What a Discovery Call Covers, and What to Ask Back
A discovery call exists to place your project on one step of our price list and to find out what moves it inside that step. The steps run from EUR 600-900 for a single-page landing to from EUR 7.500 for a custom SaaS platform, and a fixed quote follows once the call and the scoping after it are done.
It is not a pitch. Every question below is there because its answer changes the step, the price or the timeline. Knowing why we ask lets you answer quickly, and it tells you what to press any studio on, us included.
What we ask, and why
| We ask | Why it matters | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| What do you sell, and who buys it? | A site exists to get one kind of buyer to take one action | Which pages exist and what each one says |
| What should a visitor do on the site? | An enquiry form, a phone call and a booking are different builds | A form fits step 01 to 03, a booking points to step 03 |
| Does anyone sign in, pay, or see their own data? | Accounts and payments bring security, receipts and failure cases | Any of these makes it step 04, EUR 3.500-7.500 |
| How many pages do you picture? | Page count is the plainest measure of size | 1 page is step 01, 2-3 is step 02, 4-7 is step 03 |
| What exists already? | Copy, photos, a logo, a domain, an old site to learn from | Existing content lowers the work, missing content is the part that waits on you |
| Who edits the site after launch? | If you change content yourself, the site needs a CMS | A basic CMS at step 02, a CMS with service pages at step 03 |
| What does it connect to? | A newsletter form is small. A CRM or an API is not | CRM and API work is step 04 |
| Should people find you on Google? | A well-built site can still be invisible to search | SEO foundation, EUR 450-750 one-off, or SEO growth at EUR 500-800/mo |
| When does it need to be live, and why then? | The reason behind a date tells us what can be cut to meet it | Which step fits the weeks you have |
| What budget range have you set? | So we can say early if the step you want does not fit it | Whether to start at a smaller step |
| Who approves the work? | Every approval is a point where the build waits | Whether the week range holds |
Why the budget question is not a trap
Our prices are published, so your budget is not a number we try to fill. A step covers a range, and your budget tells us which end of it to design toward. It also lets us say on the call, rather than in a quote, when what you want and what you have set aside sit on different steps.
Why the deadline has a second half
"By March" means little on its own. "By March, because the new location opens then" tells us which pages have to exist on that day and which can follow. A date with a reason can be met by cutting scope. A date without one leaves only rushing, and rushing shows.
What you should ask back
- Who will actually build it? The person on the call, a team, or a subcontractor you never meet. Ask for a name. How design and build fit together here is on design and engineering.
- Who owns the code, the repository and the database? The only good answer is you. On our projects, you do, at every step.
- Where will it be hosted, and whose account is it? Ask for the answer in writing. We can host, and whether we do is agreed per project, so it belongs in the quote rather than in an assumption.
- What is not in the quote? Copywriting, photography, stock and font licences, translations. Anything left unnamed is something you may be billed for later.
- What happens after launch? Ask what maintenance covers and what it does not. Our care is EUR 100-300/mo for updates, monitoring, backups and small fixes. Redesign and new features are not part of it and get quoted on their own.
- How is a change of scope priced? A good answer puts a price on a change before anyone starts it. A vague answer means the fixed quote is not really fixed.
- What do you need from me, and by when? Content, logins, feedback on drafts. This is the part that waits on you, and knowing it up front is how a 3-6 week build stays inside 3-6 weeks.
- Can I see something live that you built? A live site shows speed, mobile layout and forms that work. A screenshot shows none of that.
How to prepare
- Your current site address and domain, if you have them.
- A few sites you like, with one sentence each on why.
- The one action you want a visitor to take.
- A budget range, even a wide one.
- A date, and the reason for it.
You do not need a brief, a sitemap or a design. Those come out of scoping.
What happens after the call
You leave with one of three answers: the step your project fits and the range for it, a suggestion to start at a smaller step, or, for a platform, a note that the price follows discovery because one call cannot scope auth, billing and admin honestly. Then comes scoping, a fixed quote, and a build inside the week range for that step.
| Step | What points to it | Price | Build time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Single-page landing | One page, one form, analytics | EUR 600-900 | 1-2 weeks |
| 02 Mini-site | 2-3 pages, a contact flow, content you edit | EUR 900-1.500 | 2-3 weeks |
| 03 Business website | 4-7 pages, CMS, service pages, booking or contact | EUR 1.500-3.500 | 3-6 weeks |
| 04 Advanced site or web app | Login, dashboard, API, CRM, payments, chatbot | EUR 3.500-7.500 | 6-12 weeks |
| 05 Custom SaaS platform | Auth, billing and admin as the product itself | from EUR 7.500 | after discovery |
The full breakdown of each step is on the price list.
When to spend less
If you cannot yet say what you sell and who buys it, do not book a call with us or anyone else. A studio cannot answer that for you, and a site built before you know gets rebuilt once you do.
If you need one page to test whether an offer lands, you already know the step and the price: step 01, EUR 600-900. A website builder you set up yourself is also a fair way to run that test, and the call can wait until the test says yes. Until then, do not hire us yet.
Questions buyers ask
Will you give me a price on the call?
You will hear which step fits and the range for it, since the ranges are public. The fixed number comes after scoping, once we have seen what exists and what has to be built. For a custom platform at step 05, the price follows discovery.
Do I need a technical person on the call?
No. Every question on this page is about your business, and the technical choices follow from the answers. We build in Next.js, covered on our Next.js page, and none of that is yours to decide on a first call.
What if I am talking to other studios as well?
You should be. Take the questions from this page to every call and compare the answers rather than the pitch. A studio that will not name a range, or cannot say who owns the code, has told you something useful.
What if my project does not fit any step?
A project that seems to fall between steps sits at the step of its largest feature. A business website with a paid members area is a step 04 build, and a product whose accounts and billing are the point is step 05. Say what you have in mind and the call sorts out which.
When you are ready, tell us what you sell and what a visitor should do, through contact.
Building something?
JP Studio designs and builds websites, storefronts and product interfaces.