Three bands by experience, published so you can do the sum before you ring us. The rate is the same whether you need a fortnight or a year, and the time is billed to the quarter hour.
Most weeks it is the senior engineer. Take the band below when the work is already mapped out, and the one above when it is the sort of job that goes wrong quietly.
Three to six years in. Picks up an existing codebase and ships against your list.
Reach for them whenEight years and up. Decides how a thing should be built, then builds it. Most weeks, this is who you want.
Reach for them whenFor the messy ones: a system nobody can maintain, a migration that cannot go wrong, a team that needs a lead.
Reach for them whenPick a band, set the hours you think a week needs, and that is the sum. Nothing here is a booked day.
Nothing here is a booked day. Move the slider every week if you like — you are charged for the hours the work actually took, and a quiet week costs nothing.
8 hours with a senior engineer. A week like this one costs £680; four of them, £2,720. A week where you need nothing costs nothing.
An estimate, not a quote. A quote has to cover the worst week, so it always carries padding. Working by the hour means we never have to build that in — you pay for the hours the work took, and nothing for the ones it didn't.
Invoiced monthly, itemised by job and hours. No agency fee, no minimum block, no charge for the call.
Nobody enjoys auditing a software invoice. These are the rules, so you do not have to.
Time is recorded in fifteen-minute blocks and rounded in your favour on the boundary.
Our admin, our internal meetings, the call where we work out what you need, and travel within an hour of Olney.
A line per job with the hours against it, matching the Friday notes, so you can see exactly where a quiet week went.
An employee is paid for every hour of the year, whether the work needs it or not — and before the first of those hours there is the cost of finding them and kitting them out. Here are the same sums with an employer's costs left in.
| Cost line | Junior developer, £30/h | Mid-level developer, £40/h | Senior developer, £65/h | Borrow a senior engineer, £85/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hours you pay for in a year | 1,740 | 1,740 | 1,740 | 267 – 450 |
| Pay for those hours | £52,200 | £69,600 | £113,100 | £22,695 – £38,250 |
| Employer NI | £7,080 | £9,690 | £16,215 | None |
| Pension | £1,566 | £2,088 | £3,393 | None |
| Recruitment | £7,830 | £10,440 | £16,965 | None |
| Kit, licences, insurance | £2,500 | £2,500 | £2,500 | None |
| Year one, total | £71,176 | £94,318 | £152,173 | £22,695 – £38,250 |
| Every year after | £61,846 | £82,378 | £133,708 | £8,160 – £10,200 |
| Hours of actual work you get | Up to 1,740 | Up to 1,740 | Up to 1,740 | 267 – 450 |
Read the senior column across. A senior developer on the payroll is £152,173 in the first year and £133,708 every year after, and none of it moves when the work goes quiet. The same senior engineer borrowed by the hour — building for 3 to 6 months, then keeping it running — comes to £22,695 – £38,250 in year one and £8,160 – £10,200 a year after that. If you have a full year of development to do, hire someone. Most businesses do not, and that is the whole of the difference.
Estimates for comparison, not a quote. Assumptions are listed below.
Not a plan you sign up to — just what the hours usually look like when a job goes the way jobs normally go.
Twenty minutes to work out what the job is and whether you need us at all. The call is free and there is nothing to sign at the end of it.
About 15 hours a week while the thing gets built, invoiced on the hours it took rather than a block of days.
Once it is live, 8 to 10 hours a month: small changes, the odd fix, keeping it current. That is 96 – 120 hours across a year.
No retainer and no booked days. Ask for nothing for a fortnight and the invoice says nothing for a fortnight.
Year one is 267 – 450 hours, depending on how long the build runs. Every year after is 96 – 120 hours of upkeep.