What should you ask before pricing an app?

The platforms targeted, what the app has to let people do, every kind of user including administration, the integrations with existing tools, and what already exists: a database, a website, a system to replace.

Why list the user roles in the brief?

Because every role is another set of screens, permissions and cases to test. A project priced for one user that turns out to have three is a project whose budget doubled without a single feature being added.

Apps: every user role listed before the estimate

Platforms, what it has to let people do, accounts and roles, integrations, what already exists: asked before you price it.

Create my studio for free See the questions

The estimate holds while there is only one kind of user. The third role turns up the week you thought you were finished: there had to be an admin area, and nobody mentioned it because nobody asked. The same goes for integrations, for the system being replaced, and for the platforms actually targeted, all of which multiply the work without ever changing the client’s sentence.

This is a suggestion, not a standard. We do not do your job: this list is a starting point, to be added to, cut down and rephrased to suit the way you work.

The questions

15 questions. Mobile, web or in-house. Five minutes of brief.

The app

What it runs on, and the problem it solves.

What does it have to run on?
Multiple choice · Required
The answers offered:
- iPhone
- Android
- In a browser
- On a computer (Windows or Mac)
What is it for, and who for?
Long text · Required
Two or three sentences is plenty. The problem you want solved matters more than the list of screens.
Is it replacing something?
Single choice · Required
The answers offered:
- No, it is all new
- Yes, a spreadsheet
- Yes, an existing piece of software
- Yes, a paper process
Which one?
Short text · Optional

The users

Who signs in, and who is allowed to see what.

Does it need user accounts?
Single choice · Required
The answers offered:
- Yes, with different roles
- Yes, one kind of user
- No, everybody sees the same thing
Which roles, and who sees what?
Long text · Optional
How many people will use it?
Dropdown · Optional
The answers offered:
- Fewer than 10
- 10 to 50
- 50 to 500
- More than 500
- I do not know yet

What it has to be able to do

What it connects to, and what it handles.

What does it need to connect to?
Multiple choice · Optional
The answers offered:
- Online payment
- Google or Apple sign-in
- Sending emails
- Notifications
- Excel or PDF exports
- Software we already use
- Nothing in particular
Does it handle sensitive data?
Single choice · Optional
This changes what has to be planned for from the start, and what the law requires.
The answers offered:
- No
- Ordinary personal data
- Health or financial data

What already exists

Anything already done is no longer to do.

Do you have any designs?
Single choice · Required
The answers offered:
- Yes, finished designs
- Yes, sketches
- No, it all needs drawing
Designs, sketches, a specification
File · Optional
The spreadsheet the app is meant to replace is welcome here too.
Does it need publishing to the app stores?
Single choice · Optional
Publishing needs developer accounts in your own name, which cost money and take time to get: better to know now.
The answers offered:
- Yes
- No
- I do not know

And finally

Your deadline, and anything that did not fit the questions above.

When do you need it?
Dropdown · Required
The answers offered:
- As soon as possible
- Within 2 weeks
- Within a month
- No particular deadline
Anything you would like to add?
Long text · Optional
A constraint, a question, a detail I ought to bear in mind.
Any other files to attach
File · Optional
On top of what is asked for above: screenshots, sketches, documents. HEIC from an iPhone is fine.

The colours to offer

A client who writes “blue” and a studio who reads “blue” are not talking about the same colour. A list of shades settles it straight away.

Ink
White
Steel grey
Primary blue
Purple
Green
Orange
Alert red

How it works

1
You pick your trade
When you sign up, and the questions on this page are already in your account. You cut them down, add to them and rephrase them: nothing is fixed.
2
You send one link
Your client answers from their phone, when they can, and uploads their files. They install nothing, create no account and choose no password.
3
What follows stays in one place
The conversation, the chasing, the later rounds of questions, the deposit and the balance, and the delivery of the files, which can open on its own once the payment settles.

What it costs

Free up to five orders a month, with no card and no time limit. Past that a paid plan takes over, and nothing about the way you work changes.

See the plans

Frequently asked questions

What should you ask before pricing an app?: The platforms targeted, what the app has to let people do, every kind of user including administration, the integrations with existing tools, and what already exists: a database, a website, a system to replace.
Why list the user roles in the brief?: Because every role is another set of screens, permissions and cases to test. A project priced for one user that turns out to have three is a project whose budget doubled without a single feature being added.

Think something is wrong?

A question that is missing, one that means nothing in your trade, a word that is not the right one: write to us and we will fix it.

Write to us at [email protected]

These questions are already waiting for you

Create your studio, pick your trade, and this brief is there. You send one link, your client answers once, and you follow what happens next in the same place.

Create my studio for free Read the blog