[MikeChipshop]

One of the many questions we get asked time and time again here at WDF is "How much should i charge for so and so?".

Every single time the answers come back from our regular members "How long is a piece of string", "depends on such and such", "to many variable" and on and on.

The following links may help you identify what a website should cost. There may be no definite answer but they should help you on your way!

http://whatdoesawebsitecost.co.uk/

http://freelanceswit...-your-services/

This post has been edited by MikeChipshop: 12 October 2011 - 02:17 PM

[roothost]

MikeChipshop, on 22 August 2011 - 10:08 AM, said:

One of the many questions we get asked time and time again here at WDF is "How much should i charge for so and so?".

Every single time the answers come back from our regular members "How long is a piece of string", "depends on such and such", "to many variable" and on and on.

Smashing magazine posted this link earlier and i found it to be quite interesting.

Again it gives no definitive answer (as well all know there isn't one) but it does give a few interesting points to factor in to the pricing of a website and may help those who are struggling with the task.

http://whatdoesawebsitecost.co.uk/

Nice link, sure it will be of some help to people

[Lev]

This topic should be sticky,.
+1 to karma

[MikeChipshop]

Lev, on 22 August 2011 - 03:58 PM, said:

This topic should be sticky,.
+1 to karma

Haha yeah we'll see how many people vote it in!

It's actually been pretty handy for me today. It's nice to know that i've been doing it right all this time and not just being particularly difficult with clients

[oakleaves]

I like it and it makes total sense to me.

Getting clients to see things this way is another matter entirely!!

[MikeChipshop]

oakleaves, on 23 August 2011 - 12:19 PM, said:

Getting clients to see things this way is another matter entirely!!

I don't have a problem with normal clients understanding this. This link is more for those designers/developers new and old who need a little poke in the right direction when trying to price a site.

[rallport]

Woohoooooooo!

My suggestion got posted on their site. Feel proud

[MikeChipshop]

rallport, on 23 August 2011 - 09:08 PM, said:

Woohoooooooo!

My suggestion got posted on their site. Feel proud

Haha good point to make too!

[rallport]

[Afterlyfe]

Dude, it never ends.

On topic, I think that was extremely interesting, Wish it was more clear though.

[MikeChipshop]

[Thread Pinned]

If anyone has any more links that may answer that commonly asked question, then feel free to post it here and i'll update the post accordingly.

[Ralchev]

Wow! That's a great idea for a website! And its well developed.

[TizzyTazzy]

Great post, makes it simple down to the point.

[scriptsconnect]

Personally, I've never replied on other sites to give me an idea on how much I should charge for web services. I go with the times and base my pricing on how much knowledge I have on something, the economy and so on.

Look at it this way... if you are 35 years old and support you and your family, is a website that will take you two months to develop really worth $300? This should be the general thought for all of us in this industry. It has done me very well for years.

[kashifashiekh]

Price varies from different companies. It is not necessary to have one price....

[zed]

kashifashiekh, on 22 May 2012 - 04:58 AM, said:

Price varies from different companies. It is not necessary to have one price....

Genius. Is this the best that Pakistan can offer? Don't say you're from New York when you're not. Don't post crap on the forum. Goodbye.

[animexstudio]

zed, on 22 May 2012 - 06:57 AM, said:

Genius. Is this the best that Pakistan can offer? Don't say you're from New York when you're not. Don't post crap on the forum. Goodbye.

I'm the lead manager of a company in New York, and i've been having the same issue. We have basic prices, but we are always finding this reason or that to change the quote. What I always tell prospective clients is that building a website is like building a house. You may have an idea of what you want, a budget allocated, but in the end it's always a little more for the unexpected.

You start with a wireframe, which is similar to the blueprint (that's what we call building plans in the states), and you go from there. Then you need to decide what technology you want to build, php, .net, etc., and that's kinda like the foundation. You design the home page, and that's similar to those pictures of finished buildings you always see. Then the real work begins. Changes keep coming, and your price depends on whether you want marble flooring (flash design), wordpress- efficient simple flooring, or parquet made up of little pieces (e-commerce). In the end, the price is reflected by the quality, and features you want and agree on.

My basic pricing is $4,000 for e-commerce (magento standard), $350 for logos (5 samples+2 revisions) and informational sites begin at roughly $1200. All USD.

This post has been edited by zed: 22 May 2012 - 03:21 PM
Reason for edit: remove spammy links

[Gibson]

animexstudio, on 22 May 2012 - 02:48 PM, said:

but we are always finding this reason or that to change the quote.

Although your post in itself seems a little spammy, you raise a point here which I'd like to ask about:

When we use builders or car mechanics, we get an "estimate" rather than a quote. How come in our trade we have to give a quote and then stick to it, even if the job presents unforseen technical problems?

Take your car to a garage, and if they find they have to do loads of extra stuff to achieve your job, they will notify you of an increase in "estimate". The point being that, just like in our trade, we can't always know what's involved fully in a job until we actually get halfway through it.

So my question is : In our trade, do you think we'd be better off giving "estimates" rather than "quotes", to avoid landing ourselves with some ringer that hardly pays? A note at the bottom of our proposal maybe to state that estimates could vary by "up to 20%" etc. depending on unforseen technical problems?

I know usually we talk about building these in to the quote, but surely this makes the quote higher than it should be? What if there aren't any problems, do we then give the client a discount? Also, if we quote too high, the client doesn't want to use us.

Thoughts?

[jamesosix]

"How long is a piece of a string?"

I can easily answer that..

Its the same length from the middle to the end, as it is from the beginning to the middle.

[animexstudio]

Gibson, on 22 May 2012 - 03:11 PM, said:

Although your post in itself seems a little spammy, you raise a point here which I'd like to ask about:

When we use builders or car mechanics, we get an "estimate" rather than a quote. How come in our trade we have to give a quote and then stick to it, even if the job presents unforseen technical problems?

Take your car to a garage, and if they find they have to do loads of extra stuff to achieve your job, they will notify you of an increase in "estimate". The point being that, just like in our trade, we can't always know what's involved fully in a job until we actually get halfway through it.

So my question is : In our trade, do you think we'd be better off giving "estimates" rather than "quotes", to avoid landing ourselves with some ringer that hardly pays? A note at the bottom of our proposal maybe to state that estimates could vary by "up to 20%" etc. depending on unforseen technical problems?

I know usually we talk about building these in to the quote, but surely this makes the quote higher than it should be? What if there aren't any problems, do we then give the client a discount? Also, if we quote too high, the client doesn't want to use us.

Thoughts?

First off, sorry about the spam thing. I'm a little new here, and never realized it would be a huge deal to post some links to my site so that a'll can see the kind of work I do.

Truth is, that's a great argument. Why should we be any different, and I agree. The only difference I see is when my car breaks down, and I know **** about fixing cars, I am twisted to go to a mechanic. we are not buying something, or having something made for us, instead we are having something repaired. The mechanic begins to look, gives you a rough estimate, and somehow always manages to come back with some major extras, at least in NYC.

Here we are professional designers and developers. A client expects us to go through all the options, ideas, plans, etc. We explain the technical sides to the best of our ability, and then we move towards sealing the deal. Granted, clients can change their minds, but the gist is that they expect us to complete their plan.

However, many of my friends do insert into the contract a hourly rate for any extras, which does not fall into the scope. In this case, it becomes more like an estimate than a contractual quote.

But I guess you are right, and this doesn't really answer your question.

[MikeChipshop]

Gibson, on 22 May 2012 - 03:11 PM, said:

Snipage

As posted above.
If i'm called in to 'fix' a broken site then it is an estimate.
If i'm contracted to build a site from scratch then it's a quote but it's a quote based on the information at hand. The contract includes and hourly rate for anything above and beyond what is set out in the contract.

[Gibson]

animexstudio, on 22 May 2012 - 08:32 PM, said:

First off, sorry about the spam thing. I'm a little new here, and never realized it would be a huge deal to post some links to my site so that a'll can see the kind of work I do.

Nah no probs, it just looks like that when people post it inline in their posts repeatedly. We're so used to spammers doing that here.
Usual kind of "etiquette" I guess is to make good use of your sig in your footer for it - assuming there's no post limit on doing a sig? Dunno, haven't done one myself.

To you and Mike - ok, yeah I agree. I would sum it up by saying if you're going to be working with anyone else's work, you have to be quite careful in my experience in quoting, because you never know what horrors are waiting down the line. An immediate example I can think of is PSD to HTML. Even if you spend some time looking at the PSD's, I've still been tripped up by some horrors which meant I ended up effectively out of pocket because they added an unforseen 1/3 or 1/4 time to the project.

Thinking about it, you two are correct - all the projects I've ever taken care of solely I've not had that much of a problem with this issue.

Working with other people's work = estimate.
Working solely = quote.

Perhaps?

[animexstudio]

Gibson, on 22 May 2012 - 09:44 PM, said:

Working with other people's work = estimate.
Working solely = quote.

Perhaps?

Ditto!

FYI, I didn't add to sig because they did have a post limit. I'm not very into forums, used to be more into it when I was in the mobile hacking / flashing scheme. today, just a little too busy.