Pricing
How pricing works.
I price by project. After a mapping conversation about the real workflow, you get a written proposal with a fixed number and an explicit list of what the first release includes and excludes. What moves that number is how many outside systems the software has to talk to, how many user types need separate permissions, whether existing data has to be migrated, and how sensitive the records are.
Every project gets a fixed number tied to a written scope. I don't quote from a form submission. The mapping conversation comes first: who uses the thing, what they do today, where the current process breaks. Then I write the proposal. If what you described turns out to be two projects, I'll price the one worth doing first.
Four things move a number more than anything else. Integrations: every outside system the software has to talk to (a payment processor, an email provider, a state portal, whatever you already pay for) is its own failure surface I have to handle. Authentication and roles: a site anyone can read is cheap, and a system where four kinds of user each see something different is not. Data migration out of whatever you're running today. And compliance handling, when records are sensitive enough that access has to be provable.
The reverse is the more useful half. Cost comes down when the first release serves one user type instead of four, when your data already lives in one place and is reasonably clean, when someone on your side can answer a question the same week it's asked, and when an internal tool eight people will use doesn't need a custom design system. Most of those are your call, not mine.
Hourly billing hands the risk of a bad estimate to you, which is a rough deal if you're a five-person nonprofit or a shop with one office manager keeping the wheels on. Fixed scope keeps that risk with me. If the build takes longer than I planned, you already have the number and it doesn't move. The tradeoff is that scope has to be written down before we start, and a genuinely new request becomes its own priced change instead of quietly eating the timeline.
The number arrives inside a document, not in the body of an email. The proposal lists what the first release includes, what it explicitly does not, the stack I intend to use, what I need from you and roughly when, and what handoff looks like at the end. Deployment, documentation, and training sit inside that scope. You can hand the document to a board, to a second developer for a sanity check, or to nobody.
Sometimes the honest answer is that you shouldn't hire me, and I'd rather say it early. If your current site loads fast and says the right things, keep it. If two people are tracking a dozen items, a spreadsheet is fine and will stay fine for years. If an off-the-shelf product already does most of what you need, buy the product. I run a licensed PA home-improvement contracting business on these same systems (PA HIC #PA2199962), so I've been on the paying side of this decision too.
I work from Lock Haven and take clients remotely as often as locally. Distance doesn't change the pricing structure; it changes whether the mapping conversation happens at your table or over a call. If you want a real number, the fastest route is telling me what breaks today and who it breaks for.
Cost questions, answered
How much does a small business website cost?
A brochure site sits at the simple end of what I build: pages, a contact form, content your staff can edit. The number climbs once the site needs logins, member-only areas, payments, or a connection to software you already run. Either way you get a fixed figure in writing after one mapping conversation, not a range you can't plan against.
Do you charge hourly or a flat project fee?
Fixed price per project, with the scope written down first. Hourly makes sense when nobody can define the work yet; most small-organization projects can be defined in a conversation, so hourly mostly transfers my estimating risk onto the client. If a build runs long, that's mine to absorb. Requests that fall outside the written scope get quoted separately before I start them.
What makes one software project cost more than another?
Integrations, user roles, data migration, and compliance handling. Each outside system the software talks to has to be handled when it fails, not only when it works. Every distinct user type needs its own permissions and its own testing. On Volunteer Clinton County, background-check documents are never public; access runs through a function that checks several conditions before issuing a short-lived signed link. That kind of handling takes time to get right.
When do I get an actual number?
After the mapping conversation and before any code gets written. I need to know who uses the system, what they do now, and what has to be true for it to count as working. That's usually one call plus a few follow-up questions. Then you get a written proposal: the fixed number, the first-release scope, and an explicit list of what sits outside it.
What if I want to change something mid-project?
Adjustments inside the agreed scope are part of the work and I don't meter them. A genuinely new feature gets scoped and priced on its own, and you decide whether it belongs in this release or the next one. Keeping that line visible is what makes a fixed number honest; otherwise the scope drifts and one of us ends up resenting it.
Would it be cheaper to buy an off-the-shelf tool instead?
Often an off-the-shelf tool is cheaper, and I'll tell you when it is. If a product already does what you need and the subscription is survivable, buy the product. Custom work earns its cost when the off-the-shelf option forces your team into a workflow that doesn't match how they operate, when per-seat pricing scales badly against your headcount, or when the data has to stay under your own control.
Start a project
Get your number.
Tell me what you're trying to build or improve and what's already in place — I'll reply with a clear next step.