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Software Development. I won't do fixed price contracts unless it's really simple. Always time & materials.

Home renovation. You'll get a quote, but the final price can be way higher. Any service when you are dealing with unknowns, the price is going to have to be flexible.

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You'll at least quote an hourly rate, a doctor won't do that.

For super obvious reasons. A developers cost is almost entirely their time. That is the "unknown" for a developer.

For a doctor, the unknown includes many possible things like drugs administered, blood administered, emergency care, hospital costs, etc. It's not as simple as an hourly rate estimate, unfortunately.

I mean, every time I've dealt with a contractor it's time and materials. And the markups that hospitals charge on materials would be considered fraudulent by a court if someone tried to pull that as a freelancer.

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