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Fees and bands

Software and AI development pricing

Quantum Craft publishes its prices. Most engagements start with one of four first steps: £3,500 for an AI-built app audit, £4,500 or £8,500 for a specification sprint, from £4,950 for an AI readiness assessment and from £6,500 for tech due diligence, all excluding VAT. A focused MVP typically costs £35,000 to £80,000 over 6 to 12 weeks.

Last reviewed

01First steps

Four ways to start, each at a published fee

Pick the one that fits the decision in front of you. The audit and the sprint have fixed fees; the assessment and the due diligence start from a figure, because how much ground they cover varies.

Specification sprint

£4,500 or £8,500excluding VAT

One week for a single workflow, two for a platform

Anyone about to commission a build: every build we take on starts here.

Includes

  • The written specification: user flows, acceptance criteria and scope
  • The architecture, an estimate and the risks
  • A document you keep, whoever builds from it

Not included

  • Code. Nothing is built until you have agreed the specification
  • The build itself, which is quoted from the specification

AI readiness assessment

From £4,950excluding VAT

One to two weeks

UK companies that suspect AI could help, but not where or what it would be worth.

Includes

  • Conversations with the people who do the work, and a look through the data you hold
  • A scored assessment and a ranked shortlist: what to build, buy or leave alone, and in what order
  • A plain answer when a spreadsheet would do the job
  • The report, which you keep

Not included

  • Legal advice: that needs a solicitor, and we are glad to work alongside one
  • Training for hundreds of staff at once
  • Any pilot or build it leads to, which is priced in writing before it starts

AI-built app audit

£3,500, fixedexcluding VAT

About a week

Founders whose Lovable, Bolt.new, Replit or v0 app now handles money, health data or customer records.

Includes

  • A senior engineer's read of the code, the database rules, the hosting set-up and every path money or personal data takes
  • A UK GDPR data-flow review of where your users' data goes
  • A written report ranking the findings by what would hurt first
  • A recommendation to harden, refactor or rebuild, with what each would cost

Not included

  • The fixes: hardening is priced as a fixed list, a refactor stage by stage and a rebuild as a new build
  • Legal advice: the data-flow review is an engineering review

Technical due diligence for startups

From £6,500excluding VAT

One to two weeks

Investors and acquirers, and founders who would rather find the problems before an investor does.

Includes

  • The seven areas on the checklist investors work from
  • The questions investors now put to AI products: which code AI wrote and who reviewed it, where the models and training data came from, and what inference costs per customer
  • A written report, with each finding ranked by what it would cost to put right

Not included

  • Fixing what it finds: that is separate work, by us or by anyone else
02Builds

What a build costs, by shape of product

After the specification, a build is quoted from it. These are the shapes we have built, with the band each one's case study publishes for work of that shape.

Indicative bands by shape of build, London rates as of mid-2026
ShapeOur example and its scopeTimeIndicative band
Single-workflow MVPOne workflow built to production standard. The bottom of the band has one user type and no integrations; the top adds payments, an admin surface and a second audience6 to 12 weeks£35,000 to £80,000
Practice platformKaru: scheduling, records, notes and videoAbout 14 weeks of core build£90,000 to £140,000 for this phase
Two-sided marketplaceA B2B logistics marketplace: the first transactable phasePhase one of a multi-year programme£125,000 to £170,000
Field-service compliance platformBlueWave: web app, offline mobile app, scheduling and billingAbout 14 weeks of core build to first release£150,000 to £250,000 to first release
Platform with native apps and paymentsNForge: web and native mobile apps, Stripe Connect payments and live video30 to 40 weeks£260,000 to £340,000
Data platform programmeTIYO: a crawl engine, an event store, analytics and several productsTwo to three years£350,000 to £550,000 across the programme

All bands exclude VAT and costs paid to third parties such as hosting and infrastructure, at London rates as of mid-2026. They are bands for the shape, not an invoice: your figure comes from the specification. Once the product is live, plan for 20 to 30 per cent of the build cost a year to run it and keep changing it.

03Contracts

Fixed price, time and materials, or a retainer

Pricing follows how well the work is understood before it starts.

How Quantum Craft engagements are priced
ModelWhen we use itHow it works
Fixed priceWork with an agreed specificationOne price, paid against milestones; scope changes agreed in writing first
Time and materialsDiscovery-heavy work, where the problem is still movingBilled for the days worked
RetainerOngoing product work after launchA set amount of senior time a month; BlueWave's runs at two to three days a week

Any change of scope is agreed in writing before the work changes.

04Risk

How we take the risk out of a first step

Each of these is a promise made elsewhere on this site or in our terms.

  • The first call is free, with no sales pitch.
  • Every first step has a published fee. Where it starts from a figure, the exact one is fixed in writing before any work starts.
  • The fee does not move with the answer: it is set before either of us knows what the work will find.
  • You can stop after any step, and keep what it produced.
  • The code we write for your project is yours on full payment.
  • Delivered work carries a defect warranty: typically 30 days, set in each project agreement. During it, we fix bugs in that work at no extra cost.
05Questions

Questions about our pricing

Why do you publish your prices?

So you can judge whether a first step is worth a call before you make one. A fee that is published cannot bend to fit what the work turns up, and every case study publishes the band for its own shape.

Do your prices include VAT?

No. Every fee and band on this page excludes VAT, as the prices in our quotes do unless a quote says otherwise. The build bands also leave out costs paid to third parties, such as hosting and infrastructure.

If AI writes the code, why isn't it cheaper?

Because typing was never most of the cost. AI saves real time on wide, repetitive changes. Specification, architecture, review and testing take as long as they always did, and they are what keep a product working after launch. We spend the saved hours there, which is why our bands look like a senior team's.

Can we stop after the first step?

Yes. Every first step ends in something you keep, a specification or a report, and nothing in it commits you to the next stage. Each later stage is priced in writing before it starts.

What does software cost to run after launch?

Plan for 20 to 30 per cent of the build cost a year to run the product and keep changing it. Ongoing work usually runs as a retainer; BlueWave's is two to three days a week of senior time. If you would rather take the product in-house, the handover is written down and the code is documented for your team.

Start a conversation

Tell us what you're building or deciding.

Tell us about a product you want built, or a decision about AI you need to make, and we'll set up a 30-minute call. You'll get a straight answer on what it would take, including when the answer is that you don't need us.

What do you need?
The first call is free, and there is no sales pitch.

What happens after you get in touch

  1. We reply within one working day

    By email, to arrange a time for the call.

  2. A free 30-minute call

    With a senior engineer, not a salesperson, about what you are building or deciding.

  3. The fee in writing first

    If a first step is worth taking, you get its exact fee in writing before any work starts.