Every studio gets the same email. "We need a quote for a web platform. Can you send pricing?" It is a fair question and an almost impossible one, because the same sentence can describe two weeks of work or two years of it.
What we can do is show you what sits behind the number. If you understand the drivers, you can read any quote you are given, including ours, and tell whether the person writing it has actually thought about your problem.
The five things that move the number
Scope is the obvious one, and it is rarely the biggest. These are the drivers we see move an estimate most, roughly in the order they tend to bite.
Cost drivers, by how much they typically move an estimate
Integrations with systems you already run
usually the biggest surprise
How custom the workflows really are
Data migration from the old system
almost always underestimated
Compliance, security and audit requirements
Visual design and content production
Integrations. A platform that stands alone is straightforward. A platform that has to talk to your accounting system, your stock system, a payment gateway and a courier API is a different project, because each connection has its own authentication, its own failure modes and its own owner who may or may not answer email. Every integration you name adds work that is hard to see from the outside.
Custom workflow. "A dashboard where staff approve orders" sounds like one screen. Then it turns out approvals have three levels, two of which can be skipped in specific circumstances that everyone in the business knows and nobody has written down. Undocumented rules are the single most common reason a project runs past its estimate.
Data migration. Moving ten years of records out of a system that was never designed to let them go is real engineering, not an afternoon. It is also the part that gets waved away in the first meeting and discovered in the last one.
Compliance. POPIA applies to anything holding personal information about South African individuals. If you take card payments, PCI requirements apply too. Neither is a reason to panic, but both are reasons to plan.
Design and content. Genuinely important, and usually the smallest line.
Why two quotes for the same brief look nothing alike
Reading an estimate
A guess
- One number, no breakdown.
- Arrives within hours of the first email.
- No questions asked about your existing systems.
- Timeline in weeks, with no phasing.
- Assumes your requirements are complete.
An estimate
- A range, and what would move it up or down.
- Arrives after a scoping conversation.
- Names each integration and who owns it.
- A first version, then what comes after.
- States what it assumes, so you can correct it.
A number produced without questions is a number produced without information. It is not necessarily dishonest, but it cannot be accurate, and the gap tends to surface halfway through the build as a change request.
The more useful question to ask a prospective partner is not "how much" but "what would make this cost more than you have said". Somebody who has built this kind of system before will answer immediately and specifically.
How we scope it
We would rather spend a short, focused block of time working out what you actually need than produce a number that neither of us can rely on.
From enquiry to a number you can plan against
- 1
Scope
We work through what you have, what it must do and what it must connect to. Usually a session or two.
- 2
Shape
We define a first version sharp enough to ship and useful enough to matter, and say what is deferred.
- 3
Estimate
A range for that first version, with the assumptions written down so you can challenge them.
- 4
Build
Weekly increments you can see and use, so the estimate stays honest as we learn.
Phasing matters more than most people expect. A first version that does the one thing your business most needs, shipped and in use, tells you more about what to build next than any amount of further planning. It also means the spend tracks the value rather than running ahead of it.
What to have ready
If you are about to approach anyone, including us, having these to hand will get you a far better answer.
Before you ask for a quote
- A one-paragraph description of the problem, not the solution you have in mind.
- The list of systems the platform must connect to, and who administers each.
- Roughly how many people will use it, and whether they are staff, customers or both.
- Whether you are replacing something, and if so what happens to the old data.
- The date that actually matters, and what happens if it slips.
- Who signs off, and who else has to be convinced.
None of that requires technical knowledge. All of it changes the number.
The honest summary
Custom platform work varies enormously, and anyone quoting confidently before understanding your integrations is guessing. What you should expect from a serious partner is a range, the reasoning behind it, and a first version small enough that you find out quickly whether the thing works.
If you want to talk through where your project sits, tell our concierge what you are trying to build. It scopes the work with you and passes a proper brief to the team.