Billing and invoicing

First of all, no one, at least that we know of, puts their prices visible on their website. We do. This is part of our commitment to transparency, both with our team and with our clients, as described in our Mission and values.

On to the nitty-gritty. We charge all clients impartially and fairly. We don't take advantage of their company size, name, revenue, or any other factor to decide our billing or our proposals. In reality, our rates are carefully calculated based on our expenses and on our desired margin for profit, based on point 5 of our Playbook: “We shall remain financially sustainable” with at least six months of runway.”

The only exceptions are for NGOs, companies that come through our Client referral program and fellow certified business members of 1% for the Planet or Planet Mark. You can learn more about these exceptions at NGOs and partners pricing.

For everyone else, our proposals are impartial, follow the same billing mode, and are based on the same factors: scope, deadlines, and team size.

Our pricing model

We bill all our projects in two separate ways (always on a per-person basis):

• Per diem – For shorter-term projects.

• Per month – For long-term ones.

The rates

Full-time resources

Each resource assigned to your project works exclusively on it full-time, either for the entire project duration or until a specific milestone is completed. We do not offer partial allocations, such as half-day commitments or limited days per week. Splitting time between projects can dilute focus and reduce creativity and commitment. By assigning resources to your project 100% of the time, we ensure their full attention and dedication to achieving your goals.

• Designer/Engineer – 800€ per day or 12.000€ per month.

Partially allocated resources

Typically, they are not allocated full-time and are billed only on a per diem basis.

• CEO/CTO/CDO – 1.500€ per day.

• Tech Lead/Creative Director – 1.000€ per day.

• Product Manager – 1.000€ per day.

• Project Manager – 800€ per day.

• Illustrator/Motion Designer/Copywriter – 800€ per day.

• Delivery Manager – 800€ per day.

For clarification, not all resources are used in every project. Instead, their allocation depends on the type of project and budget.

A typical project team includes a Designer(s) and/or Engineer(s), a Project and/or Product Manager, a Delivery Manager, and a Creative Director and/or Tech Lead. C-level resources are included only if/when needed and if/when within budget.

Project budget

The project cost is based on scope, duration, and the size and composition of the team.

We start by assessing the project's scope and deadlines to determine the necessary team size and structure. This helps us estimate the required manpower and the overall cost.

During the Discovery phase at the project kick-off, these estimates are refined, detailed in a roadmap, and tied to specific milestones.

Yes, a double highlight on estimated. Italic and bold, just to be extra clear there.

In some cases, if not most, the scope isn't necessarily clear. The client is relying on us to work on product definition with them as part of our strategy service. In other cases, as expected from product development projects, scope changes mid-project as data is gathered from user testing, analytics, or user feedback. That's ok, too! We are flexible, and we can adjust the team size based on each phase of the collaboration, loading or unloading people (increasing or reducing cost) or swapping them as needed.

On this page, we won't be covering why you need a project/product manager and a delivery manager when working with us, nor why we always allocate the technical resources full-time.

Below are some questions we are often asked.

Why are you more expensive than the other agencies I talked with?

Many reasons may have led to that fact.

One is the scope. Have all those who provided you with a quote based their proposal on the same scope evaluation? Did we all realise the dimension of what is at stake?

Second, we may have misunderstood the scope. This happens sometimes. We may have deemed the project more complex than it actually is. Let’s review it together.

Third, it is a matter of the risk you are willing to take and the quality you want to get. You can never compare apples and oranges. When working with us, as you can read at How we collaborate, you pretty much nullify any risk, considering you'll get a 100% tailor-made project, a fully dedicated team, and the quality you expect to get. Facts.

All these things are correlated. When you work with us, you know we are capable to deliver to your expectations at a very low-risk rate because we have a very talented, well-paid team. With smaller, cheaper agencies, they have to compromise somewhere — otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to charge that low. Wanna guess where they compromise?

We've literally been asked: “How can you charge that much when I can do it with a template?”. Just remember, if a template works for you, we are definitely not your fit. Those who understand the value of tailor-made projects are. Just because you don’t need a custom solution doesn’t mean others won't.

What if I'm on a monthly retainer, but only need a few changes or improvements on a completed project, and a full month isn't necessary?

In this case, we’ll use the per diem rate.

What is the minimum project duration you accept?

1 month. The overhead and the effort we put into preparing, planning, and allocating a team to a project isn't worth it for shorter timeframes.

If we opt for a long-term commitment, do you lower the prices?

We do so upon negotiation of project length and team size.

Invoicing

This one's gonna be simple.

We invoice the first month upfront as a token of good faith from our soon-to-be client. All other invoices are issued at the end of the month (based on the worked days, for the per diem rates).

All invoices have a 15-day due date.

Oh, and before we go, please pay on time. We hate chasing people to pay.

Everything is estimated

We don't work with fixed budgets. Mostly because scopes are rarely fixed as well.

Even though our commitment with you is to attempt to deliver every project on time and budget, you know as well as we do that product development and software projects are prone to changes in scope, unexpected occurrences related to strategy, technology, and a lot of iterations that can extend timelines and, as a consequence, budget.

In any case, it is also our commitment to always keep you up to date with the project's progress and any alterations to more pressing issues such as deadlines and budget.

You can read more about why we estimate instead of accepting fixed-budget projects at Why estimates.

As a wrap-up note, we'll never leave you blindsided, as you can read at How we collaborate.