Questions.
Cost, ownership, continuity and the work we decline, answered in writing so they do not need to be raised on a call.
Working together
With a scoping engagement: two to three weeks at a fixed fee. It concludes with a written plan, an estimate as a range, a risk register and a clickable prototype of the flow that carries the product.
The fee is credited in full against a build engagement that starts within 90 days. That credit is written into the contract.
Read about the processLink to this question: How do we start?
Yes, and some clients do. It is written so that any competent team can build from it.
A scope that only we could execute would be a lock-in device rather than a deliverable, and we would rather lose the build than write one.
Usually two to five people, agreed before the engagement starts. The agreed size does not change without your agreement.
The same people stay on the work for its full length. Rotating staff to balance utilisation protects a supplier’s margin at the cost of the client’s context.
Thirty days written notice, either direction. You pay for work done to the end of the notice period and we hand over everything, including work in progress, with a recorded handover session.
We do not hold deliverables against a commercial dispute. If you have paid for it, you get it.
Fees and invoicing
Commercial terms, stated before they need to be asked.
Cost depends on scope, platforms and duration. An indicative range is provided in the written assessment that follows an enquiry, and where a budget is too small to deliver the work to our standard, the assessment says so.
A firm figure follows scoping. Any number quoted before those questions are answered is an estimate without a basis.
Work given away to win a contract receives less care, and scoping is the stage that determines whether the build is worth doing at all.
A paid scope also keeps the incentive sound. A free scope has to conclude that you should hire us; a paid one is free to conclude that you should not.
Link to this question: Why do you charge for scoping when others do it free?
Monthly in advance against an agreed team size, net 14. Expenses only where pre-agreed in writing.
Work pauses at 30 days overdue, and you are notified before that happens rather than after.
No. It changes the relationship from supplier to shareholder, and makes it harder to advise you candidly that a feature should not be built.
Ownership and risk
You do — source, infrastructure, accounts and signing keys. Repositories live in your organisation from the first commit, not ours, and ownership transfers on final payment for the work.
Anything that pre-existed your project stays ours, licensed to you perpetually and irrevocably as part of your product. You will never need our permission to keep running what we built.
Your product would continue to operate. The disruption would be temporary rather than terminal.
Everything already lives in your accounts, every engagement includes a runbook written so your team can operate without us, and the handover is recorded. Supplier continuity is a legitimate risk for any client, and it is addressed by design rather than by assurance.
Read the security pageLink to this question: What happens if you go out of business?
Yes, before the first call if you prefer. We will sign yours or provide ours.
Yes, regularly. It starts with a paid two-week audit before either side commits, because inheriting a codebase without one leads to unreliable estimates and avoidable cost for the client.
Sometimes the audit concludes that a rewrite is cheaper than a rescue. You receive the reasoning as well as the recommendation.
Link to this question: Can you take over someone else’s codebase?
Suitability
Brochure sites, which an independent freelancer will deliver faster and for around a tenth of the price. Pure white-label rebrands. Projects where the plan is to hand over a Figma file and receive a build back without conversation.
Each service page states what that discipline is not suited to, and those statements reflect how work is accepted.
See the servicesLink to this question: What work are you not suited to?
Yes. The services on this site are the ones requested most often, not a complete list. Any application or product can be scoped against its requirement.
That work is delivered by dedicated engineering, design, QA and operations teams, on the same engagement terms as the core services.
Describe the requirementLink to this question: Can you build something outside the listed services?
Games built around aggressive monetisation of vulnerable players. Models placed in decisions that materially affect someone’s life without a human review path.
This position costs us work, and it is maintained regardless.
Yes, subject to the budget threshold above. At the earliest stage a discovery sprint is often the better spend — you get a scoped plan you can build with anyone, including a cheaper team.
Link to this question: Do you work with early-stage startups?
We are remote-first and schedule around the client. Every contract guarantees at least four hours of daily overlap with your working day, in writing.
Mobile apps
View service: Mobile appsDecided after scoping, against your team and roadmap rather than a house preference. Our own apps use Kotlin Multiplatform where the domain is shared, and surfaces that belong to one platform stay native.
Yes. A takeover begins with a paid two-week audit before either party commits, because inheriting a codebase without an assessment exposes both sides to avoidable cost.
We build it, or integrate with an existing one. An app is rarely the whole product, and owning the integration boundary avoids disputes across it.
You do. Signing is configured in your accounts and handed over with the release builds.
Link to this question: Who holds the signing keys and store accounts?
Yes. MBS maintains its own open-source billing and monetisation libraries for Kotlin Multiplatform and uses them in its own apps.
Link to this question: Can you add billing or subscriptions to an existing app?
Yes, incrementally, starting with an audit of the existing codebase.
Link to this question: Can you migrate an Android-only app to Kotlin Multiplatform?
Games
View service: GamesIt is chosen per game, against the platforms, the art direction and the team that will maintain it. The reasoning is documented at the prototype stage.
Interface and technical art are produced in-house. Character and environment art is sourced from specialists, managed by us and invoiced through us.
Often. In some cases the assessment shows that the prototype has proved the concept does not work, and that finding is better reported in week two than in month eight.
Yes, designed to be played without accounts or sign-in and within the stores’ families policies.
Yes. Rewards are earned by choice and progress never depends on paying, consistent with the limits stated on this page.
Link to this question: Can rewarded ads be added without making the game pay-to-win?
Yes. Remote configuration is built in from the start, so events and tuning do not require a new release.
Link to this question: Can live events be added after launch?
Web platforms
View service: Web platformsYours. Where there is no existing preference, we recommend a provider and document the trade-offs; the account belongs to you in either case.
Yes, and on web engagements we recommend combining the two. The handover between a finished design and a separate build is where most quality is lost.
Chosen per page type. Our own sites generate content pages statically and use application surfaces only where they are needed.
Yes. MBS runs a white-label shell that renders each product’s site from its own content bundle.
Link to this question: Can one codebase serve several brands or domains?
Yes. JavaScript budgets and accessibility checks fail the build; this site runs both.
Desktop software
View service: Desktop softwareChosen per project and documented. The desktop work MBS ships uses Compose Multiplatform, which shares code with Android and iOS; where another toolkit suits the requirement better, the reasoning is set out in writing.
macOS, Windows and Linux, with installers for each produced from one build pipeline.
You do. They are managed in your developer accounts.
Usually by running both in parallel for a defined period, with the existing tool authoritative until the replacement has been proven on production data.
Link to this question: Can you replace a legacy tool without downtime?
Yes. MBS builds an IntelliJ IDEA and Android Studio plugin for its own Gradle tooling.
Link to this question: Do you build IDE or developer-tool plugins?
Applied AI
View service: Applied AIRarely, and it is seldom advisable. Selecting and integrating an existing model is the appropriate approach in most cases.
Against a held-out evaluation set agreed with you before work begins, with the failure classes named in advance. Setting the threshold after seeing the results is how teams justify shipping systems that do not perform.
Link to this question: How do you decide if it is good enough to ship?
Often, yes. MBS ships speech recognition and language-model features that run on the handset.
Link to this question: Can it run without sending data to a server?
Models are downloaded and managed after install rather than bundled, with the user able to restrict downloads to Wi-Fi.
Link to this question: How do you handle large model downloads on mobile?
Not where it matters. Deterministic rules and hard limits keep a veto, and each decision carries a rationale.
Link to this question: Will the model make decisions on its own?
Design & planning
View service: Design & planningIn full, against a build engagement starting within 90 days. The term is written into the contract.
High-fidelity mockups and a token set, in formats your build team can use. The design tool is agreed at the start of the engagement.
Link to this question: What format are the designs delivered in?
Yes. Feature and flow audits come before design, and the product is then designed independently.
Product identity and design systems, yes. A full corporate identity programme is outside this engagement.
Not covered here? Write to hello@mobilebytesensei.com. A person replies, and questions asked often are added to this page.