Why We Chose Fixed-Price Over Hourly Billing

Samuel Kimani

February 03, 2026 1 min read

The Problem with Hourly Billing

Hourly billing creates a perverse incentive: the longer a project takes, the more the agency earns. Clients hate it because costs are unpredictable. Developers hate it because they're penalized for being efficient. Everyone loses except the accountant.

How Our Pricing Algorithm Works

When a client submits a project description, our AI analyzes it and scores complexity across three dimensions: feature count, integration complexity, and user role diversity. Each dimension maps to a score, and the total determines the pricing tier.Simple projects (under 100 points) start at KES 50,000. Medium complexity (100-200 points) comes in at KES 150,000. Large projects (200-300 points) are quoted at KES 350,000. Anything above 300 points gets a custom quote with human review.

The 50/50 Payment Split

We collect 50% upfront as a deposit to begin development, and 50% before production deployment. This protects both sides: clients aren't paying full price for undelivered work, and we aren't building without commitment.The model works because AI-driven development has predictable costs. We know what Claude will consume in tokens, how many sessions a project needs, and what our infrastructure costs. That predictability lets us offer fixed prices with confidence.

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