My dad just called and let me know that one of his colleagues has just had a a website made for his business. I've had a look at the website and to be honest it's a compete joke. The design isn't too bad (but it's not great, there's no footer and it looks a bit too simple. The underlying code however is a joke, it's all tabled and everything's styled inline.

 

The woman charged £800 for this, it's got 4 bog standard pages and a PHP contact form. The question is am I selling myself short? I've been quoting people around £150 - £200 for web pages and I'd consider myself a pretty talented designer. Is my price low enough to scare people away?

This is a question I keep going over and over in my head.

 

Obviously you will want to undercut your competitors, but you also have to make yourself affordable at the same time (not everyone has £800 to spent on a website)

 

Whilst you are starting off, I would suggest you keep your prices as low as possible (make sure you charge enough to live on though ) Then as you progress in your career, gradually increase your prices.

 

Do you know much about this lady's company? Or the company she made the website for?

 

It is morally wrong but I have to admit I strongly believe in working with a client's budget! If I was approached by, say, AIG for something like this, I definately would have overpriced.

 

To answer your question, I believe you may be underpricing. Packages these days on average go from £350+. With bespoke work, I base estimates on an hourly labour charge of £30/hour - a number reached to cover company overheads.

Well I charge £100 for a layout provided in PSD or an image format, then for a layout designed and coded i charge £200. I then charge £20 extra per page. Sometimes I wonder if i'm underpricing, but then I think if i was to charge any higher, would I get much business? since my target clients are those wanting to start up a new business and may not yet have earned enough to cover expensive website design costs.

I have only ever made one quote, and that was for £100 for a simple design that took less than 2 hours. All other websites I've designed, the client has been straightforward and told me what their budget is, and I've gone for that, and lets say the budget was 3 times that amount, at least! It's made me rethink how much I should charge, though two points to remember, 1] when I quoted £100, it was my first job as a freelancer, and 2] the website was for someone I know.

 

I do believe that when you start off, your prices are likely to be low, and with gaining experience, a] your design skills get better, and b] your portfolio gets full, so rates are likely to go higher within time.

 

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I charged one client £100 for small update to his site which took a couple of hours and we were both happy, he got his site the way he wanted it, I got an easy £100.

 

Another client came to me and asked if I would do their site for £1000 when I would of quoted them around £200 for it, which shocked me a bit but I took the job on and got the extra money. I don't think there is a "right " amount to charge. Obviously charging some clients more than others could be seen as morally wrong but business in general is like that.

 

If you are making enough money and getting the clients in but feel that a higher price may lose you custom keep your price the same, if your competitors are asking for more, use your low fee to get the business off them, if you have too much work, possibly outsource or increase your prices slightly to get some more "quality" work.

Also, if I believe I will get regular work from a particular client (or client-to-be), I will charge them a lower rate. I don't think standard rates apply for web design, they do to an extent, and to base your fees on, but every client is different and more so, every website/project/gig is different, from one page designs, to multi page designs, functionality, the graphic elements, etc.

^co-sign.

Never undersell yourself and don't harm the industry by charging stupidly low amounts (IMO).

 

A minimum for a small site should be 300-400 I think. I done a really easy micro-site and the company I was subcontracted under charged 13k, so don't think companies won't pay. I keep seeing poor web design "companies" who do very average work and seem to have loads of contracts.

Never undersell yourself and don't harm the industry by charging stupidly low amounts (IMO).

 

A minimum for a small site should be 300-400 I think. I done a really easy micro-site and the company I was subcontracted under charged 13k, so don't think companies won't pay. I keep seeing poor web design "companies" who do very average work and seem to have loads of contracts.

Agree with Mesa, don't undervalue our web design industry.

The idea of losing contracts to some newbie kid who is undercharging by at least 50% horrifies me (although most of the time, the clients see that they have employed cowboys or lightweights and end up coming back to the professional agencies and dipping their hands deeply back in their pockets).

Charge as much as you can get away with.

 

What would £150-200 get me from you? A single page mock-up, or a completely finished e-commerce website? I think it depends on the project... you need to tailor your prices around the project. It might also be worth trying to slightly up your price with each project that you do... if someone gets arsey, you can either turn them down (because if they're arsey over a few pound here or there, how bad will they be later!) or consider dropping your price slightly. The higher you start, the more you have to play around with, you know?