People ask fairly often whether I'll build something that doesn't exist yet. The answer is usually yes. This is here so you can work out roughly what you'd be spending before you write to me, rather than having to ask and wait.

Prices below are ranges, not quotes. A small application is at the bottom of a range and something with several moving parts is at the top. I'll give you a real number, in writing, before you pay anything.

Start here: it might not cost anything

If what you want is a feature that would make one of my existing applications better for everyone who owns it, tell me anyway. A fair amount of what's in them arrived exactly that way, from someone saying "it would be good if it also did this." That costs you nothing and you get it in the next update.

It's worth asking first. The rest of this page is for the things that are genuinely yours rather than everyone's.

Four routes

1. Sponsored — from $350

You pay for it to exist. I build it and can sell it afterwards.

You get it free for life, priority support on it, and you shape what goes in it, because you're the one paying for it. It carries no branding of yours and anyone can buy it later.

This is the cheapest route by a distance, and the reason is simple: I end up with something I can keep selling, so you're not carrying the whole cost of building it. If you don't mind other communities having the same thing, this is almost always the right choice.

Typically $350–$800.

2. Built for you — from $700

Your requirements drive it. I keep a general version.

Your features come first, your use case decides the arguments, you're credited if you want to be, and you get direct support from me rather than the queue. I'd still keep a general version of it to sell, but without the parts we built specifically for you.

Most people who think they want something exclusive actually want this. It means the thing is built around your community rather than around a market.

Typically $700–$1,600.

3. Exclusive — from $2,400

Yours, and nobody else's. Ever.

I don't sell it, list it, or reuse it. The first year of keeping it working against Invision Community updates is included, and it's $450 a year after that if you want me to carry on maintaining it.

It costs what it costs for two honest reasons. I'm giving up a product I could otherwise sell for years, and I'm signing up to keep something working through every Invision release from now on, which is a commitment that outlasts the build by a long way. If a quote here feels steep, route 2 usually gets you ninety per cent of what you actually wanted.

From $2,400. A large one will be more.

4. A change to something I already sell — from $80

An extra setting, a widget, a different way of displaying something, a small addition to an application you already own. If it's useful to everyone it's free (see the top of this page). If it's specific to you, it's small money.

Typically $80–$250.

What's included whatever you pick

• No core files are edited. Ever. Everything is built against Invision's own extension points, so an upgrade doesn't break it and you're never stuck on an old version because of something I wrote.

• It's tested on a real Invision install, not a mock. That is how most of the bugs get found.

• It works in light and dark mode, and on a phone.

• Settings in the AdminCP, so you can change your mind later without paying me to change a number.

• Translatable. No English hardcoded where it can't be changed.

• A written scope before any money changes hands, so we both know what "finished" means.

• Support afterwards. A real person reads every message, and that person is me.

What pushes a price up

Worth knowing, because some of these are surprising:

• Anything that needs a program running on a server. This is the big one. Some things people ask for aren't really forum features at all — restreaming audio or video to YouTube, transcoding, anything with a queue of its own. Those need software running continuously on a machine you control. I can build the controls into your site, but the part doing the work lives on your server, and that's a different job with different support attached.

• Third-party services I don't control. If it talks to somebody else's API, that API can change, break, or start charging. Building it is fine; promising it will still work in two years isn't something anyone can honestly do.

• Real-time anything. Live updating without a page refresh needs more than a normal application does.

• Moving data in from another platform. Imports are almost always harder than they sound, because the data is never as tidy as anyone remembers.

• A deadline. I'll usually meet one, but a fixed date means rearranging everything else.

What I'll say no to

• Editing core files. It works right up until your next upgrade, and then it's your problem. I won't leave anyone with that.

• Anything that needs an unlicensed copy of Invision Community.

• Work I can't test. If I can't reproduce it, I can't honestly tell you it's fixed.

• Promising something the platform doesn't allow. If you ask for something and it turns out Invision can't do it, I'll tell you that instead of building an expensive approximation and hoping you don't notice.

How it works

1. You tell me what you want. Plain English is fine. Screenshots of what you're doing now are better than a spec.

2. I ask questions. Usually several, and usually the boring ones, because those are where the price actually lives.

3. I send you a written scope and a fixed number. If the answers change the number, you'll know before you pay, not after.

4. Half up front, half when it's working on your site. Under $400, it's just paid up front.

5. You see it running before the second half is due. If it doesn't do what the scope said, it isn't finished, and I don't consider that a dispute.

I'm one person, so I take on one of these at a time. If I'm mid-way through something I'll tell you when I can start rather than quietly sitting on it.

Fair warning

I build these with heavy AI assistance. I'd rather you knew that up front than found out later. What it doesn't mean is untested — everything runs on this site before it goes anywhere near yours, and it's built against a real Invision install rather than a mock.

To start

Message me here, or use the contact form. Tell me what you're trying to do rather than how you think it should be built — quite often there's a simpler route, and occasionally the answer is that something already does it.