"How much should I budget for a first version of my app?"

A better question is: "What is the least I need to do or spend to know if my idea will work?"

Budgets are hard to talk about because ideas vary so much, but the math itself isn't complicated.

I charge $150 an hour. That covers:

• Coding
• Planning
• Talking through decisions
• Thinking
• Fixing
• The invisible work you don't see on a timeline

How I Structure Pricing

I don't give "Your project will cost X" promises. Instead, we break your idea into parts.

I price part 1 clearly. If we work well together, we move on to part 2. This removes risk for both of us. You're never locked into a giant unknown.

Fixed cost per phase works well because we both know what we're committing to. The tradeoff is zero scope creep. Changes go into the next phase. Otherwise things become open-ended and nobody wins.