cap. Legacy systems hide surprises — a fixed price would just hide them in the number.

3

Monthly retainer

Ongoing maintenance and support: monitoring, fixes, security updates, improvements and incident response, with a monthly summary of work done and recommendations.

Sized to your system and how fast it changes. When you want a bigger feature, it runs as a project alongside the retainer — same team, no re-onboarding.

what drives cost

Honest factors, not a black box

Two applications of the same size can need very different budgets. What actually moves the number:

  • Current state — a system with tests, documentation and a deploy pipeline costs less to care for than one with none of those (yet).
  • Operational surface — cron jobs, queues, integrations and traffic volume determine how much can go wrong and how quickly it must be caught.
  • Rate of change — a stable internal tool needs less monthly capacity than a product shipping features every week.
  • Version debt — end-of-life PHP, framework or database versions add one-time upgrade work before routine maintenance gets cheap.

The Risk Check exists precisely so both sides can price the work on evidence instead of guesses — you will never get a number from us that we cannot explain line by line.

No lock-in

You own the code, accounts and infrastructure throughout — and our offboarding promise means leaving is always safe.

Everything in writing

Estimates, priorities and budget agreed before work starts — changes discussed first, never silently billed.

system risk check

Get a number you can trust

Request a System Risk Check — you get the written risk report, we both get the evidence needed to scope and price the work honestly.

Request a System Risk Check