Software, from idea to shipped

What this actually is

A working product, built end to end rather than assembled from four contractors who each did their part correctly. iLokal is a map with real places and filters that hold. Kalo is a calorie tracker that recognises the food people here actually eat. iButler is a hotel concierge a guest opens from a QR code without installing anything. They are different products with the same shape underneath: one design system, one codebase, one person responsible for whether it works.

Designing and building in the same hands is the part that saves the money. A design handed to a separate developer is a document that has to be interpreted, and the interpretation is where the budget goes.

Who this is for

Founders with a specific product in mind and no engineering team, and businesses whose operation has outgrown the spreadsheet holding it together. The projects that go well arrive with a narrow first version already in mind. The ones that go badly arrive with a platform.

If the idea is still a category rather than a product, the first stage here is scoping it down to something that can ship, and that stage is worth buying on its own even if nothing gets built afterwards.

How it runs

Four stages, fixed price each, and you own everything at the end. Define settles what is being built and what is deliberately not in version one. Design produces the system and the screens. Build ships it. Run covers deployment, monitoring and the handover, which includes the repository, the accounts and the documentation rather than a login to something of mine.

You can stop after any stage. That is not generosity, it is the only honest way to sell a build to someone who cannot yet judge whether the thing is going well.

What moves the price

Four thousand euros covers a focused first version: a real front end, a database, accounts and deployment. The number moves on how much of the product is genuinely novel rather than a known pattern, whether payments are involved, and whether it has to work offline or in more than one language.

The largest single multiplier is scope that arrives after the design is signed off. Every project here has a written list of what is not in version one, which exists so that adding something is a decision with a price rather than a conversation.

What you get

• →A full-stack build, front end through to database
• →A mobile-first design system rather than a set of screens
• →Accounts, authentication and payments where the product needs them
• →Deployed, monitored and handed over with the repository and the accounts
• →A written list of what version one deliberately does not do

How much does it cost to build an app?

From 4,000 euros for a focused first version with a real front end, a database, accounts and deployment. The price moves on how novel the product is, whether payments are involved, and whether it has to work in more than one language.

Do we own the code?

Yes, entirely, and the handover is the repository and the accounts rather than access to something I keep. You own everything at the end of every stage, including the ones you stop after.

How long does a build take?

A focused first version is usually a matter of weeks rather than months, because the scope is settled in writing before design starts and anything added later is priced as a change.