"How Much Will It Cost?"
That's a common question and we understand the urgency of one's budget but asking a developer this question is not the way to start. Instead, explain your budget then ask, "How much can I get?"
"Why?" you ask.
You'll get a more meaningful bid if you disclose your budget up front
Once we were asked to bid on a complicated e-commerce website. We listened carefully to the potential client explain their goals, but how do you interpret vague targets like "world-class" and "we expect to grow over time"? We tried to get more measurable goals, but they just couldn't articulate them.
After making guesses about what they needed, we wrote a tentative bid that came to $17,000. A second developer bid $7000 and a third bid $70,000.
These bids varied wildly but were all reasonably priced. How? We all just guessed about what the client really needed. The high bidder interpreted "world-class" to mean a mirrored servers and user testing behind two-way glass (expensive but common steps for really large websites) and the low bidder guessed at some discount solutions to the e-commerce.
Since the customer didn't articulate concrete expectations, all three bidders had to make these guesses. In the end we got the job at $17k, but to be fair the other firms might also have produced a fine site at the same price point if only they had better known what was expected.
If the client had just revealed their budget up front they would have gotten three good bids to choose from instead of just one.
Ok, stop beating around the bush. How much?
- Our base rate is $100/hour.
- Most projects are quoted
- 33% deposit required for new clients
- Established clients billed monthly
But hourly rates are barely relevent
An expensive developer should produce better results faster than a budget developer. Total capital expense might even be lower for the more expensive developer.
We've often heard of the 5-hour developers. Want copy replaced? "5 hours." Want a new page added? "5 hours". Well, if the 5-hour developer charges you $50/hour and we can do it in one, you'll see why the hourly rate doesn't matter in the end.
And the result is more professional and maintainable which reduces your ongoing costs as well.