One core workflow, auth, payments, deployed, and a codebase a future CTO won't wince at. £6,000 to £15,000, two to four weeks.
No "contact us for a quote". These are the bands we work in, and the proposal names one number inside them.
| What you want | Price | Typical time |
|---|---|---|
| Custom business site | £1,500 to £4,000 | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Online shop | £2,500 to £6,000 | 2 to 3 weeks |
| Internal tool or customer portal | £3,000 to £12,000 | 2 to 4 weeks |
| Care plan after launch | £75 to £250 a month | ongoing |
| Rescue teardown of an existing build | free, 30 minutes | same week |
Bands, not a quote. The proposal names one number and one date, and the contract carries both.
Two things changed at once. Building got much faster, and the tools that made it faster also produced a lot of half finished apps that fall over the moment a real user touches them. Both facts are relevant to you.
If you've already built something in Lovable, Bolt or similar, bring it. It's a working spec, which is worth more than a twenty page requirements document. Sometimes we harden what you have; sometimes rebuilding is cheaper. We'll tell you which, in writing, with a price for each.
First drafts of screens, markup and logic. The repetitive 80%: forms, lists, plumbing, the fifth variation of the same page.
Scope, architecture, security, data protection, and the decision about what not to build. Every line reviewed and signed off by name.
Every project gets a build log: what was asked for, what it cost, how long it took, what the machine did and what the human did. Published, not summarised.
An MVP is not a product. It's enough to put in front of real users and learn something. If you need something investor ready and scalable to a hundred thousand users on day one, that's a different, larger budget and we'd rather say that now.
The risk with AI generated code is real and well documented: more bugs, more security holes, when nobody reviews it. That's why review is the product here. A senior engineer reads everything, security and UK GDPR are deliverables rather than extras, and their name goes on it.
Maybe not. If it fits and the cost is sane, keep it. Custom earns its place when the fit is wrong, when per seat pricing has outgrown its value, or when the thing you need doesn't exist as a product.
Because the typing got faster and we passed that on. The thinking, the review and the testing didn't get faster, which is why we're cheaper than an agency but not as cheap as a DIY tool. Anyone charging pre-AI day rates for AI-assisted work is pocketing the difference.
Yes. Code, repository, hosting and accounts, all in your name, no lock in. You can take it to any other developer the day after launch.