What a fixed price covers
A senior engineer scopes what you want built and puts one number on it in writing, from NZ$6,999 for a business application and NZ$8,999 for a customer portal or booking service. Then a build measured in weeks, with something clickable in the first week and your team testing it with real work well before launch.
Fixed means the deliverables are written down and priced before anything is built, and that Applicable builds exactly that. Nothing gets added without your say-so, and anything extra is quoted separately. The number you are given is the number on the invoice.
Not every project needs that, though. The first question worth answering is how much certainty you actually need.
When a fast, simple build is enough
- The app is internal, standalone and simple: a form that feeds a list, a basic CRM, a dashboard over a spreadsheet.
- It does not need to talk to your accounting package, your job system or your customers' logins.
- If it is roughly right on the first release, that is good enough, and you can iterate on a monthly plan.
- You are a founder testing whether anyone wants the thing at all.
In those cases the cheapest route that works is the right one, and Applicable will tell you so on the first call rather than scoping something you do not need.
When scoping it first is the right answer
- Customers or staff will use it every day, and getting a flow wrong costs you money or trust.
- It has to integrate: Xero or MYOB, a job management system, a payment gateway, a CRM, an existing database.
- There are rules in it: approvals over a value, trade pricing for some customers, a job that cannot close until a checklist is complete.
- It replaces something that is already running, so the migration is part of the work.
- You need to know the total cost before you sign, and hold someone to it.
Scoping it properly costs you a conversation, not a fee, and it is what lets someone put one number on the work. That is cheaper than finding out what the system had to do from a live app your customers cannot use.
What the price covers
| What | At Applicable |
|---|---|
| Before you commit | A senior engineer scopes it and puts one number on it in writing |
| Business application | From NZ$6,999, live in weeks |
| Customer portal or booking service | From NZ$8,999, live in weeks |
| Integrations | Scoped and quoted per project, checked against your systems |
| After launch | Free self-host, or managed from NZ$249 a month |
| Who you deal with | The founder and the people who build it |
| What you own | The code, the hosting accounts, the data, the documentation |
All prices are in New Zealand dollars. The full guide is on the process page.
How to decide in one conversation
Tell any vendor three things: who will use it, what it has to connect to, and what happens when it goes wrong. If the honest answers are "just us", "nothing" and "we fix it next week", the fastest build that works is fine. If any answer involves customers, another system or money, have the work scoped before you commit. Ask Applicable and you will get a straight answer, including that a simpler option is fine for this.