Most software studios offer a free discovery call. It feels generous, it lowers the barrier to entry, and it's what every "how to win clients" playbook recommends. We don't do it. We bill for discovery, and we'll keep billing for discovery, because the clients we want are the ones who recognise why.
What discovery actually is
For us, discovery is one to two weeks of focused work that produces:
- A written scope of what the system does and explicitly does not do.
- An architecture sketch — the major components, the data model, the integration points.
- A fixed-price implementation quote with a confidence interval.
- A list of decisions that need the client's answer before development starts.
That deliverable is useful regardless of whether we build the system. It can be handed to another studio, to an in-house team, or filed away while priorities shift. It is real engineering work, done by senior engineers, and it costs us money to produce.
What free discovery selects for
A free discovery call is a sales activity disguised as engineering work. The studio knows the call is unpaid, so it stays shallow — questions designed to qualify the lead, not surface real risk. The client knows the call is free, so they treat it as one of five they'll do this week. Neither side is incentivised to do the hard part of discovery.
And the clients who choose a partner based on free discovery calls? Almost universally, they're the ones with the smallest budget, the least clarity about what they want, and the least respect for what software actually costs to build. The studios who win those clients win the wrong clients.
What billing for it buys
Charging for discovery changes the dynamic on both sides. We can do real work — read the existing codebase, talk to operators, prototype a data model. The client treats the engagement seriously, brings the right stakeholders, and answers questions promptly. The output is honest because nobody is performing for a free pitch.
The financial cost is the smallest part. The actual cost is commitment. A client who has paid for discovery has expressed that they value the planning enough to fund it. That signal is worth more than any amount of qualification on a sales call.
How we structure it
A typical discovery engagement at Taqnihub:
- Length: 1–2 weeks, depending on system size.
- Price: a fixed fee in the low five figures, set up front.
- Team: the same senior engineer who would lead the build.
- Output: a 10–20 page document, an architecture diagram, a fixed-price quote.
- Credit: if the client engages us for the implementation within 60 days, the discovery fee is fully credited toward the build.
That last point matters. The credit makes discovery effectively free for clients who proceed — but only after they've committed enough to pay for it in the first place. Skin in the game is the whole point.
The objection we hear
"But I just want to know if you can do this — I'm not ready to pay for a planning engagement."
That's a fair thing to want, and we answer it on a free 30-minute call. We'll tell you whether the project is something we'd take on, what the rough order of magnitude is, and what the major risks look like. What we won't do on that call is produce a scope or a quote, because doing those properly takes a week of work and we won't shortcut it for either of us.
Free 30 minutes for fit. Paid week for scope. Anything in between is a sales activity pretending to be engineering, and we've seen too many projects start that way and end badly.
If you're thinking about a project and want to talk, we're happy to do the free fit call. The discovery engagement comes after, only if it's the right move for both sides.
End of article · Thanks for reading