Why we don't bill hourly (and why it saves your budget)

In Slovak and Czech QA outsourcing, hourly billing is the standard. The vendor estimates '20–30 hours for task X', the client nods, and then the routine dance follows: the estimate slips, the invoice grows, the project has 'two more sprints to go'. This is not a fault of a specific agency — it is a conflict of interest written straight into the contract.

We bill fixed. Not because we want to look modern, but because it is a healthier model for both sides. Here is how we think about it — and how you actually save.

Hourly billing systemically pushes for overruns

If a vendor bills hourly, the real incentive looks like this:

• Better code = fewer hours = lower invoice.
• Automation of repeated tasks = fewer hours = lower invoice.
• Well-defined scope = faster project = lower invoice.

Every step toward quality reduces profit. An agency that really wants to help has to go against its own business model. For most it doesn't hold long term — cash-flow pressure wins.

What happens with a fixed price

With fixed pricing the vendor has the opposite formula:

• Better code = less rework = higher margin.
• Automation = faster delivery = people freed up for the next project sooner.
• Precise scope = predictable budget = the client comes back.

Incentives are suddenly aligned. Both vendor and client want the same thing: faster and better, not longer and more expensive.

But what about 'hidden costs'? Isn't fixed pricing more expensive?

This is the most common objection. The logic is: 'if they give me a fixed price, they surely built in a safety cushion; with hourly I only pay what was actually spent'.

Correct in theory. Misleading in practice. Why?

• Hourly estimates systematically come in under price. The vendor wants to win the project. Sales is incentivised to push the estimate down. Actual time is always 1.3–2× higher.
• Hourly billing also racks up 'useless' hours. Kick-off meeting 4 h. Alignment call 2 h. 'Follow-up questions' 3 h. With a fixed price these come out of the vendor's margin, not your budget.
• Fixed pricing includes a risk margin, but a limited one. A rational vendor adds 10–20%. With hourly you pay 50–100% for the same risk.

How we manage to fix — and where the limit is

We can fix-price because a QA framework is a predictable kind of work. After 10+ years in the field we know roughly exactly how long things take:

• Setting up Cypress/Playwright with the Page Object pattern for a moderately complex app — 2–3 weeks
• CI/CD pipeline in Jenkins/GitHub Actions with parallelization — 3–5 days
• Azure DevOps ↔ Jira sync with custom rules — 1–2 weeks
• 20 E2E tests for critical flows — 1 week per experienced engineer

Where we do not offer fixed pricing:

• Testing a legacy app with no documentation, where even we don't know what's inside
• Integrations with a unique proprietary system hard to estimate
• Long-term staff-aug deal (we deliberately do not do it — not our domain)

In those cases we say 'T&M with a monthly cap' — that is a fair compromise, but not our default.

A small trick when evaluating proposals

When you get a proposal from a QA agency, ask:

1. What is the project’s fixed ceiling? If the answer is 'we can't give one, it depends on how it goes' — you know you are paying their risk.
2. What if it takes 20% longer than estimated? If they say 'we'll bill extra' — a signal the estimate was optimistic.
3. What's your cancellation policy? If they say 'you pay for hours worked up to cancellation' — classic hourly.

In our contracts: the project has a ceiling, after week 3 you can walk away and pay only for milestones delivered. Nothing like 'we'll bill hours up to project stop'.

The only exception we make

If you want us to stay with you beyond the project — e.g. for maintenance or adding tests — we offer a prepaid block of hours (e.g. 10 hours per month at a fixed price, unused hours carry over for 3 months). Flexible and predictable at once. But it does not hide behind a retainer you pay yourself.

Want the concrete numbers for Cypress frameworks, mobile testing, or CI/CD? See How much does test automation cost in 2026 — real prices per scope, no "it depends".

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If you don't want to speculate, napíš nám — we'll show you a concrete budget and timeline for your project. No hourly rates. No retainer. No sales rituals.