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The rule, and the refusal

No number before the scope.A fixed one after it.

Every price is set after the discovery call and written into the proposal you sign, because a number given before the scope is a guess dressed as a quote.

That is one rule, and it has no exceptions. This page sets out what a price is made of, what fixes it, what can change it, and what never does.

How a price is set

One rule for every kind of work

Scope first,then the number.

Everything HUREAL does is priced the same way: the scope is agreed, the price is set from it, and both are written into one document before any work starts. Once it is signed, neither moves.

How each kind of work is priced, and the one thing HUREAL will not give
What How the price is set Why it works this way
Set in writingA fixed scope sits behind every one
A build Set after the discovery call and written into the proposal you sign A build price varies by a large factor across eight service lines. The discovery call is where the scope becomes clear enough for a number to be a commitment rather than a guess.
Follow-Up and Front Desk, the agent modules A fixed line in the signed scope of the build they sit inside A module is the same piece of work for every client who buys it, so its price does not depend on the project. If delivery runs over, HUREAL absorbs it.
Site Answer Included in the scope of every Websites and Platforms build It is part of the build rather than an extra beside it, and the scope document says so in writing.
Care and Optimization, including running a module A fixed monthly fee, agreed in its own scope before it starts A defined ongoing scope, declinable, set from what the arrangement actually covers rather than from a tier.
Not givenAnd this is the part that costs us
A ballpark, a band or a range before the scope No number A band on a public page becomes the ceiling of every deal that starts there, and a range is the same refusal with better manners.

Scroll the table sideways to read it.

There are no figures on this page, and that is a decision rather than a gap. A number printed here would be the same for every business that read it, and no two scopes are the same. Yours is the one that gets a price.

The refusal

You are not being denied a number.You are being told when you get one.

The gap between arriving on this page and holding a fixed price is one discovery call and the written proposal that follows it, and what happens in it is set out at the bottom of this page. That is the whole of why the refusal can be made without sounding cagey.

What the refusal costs us, first

A visitor who came here for a number leaves without one, and some of them leave for a site that prints one. That is a real cost, it is paid on this page rather than argued away, and it is the reason the rule is worth anything: a refusal that costs nothing is a preference.

A range would be easier and it would be worse. A band published on a public page becomes the ceiling of every deal that starts there, which means the honest projects subsidise the difficult ones and the difficult ones get scoped down to fit the number somebody read in a table. The commitment HUREAL makes instead is narrower and harder: the price is named before the work, in writing, and it does not move afterwards.

If we cannot name the price before the work, we do not understand the work well enough to be doing it. That is the belief underneath all of this, and the sequence at the bottom of this page is what it obliges us to.

What moves the number

Sixteen things move it.Page count is not one.

You cannot price your own build from this table, and it is not here for that. It is here so the number you are given in a proposal is one you can interrogate, driver by driver, instead of accepting whole.

The sixteen drivers of a build price
Driver What it is Which way it moves the number
The four that move it mostNamed on the homepage and on every service page
Systems it connects to Every CRM, accounting package, booking tool or industry system the build has to read from or write to. Up, and steeply. Each connection is a contract with somebody else's software.
Whether customers log in Accounts, permissions, password recovery, and a support path for the person locked out on a Saturday. Up. A site with accounts is a different category of thing from a site without them.
Languages authored natively Each language written by somebody who writes it, from the same brief, including forms, errors and automated email. Up, per language. Translation is cheaper and it is not the same product.
Whether anything has to be migrated Existing records, files, orders or content moving from somewhere else into the new system. Up. Old data is reliably worse than the person describing it believes.
What you already haveFour drivers that can move it down
Whether the systems have a documented interface Whether the thing being connected publishes a way in, or has to be reached another way. Down where it does. Up sharply where it does not, because the connection gets built rather than configured.
Whether the content exists Copy, photography, product data and documents, written and usable rather than described. Down where it exists. Writing and shooting are work whoever does them.
Whether the process is written down A price list, a policy, a set of rules that lives somewhere other than in one person's head. Down where it is. Where it is not, writing it down is the first project and it is a different job.
Whether an existing URL structure has to survive Old addresses that already rank and already appear in other people's links. Up a little. Redirect mapping is cheap to do and expensive to skip.
The shape of the workFour drivers inside the build itself
How many audiences see a different screen Each role that needs its own view, its own permissions and its own empty state. Up. Roles multiply screens faster than pages do.
Whether money moves through it Payments, taxes, refunds, reconciliation and the failure case for each one. Up. Every one of those has a way of going wrong that has to be designed rather than discovered.
How many rules have exceptions The customer who is not like the others, and the job that is priced differently for a reason. Up. A rule with no exceptions is configuration. A rule with exceptions is software.
Whether it replaces something in daily use A system people already work in, which has to keep working while the new one is proved. Up. Running two things side by side for a period is a cost, and it is a real one.
The obligationsFour drivers that are decided before the build
Where the data has to live The storage region, the processing region, and which processor sees what. Up where it is constrained. The region is named in the scope rather than inherited from a vendor default.
Accessibility beyond the standard WCAG 2.2 AA is designed for and tested against on every build. Anything above it is scoped separately. Up only above the baseline. The baseline itself is included and is never a line item.
How much has to be measured Tracking that survives a launch, from the click to the recorded conversion to the report. Up a little. Measurement that works is built rather than switched on.
How many people approve a decision The number of people who have to agree before a decision during the build is final. Up, in elapsed time rather than in effort. This is arithmetic about calendars, not a comment on anybody's governance.

Scroll the table sideways to read it.

What does not move it: how many pages you want. Page count is the first number most people offer and it is close to the least useful one, because ten pages built on one template with one audience and no login is a smaller job than one page that takes a payment.

What the number covers

What a scope includes,and what it does not.

Both lists arrive in the same document, in the same type, at the same time. The second one is what makes the first one hold.

What a signed scope includes

  • Everything named in the scope document, at the price printed on it, for the date printed on it.
  • The fourteen launch checks, run against the finished build, with a result recorded against each one.
  • The build running in your own cloud accounts under your admin access, from the first commit.
  • A review at the agreed cadence, with working software at each one and a record of what changed.
  • Documentation written for a developer who has never met us, rather than for the person who wrote the code.
  • Correcting anything that does not do what the scope said it would. That is not a change order, it is the work.

What it does not include

  • Work that is not in the scope document. New work gets its own scope, its own number and its own date, agreed the same way.
  • Third party licences, hosting and vendor bills. They are paid on your own accounts, in your name, itemised, and they do not pass through us.
  • Content, photography and product data, unless the scope says HUREAL writes or shoots them, in which case it is a line on the document.
  • Migrating data nobody has opened yet. Where the state of the old data is unknown, looking at it is scoped before moving it is priced.
  • Improvement after launch. That is the monthly arrangement, it is declinable, and the build works without it.
  • A compliance determination. HUREAL designs to a standard, tests against it, and documents what was built. The determination belongs to your counsel or your privacy officer.

The right hand list is the one most vendors leave out, and leaving it out is how a fixed price stops being fixed in week six.

When you get the number

Three stepsto a fixed price.

The whole distance between reading this page and holding a number you can sign. Nothing is written until the third step is done.

01

Book a discovery call

A conversation with the people who own the outcome. If you would rather have the evidence first, request the performance audit.

02

Receive the proposal

A written proposal: a scope, a price and a timeline, with what it excludes printed next to what it includes, sent after the call. It is yours whether or not anything follows, and you can take it to somebody else.

03

Sign it, or walk away

Code starts after the signature and not before. The number you sign is the number: not an hourly rate, not a range, and not a change order six weeks in.

The whole method, phase by phase, including the fourteen launch checks

Questions about price

Questions peopleask about the number.

  • Can you give me a ballpark?

    No, and the table above says so rather than hiding it. A ballpark given before the scope becomes the ceiling of the conversation and then the scope gets bent to fit it. What you can have is the build price in the written proposal that follows one discovery call, fixed.

  • Are the agent modules priced differently?

    Only in that their scope is already known. Follow-Up is the same piece of work for every client who buys it, so its price does not depend on the project, and it is written into the signed scope of the build it sits inside like everything else. A build spans eight service lines and varies by a large factor, which is why its number waits for the discovery call.

  • Do you charge by the hour?

    No. Fixed scope, fixed price, fixed timeline, agreed before any code is written. An hourly rate moves the risk of a bad estimate onto the client, and the whole point of naming the price before the work is that the risk sits where the knowledge is.

  • What if the scope changes during the build?

    New work gets its own scope, its own number and its own date, agreed the same way as the first one. What does not become a change order is anything that does not do what the signed scope said it would: correcting that is the work, not an extra.

  • Is there a payment schedule?

    Yes, and it is written into the scope document alongside the price and the dates rather than negotiated after signature. Because the phases are gated on artefacts, the schedule lines up with things you can actually see.

  • Do you discount?

    No. The scope changes or the price does not. A discount on the same work says the first number was not the real one, which would undo the only thing this page is arguing.

  • What does it cost to keep running after launch?

    The monthly arrangement is the only ongoing HUREAL charge and it is declinable: the build works without it and stays yours either way. Hosting, licences and vendor bills are paid on your own accounts, in your name and itemised, so they are visible rather than bundled. Care and Optimization has the detail.

Two doors

Two ways to start.Both end with a document you own.

Book a discovery call

The only step between this page and a fixed number. A discovery call with the people who own the outcome, then a written proposal with a scope, a price and a timeline.

Book a discovery call

Request a performance audit

For when you want the evidence before the decision. Twelve dimensions, and a prioritised plan with the arithmetic attached.

Request a performance audit

Know what you are building? Book a discovery call. Not sure where the problem is? Request the audit. If neither is right for you, we will say so, and tell you what is.

Just want one question answered? Send it. You get an answer rather than a meeting invitation, written by a person, and nothing is added to a sales sequence.

Ask a question

What every HUREAL engagement commits to, in writing

  • A fixed scope, price and timeline, agreed before any code is written.
  • A working build, reviewed at every phase, running in your own accounts.
  • Full ownership of the code, the content and the data, with admin access from day one.
  • A named contact who is accountable for the work.
A material study photographed in bright daylight. A tall fan of clear turquoise glass fins rises on the right of the frame with a polished pearl silver ribbon curving through it, standing in a shallow film of still water. The left of the frame is empty pale mint.

The number you sign is the number.

HUREAL / Material studies