Fixed price or day rate: which is better?
Fixed price for defined work, day rate for genuinely open-ended work, and a written scope either way. Fixed pricing puts the estimate risk on the builder, where it belongs when the builder wrote the scope.
The longer answer
In practice.
When fixed is fair
The job can be described, the builder saw the terrain before quoting, and
changes are handled as written variations rather than absorbed resentment. My
quotes work this way: if my estimate was wrong, that is my tuition, not your
invoice.
When day rate is honest
Discovery, rescues before the read is done, and embedded work where
priorities shift weekly. The protection you deserve: a cap, a weekly summary
of where the days went, and the standing right to stop.
The pricing smells
Hourly billing for definable work (the incentive faces the wrong way),
quotes without written scopes (the argument is scheduled, not avoided), and
prices that cannot survive the question "what exactly is included". Terms are
on work with me.
Same rabbit hole