Fixed scope, fixed number, agreed before work starts — and what we do when the scope moves.
Hourly billing puts the client and the studio on opposite sides of every decision. If we work faster, we earn less. If a task turns out to be harder than expected, the client pays for our learning curve. Neither is a good basis for a six-week project.
The stage is the unit
We price discovery, then structure, then design and build, then care. Each has a fixed number agreed before it starts, and each ends with something you can hold: a written scope, a signed-off content model, a live staging URL, a monthly report. If you want to stop after any of them, you can, and you own everything produced so far.
When the scope moves
It does, on most projects. The rule is that we stop, price the change, and get it agreed before anyone writes code. No surprise line items at the end, and no quiet absorption of extra work that turns into resentment by week five.
The trade is that discovery has to be real. A fixed price on a vague brief is a guess wearing a suit, and we would rather charge for two weeks of finding out than pretend otherwise.