When a process has no off-the-shelf product behind it, I build the part that's missing.

This is what goes wrong on a build project

The same five things go wrong over and over, and most buyers have lived through one or heard it from someone who did. Under each one I write what stops it.

1. 01

   The budget was an estimate, and the estimate was wrong.

   I don't name a number before scoping, because until then I don't know it. After that the price is fixed, in writing, and it holds for 60 days. If I underestimated, that's my risk, so the difference isn't something I invoice you for.

2. 02

   The scope grew, and nobody wrote down when.

   Every change goes in writing, and it always carries the same three things: what changes, how many hours it costs, and how far it moves the date. Until you say yes in writing, the earlier plan holds. Nothing enters the project on a verbal yes.

3. 03

   A senior sold it, and a junior built it.

   Whoever writes the quote writes the code, because I work alone and there's nobody to hand it down to. That costs you something as well: the next section lists what I turn down because of it. On this particular point, though, it's exactly the advantage.

4. 04

   The handover was a zip file and a phone number.

   The repo (the place the code lives), the hosting account, and every credential are in your name from day one, and finished code lands phase by phase rather than all at the end. With it comes written operational documentation: how the system starts, how it goes live, and what to watch on it.

5. 05

   Nobody ever read the code end to end.

   Reading other companies' code is a separate fixed-price service of mine, and I've published a full sample report. I look at my own work with the same eye.

What comes after scoping

Scoping is finished work on its own, so nothing obliges you to continue. If you do, Project and Support cost the same as on the consulting page, and scoping costs what the Diagnostic costs there. The full price list →

1. 01 · Scoping

   €970

   1–2 weeks

   This page. In writing you get the specification, how it's built, the risks, the schedule and the fixed quote. Halfway through you get a draft, so you can see where it's heading.

2. 02 · Project

   from €5 500

   4–6 weeks

   The build itself covers the data model, the logic running behind the screens, the screens, the connections to other systems, and the error handling and monitoring that tells you when something breaks, and it ends in working code in your repo, in production. The real number is the fixed quote from the scoping; €5 500 is the point below which a custom application isn't worth it for either of us.

3. 03 · Support

   from €1 100/mo

   no minimum term

   Monthly capacity for running it, fixing it, extending it and reviewing the code. It runs as long as it's useful, and you can stop it whenever.

If it's a smaller, well-defined question, I work hourly too, from €70.

What you can check before you buy

Be clear on what that is: an audit of an AI-written codebase, not a web-app case study. What it shows is how I read production code and how I write up a finding so you can check it — the evidence, the consequence, and the hours to fix. The scoping risk list comes out in exactly this format.

Questions

What if you get hit by a bus?

Fair question, and it's the biggest risk of working with one person. It's why the repo and every credential are in your name from day one, why there's a written specification and written operational documentation, and why code lands phase by phase instead of all at the end. The work can stop in any given week in a state another developer can pick up, which is the whole point of handing it over phase by phase. That doesn't remove the risk, but it means the consequence is a few weeks of handover rather than a rewrite.

Why would we pay for a specification? Everyone else quotes for free.

The free quote is priced into the project as well, you just don't see it on its own line. A free quote takes half a day, off a template, and the estimate is about that accurate. Scoping is one to two weeks of real work on your systems, and it leaves you a document you can hand to anyone else. If the build starts with me, its price comes off anyway. How the credit works ↑

What if the fixed price turns out to be wrong?

Then it's my problem, and I work the difference off. The fixed price comes after the scoping precisely because by then I know what I'm taking on. There's one case where I charge more: if you ask for something that isn't in the specification — and that comes up front too, in writing, at a price you can accept or refuse.

Do we really own the code?

Yes, without restriction, development history included. No licence fee, no buyout, and no part of the system whose key stays with me. If you move development elsewhere tomorrow, everything they'd need is already yours.

Will you sign an NDA?

Yes, before the scoping starts, and your own wording is fine.

We need a change in two years. Who do we call?

Me first: Support exists for exactly that, from €1 100 a month with no notice period, and I take small requests from past clients hourly as well. But you aren't tied to me, and I don't only say that — I build for it: the code is yours, the technology is deliberately boring and widely known, and the decisions are written down so the next developer doesn't have to guess why it works the way it does.

We have our own developers. Can you work with them?

Yes, and it's the more common case. Scoping then also settles what your team carries and what I carry, where the line between them runs, and who owns which part. I read your team's code as strictly as I read my own.

We don't need a new system, just two existing ones talking to each other.

Then it's probably not an application you need but an automation: a program between the two systems that moves the data across and tells you when something doesn't add up. That has its own page, with a fixed price for the first process, and the scoping there is the same. AI automation →

What do you build with?

TypeScript and JavaScript are where I go deepest: React, Next.js, Node, Astro, with Postgres or Supabase underneath. Python and mobile work (React Native, Expo) too. I pick deliberately boring tools, because that's what it takes for you to still find people for them in two years. If your technology is fixed, say so, and my reply tells you whether I'll take it.

When can you start?

Scoping usually starts within two to three weeks, and the build follows it. If you have a hard deadline, put it in the message: my reply tells you whether it fits, and says so plainly if it doesn't.

How do we pay?

In two steps, for both. For scoping I ask for 30% of the price, €291, as a deposit at the start, and the remaining 70% when the document is delivered. Halfway through you get a draft; if you stop the work in writing at that point, I refund the deposit in full and there's nothing more to pay. After that the deposit stays, and silence isn't a stop. For the project the deposit is 30% of the fixed price when the build starts, credited against the phase invoices; the rest is invoiced per phase, after each phase ships. If you stop in writing when the first phase is delivered, the deposit comes back and you're invoiced for the delivered phase only. I'm a VAT-exempt sole trader in Hungary, so there's no VAT on top: the number listed is the total.