What does it cost?
A first conversation and the half-day review are free. An Assessment is £2,000 to £4,000. Scoping any build is £3,000 to £4,000. Builds usually cost £15,000 to £30,000 for simpler systems and £30,000 to £60,000 for more complex ones, at a fixed price agreed before we start. There's no monthly retainer, so there are no surprises in your budget. After that, running it yourselves costs about £3,000 a year, or our support is usually £10,000 to £15,000 a year, less for smaller systems.
How long does it take?
You see a prototype within three working days of the half-day review. An Assessment takes two to four weeks. The time for a build depends on what it does, and it's fixed alongside the price during scoping. Smart Hydration's app took about ten weeks to build.
What happens after the half-day review?
Within three working days, you get a written note: what we found, what we couldn't see in half a day, and what we'd do next. If there's one clear thing to build, it comes with a working prototype and a likely price range. Then you choose: start on something yourselves, have us scope one piece of work, or take an Assessment if you need the full picture first. If nothing is worth doing yet, we say so.
Do we have to buy anything afterwards?
No. The note from the review is yours, and so are the Assessment report, the roadmap and the scope, whoever builds it. If the review shows that building isn't right for you, we say so, and that's the end of it.
Who owns what you build?
You do. The code and the data are yours from day one. Everything is documented, so any competent developer can pick it up.
How do you make sure it works?
You test it with us as it's built. You see and try working software from early on, so problems show up while they're cheap to fix. We hand over only once you've accepted it.
What happens to our data?
It stays yours. It's hosted in the UK, never used to train AI, and covered by contract. The commitments above are the detail.
How quickly can extra developers start?
We usually send a CV within a week, and the person starts within one to two weeks.