You have a product to build and three vendors on your list. Two send a number within the week, free. The third wants to be paid before it will give you one. On the day you compare them, the third looks like the expensive option.
The comparison changes once the work starts. A number produced from one conversation rests on things nobody has checked: what the other systems really expose, which rules live only in someone’s head, what your data actually looks like. When one of those turns out differently, the gap comes back to you as a change request. You pay for the guess after all. You just pay later, when you are too far in to walk away.
We charge for Discovery, and this post explains why a paid Discovery phase comes before the price. It also covers what Discovery produces, what stays free on our side, and when a free quote is a perfectly reasonable thing to accept.
A free quote prices work nobody has defined yet. Discovery defines it first, in a requirements document, a clickable prototype, a technical architecture and a module by module estimate. That estimate becomes the fixed price, and you approve it before development starts. Everything Discovery produces is yours, whether you continue with us or with someone else.
What is inside a free quote
A free quote is a sales document. The person writing it has a few hours, one call’s worth of notes and at least one competitor to beat. Those conditions push the number in one direction. A careful estimate with room for the unknowns comes in high and loses. An optimistic one wins, and the difference gets sorted out later.
Nobody has to be dishonest for this to happen. An estimator who refuses to play along simply stops winning work.
The guess is usually written down, too. Look at the assumptions section of any quote you have been sent. “Client will provide API access.” “Data will be supplied in a clean format.” “Up to two rounds of revisions.” Each of those lines marks a place where the price stops holding.
Every assumption in a quote is a change request that has not been dated yet.
A change request is where you pay for the guess
Some change requests are fair. You saw the product, learned something and changed your mind, and that should cost something.
The ones to watch are requests for work that was always needed and was never in the number. By the time they arrive, you have little choice but to accept them. Switching means paying someone else to learn the code, and the date you promised internally does not move.
So a free quote has two costs. One is the money. The other is timing: the argument over scope now happens after you have lost the option to leave. The only moment you had real leverage was before you signed, and the quote gave you nothing to use it with.
What Discovery produces
Discovery is a short paid phase, billed weekly. A business analyst and a senior engineer do the work, and four things come out of it.
Requirements with user stories. This is the written version of what the product must do, and it gives both sides something to check the build against.
People disagree about a screen they can click long before they disagree about a paragraph. Moving a button here costs far less than moving it after it has been built.
What gets built on what, and how it connects to the systems you already run. This is where a senior engineer finds out whether the hard part is really hard.
The cost broken down by module, so you can see where it goes and cut something before it is built. This estimate becomes the fixed price for the build.
Everything Discovery produces is yours, whether you continue with us or with someone else. That matters more than it looks. A free quote leaves you holding a number. Discovery leaves you holding a specification another vendor can price against. If you take it elsewhere, you keep everything you paid for, and your next quote will not be a guess.
What this looked like at HeartMed
HeartMed provides bedside cardiac monitoring to patients across 50+ nursing homes. Its CEO described the problem on the first discovery call:
“On a good month we’re losing about $100,000. On a bad month, anywhere close to half a million to a million dollars a month, because we’re missing codes, missing patients, things aren’t being tracked properly.”
That call made the size of the problem clear. It could not have produced a fair price for a build. Complexity assessments were being made subjectively by floor staff from face sheets, so the complexity rules a system would have to encode did not yet exist in a form anyone could code.
The engagement opened with a structured Business Analysis instead: mapping the workflow, then encoding all seven CPT slot rules across four complexity tiers. In HeartMed’s case it also delivered a hardened Excel file as interim relief within two weeks. That foundation then became a standalone web application. The published result is $200K+ in monthly revenue recovered, with the billing accuracy risk resolved. The full story is in the HeartMed case study.
What stays free
You will see “Get a Free Quote” on our own site, and our audits, consultations and quotes are free. The two positions fit together because each step answers a different question.
| Step | What it costs | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Technical audit, for an existing product | Free | A scored review across seven areas and a written findings report with severity levels, in one to five days |
| Scoping call, for a new product | Free | A conversation about what you want to build |
| Embedded engineers | Free quote, by role and hours | Senior engineers working inside your team |
| Discovery | Paid, billed weekly | Requirements, prototype, architecture and a module by module estimate, yours either way |
| The build | The fixed price you approved | The product described in the estimate, with development starting after your approval |
A quote for engineers by role and hours has no scope guess inside it. A fixed price on a product does, unless someone has done the work to remove it. On a build with us, that work is Discovery. Our Software Development page sets out the rest of the model.
When a free quote is fine
There are honest uses for a free number:
You are buying capacity. Engineers by role and hours can be priced without knowing how the product will turn out.
The job is small and already specified. If a competent engineer can read a finished spec and price it in an afternoon, there may be little left to discover.
You only need a budget sanity check. A rough number helps you decide whether to go further, as long as everyone keeps calling it rough.
The trouble starts when a rough number gets treated as a commitment by either side.
Five questions for the quote you already have
Put them to any vendor, including us.
Frequently asked questions
How long does Discovery take?
It is a short phase. On a typical MVP, business analysis runs one to two weeks, followed by three to six weeks of development.
What does Discovery cost?
It is billed weekly, and the figure is a conversation for a call. We do not publish rates.
Can we take the Discovery documents to another vendor?
Yes. Everything Discovery produces is yours, whether you continue with us or with someone else.
Does a fixed price mean we cannot change anything?
Scope can still change, because you will learn things during a build. The fixed price is tied to the estimate you approved, so you can see what changed against it. Ask any vendor, us included, how those changes get priced before you sign.
Does the free technical audit replace Discovery?
No. They do different jobs. The audit reviews a product you already have. Discovery defines a product you want built.
Where to start
Start with a free technical audit of your existing product, or a scoping call for a new one. Either way, you will know the scope and the cost before anyone writes a line of production code.
Have a product already? Take the free technical audit. Planning one? Book a scoping call.
Service details come from the Touch Support Software Development page. HeartMed details and the quote are as published. The quote assumptions are illustrations, not client findings.
