Fixed-bid

Fixed-bid is the legacy way to price studio work: scope a deliverable, agree a price, ship the deliverable, get paid. On paper it’s simple and predictable. In practice, it punishes both sides because real client work doesn’t hold a scope still. Mid-build the client realises they need a contact form. The studio either eats the change (loss) or charges a change order (friction). The first option burns out the studio; the second burns out the relationship.

Fixed-bid only works cleanly when the deliverable is genuinely fixed — a static brochure site for a known content set, a single component refactor, a one-off integration. Anything that requires iteration, measurement, or design choices that depend on what shipped earlier is better served by an iterative model.

Most studios that survive past their first few years migrate from fixed-bid to retainers for these reasons.