Pricing & engagement
Priced for the result, not the hours.
You are not buying clicked minutes, you are buying an outcome: a scraper that saves real money, an automation that removes real work, an app that runs your process. Here is exactly how engagements and pricing work, and how to get a real number for your project, fast.
- AdEscape
The principle
Outcome over hours. Evidence over promises.
Hourly billing quietly punishes speed: the faster and better the work, the less you pay, which is exactly backwards. I price for the result instead. If an automation saves your team two days a month, that saving is the value, however long it took me to build it with modern tooling.
It also keeps risk where it belongs. The fixed-price audit and the low-cost pilot mean you spend a little to find out whether the full build is worth a lot, before committing a real budget. You are never asked to bet big on a promise. You bet small on a plan, then bigger on proof. See the full delivery process for how each stage works.
Engagement models
Four ways to work together, matched to risk.
Each maps to a phase of the method, so the commercial model follows the work instead of fighting it.
Audit
Fixed price
3-5 days
A small, fixed fee for the Map phase. You get a process map, a ranked shortlist of what to automate, the expected saving, and a real estimate for the rest. The cheapest way to replace guesses with a plan.
- Predictable, known up front
- Useful even if you stop there
- Often credited toward the build
Pilot
Quoted, low
1-2 weeks
A fixed quote for the Prove phase: one working piece on your real data. Deliberately small, so you spend a little to learn whether the full build is worth a lot.
- Proves value before the big budget
- Runs on your actual data
- De-risks the whole project
Build
Per project
Scoped after the pilot
The production system, quoted as a project once the scope is genuinely understood. Priced for the result and the saving it creates, not for clicked minutes.
- Fixed scope, fixed quote
- Priced on outcome, not hours
- You own all the code
Care
Monthly retainer
Ongoing
An optional retainer for the Run phase: monitoring, fixes when sources change, and ongoing development. Scoped to your needs and adjustable as they grow.
- Keeps automations from rotting
- Predictable monthly cost
- Cancel or pause anytime
What drives the cost
The same request can be a two-day job or a two-month system.
These are the factors that move a quote. The audit exists to pin them down for your specific case, so the number is real and accountable.
Scope and complexity
A one-off script is a different animal from a system that runs every day with many branches and exceptions. The audit pins this down precisely.
Data difficulty
Public, well-structured data is cheap to work with. Logins, anti-bot defences, messy formats, and reconciliation across sources add real engineering.
Scale and frequency
A hundred records once is not a million records daily. Volume changes the architecture, the infrastructure, and the cost of keeping it reliable.
Integrations
Connecting to tools with ready-made APIs is straightforward. Building a connector where none exists, or syncing two systems two ways, is more involved.
How much you want to own
A quick no-code automation costs less than a fully tested, monitored, documented production system. Both are valid; the right level depends on what it is worth to you.
Ongoing care
A build you maintain yourself is cheaper than one I keep healthy on a retainer. For scrapers that depend on external sites, the retainer usually pays for itself.
FAQ
Pricing, answered plainly.
- Why don't you just list fixed prices?
- Because an honest price depends on the problem, and the same headline request can be a two-day job or a two-month system. Quoting a number before understanding the scope would either overcharge simple work or under-scope hard work. The fixed-price audit exists precisely to turn your specific problem into a real, accountable number, fast and cheaply.
- How do you price, if not by the hour?
- For the outcome and the saving it creates, not the minutes clicked. If an automation saves a person two days a month, that is the value, regardless of how long it took me to build with modern tooling. Outcome pricing keeps incentives aligned: I am paid to ship something that works, not to be slow.
- What is the smallest way to start?
- The audit. It is a small fixed fee and gives you a concrete plan you can act on, with or without me. From there, the pilot is the next low-risk step: a working piece on your real data before any large commitment.
- Is the retainer mandatory?
- No. It is optional and you can pause or cancel anytime. That said, for anything that depends on external sources, like scrapers, a small retainer is strongly recommended, because those sources change and an unmaintained scraper quietly breaks.
- Will I be locked into your tools or platform?
- No. You own the source code, the infrastructure config, and the documentation. There is no proprietary platform to keep paying for. If you ever want to take it in-house, you can.
- Do you work fixed-scope or ongoing?
- Both. A one-off deployment with a fixed quote, or an ongoing relationship through the Run phase. Many clients start with a fixed-scope build and move to a retainer once it is live and proving its worth.
Get a real number for your project.
Start with the audit, or just tell me what you have in mind.