Fixed price or hourly rate: which one fits a first product?
A fixed price holds the estimate risk with the studio; an hourly rate keeps it with the buyer. The published investment in a business app in Dubai is AED 92,000 to AED 294,000, and which end of that a project lands on is settled after the contract is signed.
Who carries the risk in each model?
Under an hourly rate, the buyer carries it. The total is whatever the work turns out to require, and that is knowable only once the work is done.
Under a fixed price, the studio carries it. The number is committed before anything is built, so a week that runs longer than expected is the studio's week.
Both models are honest, and they answer different questions. An hourly rate suits a known build with a known scope. A fixed price suits the moment before either of those exists.
What does a published range say?
The most common investment in a business app in Dubai is published as AED 92,000 to AED 294,000. The upper figure is more than three times the lower one, and the distance between them exists because the scope gets discovered after the engagement starts.
A range is an honest answer to a question that has yet to be defined. It stays a range until somebody pays for the definition, which is what the opening phase of an hourly engagement is for.
A fixed price answers the same question differently. The definition happens inside the price, and the buyer reads one figure instead of two ends and a process for moving between them.
Why does a first product favour a fixed price?
Because the decision it supports is a single call, and a single call needs a single number. AED 150,000 is one figure, and one figure is what a founder can weigh alone; an open range needs a board, a budget line and the meetings that go with them.
A published price also removes a step. A proposal, a scoping call and a revised proposal are the standard route to a six-figure engagement, and each of them costs both sides a week.
The work still has to be defined. What changes is when that happens: inside the price, before the clock starts, rather than as the opening line of the invoice.
What does a fixed price commit to?
One number for the product named in the scope, paid once, with the scope written before the payment rather than after it. AED 150,000 covers the web application, the iPhone app, the Android app, the source code and the launch.
It holds for the scope it names. Work added later is quoted separately and agreed separately, which keeps both the price and the definition of the work honest.
And it makes the incentive legible in either direction. Under an hourly rate a studio is paid for time, and under a fixed price it is paid for the product. Both of those are worth knowing before signing either.
The First Build · AED 150,000 · Delivered within 90 days.
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Updated 2026-09-12