The one rule
Say no to hourly rates.
I have never sent an hourly invoice, and I never will. One number, agreed before the work starts, that does not move. Here is why I am so stubborn about it.
Quick answer
I never charge hourly. Every project is quoted as a fixed price agreed in writing before work starts, and that number is what you pay — revisions included, with no overage and no scope-creep invoices. Hourly billing charges you for the designer's slowness and turns every question into a cost.
Same work. One of these numbers you can put in a budget, and one of them you find out at the end.
The case against
Five things hourly billing gets wrong
None of these are hypothetical. Every one of them is something clients have described to me about a previous engagement.
It bills you for someone else's learning curve
Two designers do the same work. One takes 40 hours because they have done it a hundred times; the other takes 90 because they are figuring it out on your project. Hourly pays the second one more than twice as much. Experience should make you cheaper to hire, not more expensive.
It makes the estimate a fiction
Every hourly quote is really an "around" — around 60 hours, around $6,000. Everyone who has commissioned design work knows what happens to that number by the end. The estimate is not a commitment; it is an opening position.
It puts us on opposite sides
You want the project finished. Under hourly, finishing early costs me money. I do not think most designers consciously pad their hours, but a structure where my interests and yours point in opposite directions is a bad structure regardless of anyone's good intentions.
It taxes the conversation
When the meter is running, clients stop calling. They batch feedback, sit on questions, and approve things they are unsure about to avoid another billable hour. The single biggest predictor of a good outcome is how freely we can talk, and hourly puts a price on exactly that.
It prices the wrong thing
You are not buying my time. You are buying a website that loads fast and gets you enquiries. Whether that took me a week or a fortnight is genuinely not your problem, and the invoice should reflect that.
What it commits me to
Anyone can say “fixed price.” This is the version with teeth.
The quote is the invoice
Agreed in writing before anything starts. No overage line, no rounding up, no surprise at the end.
Revisions are inside the price
Feedback is the work, not an add-on. I would rather you tell me it is wrong than approve something you dislike because a revision costs extra.
My speed is my problem
If a build takes me longer than I estimated, that is mine to absorb. You are not funding my miscalculation.
Questions cost nothing
Call, message, think out loud. No meter, no minimum, no time tracked against your balance.
Scope changes are a conversation, not an invoice
If you genuinely want something outside what we agreed, I will tell you plainly and we will re-agree a number. What I will not do is quietly bill it and mention it later.
You can see the numbers before you talk to me
Every service page carries its price and every tier is published on the pricing page. Nothing is quoted only on request.
The honest part
When fixed price is the wrong answer
Fixed pricing only works when the scope is actually knowable. If you do not yet know what you are building — and plenty of good projects start there — then nobody honest can put a number on it, and anyone who does is either padding heavily or planning to come back for more later.
When that is the situation, I will tell you. We scope it as a small, separately priced piece of work first, and then I quote the build properly against something real. It is a slower start and it is the reason I have never had to send a client an invoice they were not expecting.
Kind words
Hired 25×. Rated 4.93
across 32 reviews.
“Shaheer was very responsive in his communication and easy to work with to bring our vision to life. He delivered the project along with a handoff meeting to ensure our team has the skills to make any future edits desired.”
Justin Sinclair
CEO, Epiphany Education
“Shaheer is extremely attentive, consistently brainstormed new ideas, and is very flexible with feedback. He has a strong eye for design and structure, turnaround time was excellent, and he consistently delivered high-quality work quickly.”
Harper Tucker
CEO, Growth CFO
“Shaheer has been one of the best freelance web design / developer contractors I've ever worked with. Great attention to detail, good creative sensibilities, fast turnaround and revisions as necessary. Will absolutely work with him again.”
Joshua Otten
CEO, NIL Data Solutions AI
Pricing questions
Before you ask
No. Every engagement is a fixed price agreed before work begins, including the monthly partnership, which is a flat monthly fee rather than a tracked retainer. I have never sent an hourly invoice.
Want the number before we talk?
Send a brief and get a fixed quote within 24 hours — or see the published prices first.