At cost
What it covers
The days of the people who design, develop and train, hosting, any licences. Nothing else: no margin, no commission, no sales costs. That is why the program works in cohorts: pooling divides these costs further.
What it does not mean
At cost does not mean free, nor sloppy. A cohort website follows the same process as an agency website: scoping, design, development, tests, training. What changes is what is not invoiced.
In Kern4Good
One day of the team's work is invoiced 400 EUR excl. VAT, what it costs KERN-IT (salary and charges, tools, training, infrastructure, R&D), against 600 EUR at KernWeb's agency rate; each price tier is a number of days at that rate, plus hosting. The Source Hub website at 7 500 EUR excl. VAT is a pooled at-cost price; the website ladder outside a cohort (launch website at 1 200 EUR, static website at 2 400, small editable website at 4 000, complete website at 8 000, that is 3, 6, 10 or 20 days) is at cost as well; consulting (tools, CRM, AI, training, search visibility) is invoiced at cost on quote. Prices are published on the "Pricing" page.
How can KERN-IT work without margin?
Because Kern4Good is an impact hub, not a profit centre: the company devotes time to it as others devote a budget to their social actions. And because cohorts make the work more efficient.
Does the at-cost price drop with the number of associations?
Yes, that is the principle of the cohort: the more the foundation is shared, the lower the cost per association.