Built PriceProof to help explain project costs to clients

someone asked me to quote a project recently and I realized I had no good way to do it.

the standard formula is rate × time, right? but that feels broken.

if I'm experienced and knock it out in a week - I get paid less than a junior who drags it for 2 months? doesn't make sense. the value delivered is the same, maybe mine is even better quality.

but how do you explain that to a client? "pay me more because I'm faster" sounds backwards.

what I actually wanted

a way to show value beyond just hours. complexity matters. experience matters. what you're actually building matters.

two "simple contact forms" aren't the same if one needs custom validation, anti-spam, CRM integration, and the other is just name/email/submit.

started thinking - what if pricing was transparent about all these factors? not just "40 hours × $100" but breaking down why those 40 hours and what affects the rate.

so I built it

priceproof.io - generates breakdowns that show what goes into a project estimate.

you input features, complexity factors, timeline constraints. it calculates based on multiple variables, not just time.

outputs a PDF that shows the reasoning - this feature is complex because X, this integration takes longer because Y, experience level affects quality here.

the technical part

built with next.js 14, hosted on vercel. all client-side PDF generation with react-pdf.

the calculation engine is https://github.com/almayce/fast-decision - a rules engine I made for handling complex decision logic. lets you define pricing rules cleanly without spaghetti code.

it's open source if anyone wants to look at how it works.

current state

works but rough around edges. made it functional enough to test the concept.

you can try it at https://priceproof.io - takes a few minutes to generate a sample breakdown.

what I'm wondering

does this pricing approach make sense? or is (rate × time) actually fine and I'm overthinking it?

if you do project work, curious what you think. does showing complexity factors help or just overcomplicate things?

trying to figure out if this is a real problem or just something that bothered me specifically.

honest feedback appreciated - if the concept is flawed I'd rather pivot now than build more on top of it.