Holdy for Web Development | Ship to staging, get paid on deploy

Inside a deal

A web dev Commit Link, decoded.

A Commit Link is a structured deliverable contract, the scope, the price, the deadline, and the deploy artefacts, all locked at the moment the client funds.

For dev work, "deliverables" means concrete things you can hand over: a staging URL, a GitHub repo, a Lighthouse report. Every upload is hashed and timestamped, so "it works on my machine" stops being a debate.

When the client clicks Commit, Stripe holds the funds. When you mark all items delivered, a 7-day acceptance window starts. Silence = auto-release.

Commit Link

Marketing site,Acme Robotics

€3,400

Freelancer → Client

Sam Okafor · sam.dev → Acme Robotics B.V.

Deliverables (5)

→ 8-page Next.js site, responsive, deployed to staging
→ GitHub repo handover (private, owner transfer)
→ Sanity CMS schema + admin walkthrough video
→ Lighthouse scores ≥ 90 on all 4 metrics
→ Deploy docs (README + .env.example)

Revisions

3 rounds

Deadline

28 days

Fee mode

Split 50/50

Auto-settle

7 days

Out of scope: Copywriting, photography, paid analytics tooling, post-launch maintenance. Change requests get their own Commit Link.

Why this matters

Three things every dev has lived through.

01

"While you're at it, can you add a blog?"

Scope creep is the most reliable feature of any fixed-price web build. By week three, the client wants a contact form integration, a multilingual setup, and "just a small admin dashboard."

Holdy fix: the Commit Link freezes the page count and integrations at funding. Anything beyond it requires the client to fund a new Commit Link,no awkward conversations.

02

Net-30 starts after launch (which starts after sign-off)

You deploy, the client takes two weeks to "look at it", then accounting takes another month to process. The invoice you raised in March lands in your bank in June.

Holdy fix: the client funds the deal up front. Once you mark delivery, a 7-day acceptance clock runs. No response in 7 days = auto-release to your Stripe payout.

03

"That's not what I asked for",six weeks in

When a dispute happens, it usually comes down to memory vs. memory. Slack threads, three Notion versions, a Loom from week one, none of it is signed.

Holdy fix: the committed scope, every staging URL, and every uploaded asset is SHA-256 hashed and timestamped. If it goes to dispute, the audit log is the evidence, not your screenshots.

Anonymized deal

A recent Holdy web dev deal.

Deal size

€4,200

Scope

12 pages

Settle time

19 days

Holdy fee

€136

A B2B SaaS founder hired a freelance Next.js developer for a 12-page marketing site with Sanity CMS. The Commit Link locked the page count, the CMS schema, and a Lighthouse ≥ 90 acceptance target. Staging shipped on day 14, client reviewed in 5 days, accepted. Funds settled to the freelancer's Stripe account the same day,19 days end-to-end, no follow-up emails needed. Fee split 50/50 (€68 each side).

vs. the alternatives

Holdy vs. how dev work usually gets paid.

	Direct invoice	Upwork	Holdy
Scope locked at funding	No	Milestones, manually	Yes, with audit log
Payment held before work	No (Net-30)	Yes	Yes (Stripe Connect)
Settle on acceptance	Net-30 to Net-60	5-day security hold	Auto in 7 days
Client relationship	Yours	Platform-owned	Yours
Commission	0% (but unpaid risk)	10% + fees	5–8% (splittable)

Ship the staging link. Not the invoice.