No smoke. No lock-in. No mystery invoice.
You should know what you're buying, what it costs, and what happens next. The important terms are in plain English, and ownership stays with you.
Paid discovery, and it stops there if you want
$2,500 buys a written specification you own outright — scope, architecture, timeline, and a fixed build price. If you take that document to another developer, that is a fine outcome. There is no obligation to continue and no ongoing commitment attached to it.
Milestone payments tied to working software
Builds are split across milestones. Each payment is released only after you have seen and signed off on the feature it covers, running in a staging environment you can click through yourself.
50% deposit, never 100% up front
No project asks you to pay in full before anything exists. On larger builds the deposit can be held in escrow through a third party at your request.
Month-to-month on everything ongoing
Hosting, care plans, monitoring, and retainers cancel with 30 days' notice. Your site, your data, your code, and your accounts stay in your name the entire time — leaving means a handover, not a hostage negotiation.