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How do you price a website build

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  • 23-01-2015 1:40am
    #1
    Hollister11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭


    Just curious how a web devolper prices the build of a website. I know there's hosting, domain name, vat ect.
    Put how do they come up with a figure to charge for their time and work ?


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    #2
    28064212
    Registered Users Posts: 10,494 ✭✭✭✭28064212


    Pricing their work is easy: (number of hours/days it will take) * (hourly/daily rate). Their rate, like every other job, is decided by market forces, and essentially boils to the highest amount that the client is willing to pay without going elsewhere

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    #3
    Trojan
    Registered Users Posts: 16,402 ✭✭✭✭Trojan


    Depends on how much work. Here's a blog post I wrote on the work required for a WordPress site with a custom design theme.

    Note that these threads normally go like this:

    Poster comes on asking about cost of professional design
    Designer gives realistic costing
    Low-baller accuses designer of overcharging
    Designer gives detailed breakdowns
    Low-baller argues the breakdowns (usually underestimating or even completely omitting important tasks)
    Designer gives up on pointless discussion (as a true professionals time is valuable)
    Low-baller "wins" the discussion
    Original poster doesn't come back to thread.

    🎙️ The Recognized Authority Podcast



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    #4
    jmcc
    Registered Users Posts: 7,325 ✭✭✭jmcc


    Trojan wrote: »
    Low-baller argues the breakdowns (usually underestimating or even completely omitting important tasks)
    Designer gives up on pointless discussion (as a true professionals time is valuable)
    Low-baller "wins" the discussion
    Original poster doesn't come back to thread.
    And the unfortunate sequel to those points:

    Original poster starts new thread because site was hacked due to Low-baller not including a maintenance deal to keep site software updated.

    Regards...jmcc


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    #5
    The Corinthian
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,777 ✭✭✭✭The Corinthian


    28064212 wrote: »
    Pricing their work is easy: (number of hours/days it will take) * (hourly/daily rate).
    It's actually more complicated than that. If you're making a living from this, you ultimately also have to indirectly charge for non-billable hours, such as time spent invoicing and credit control, sales and pitching for projects, and so on. Then you have to remember that you don't work (or want to work) five days a week, 52 weeks a year - you need to consider public and personal holidays, not to mention sick days, that you won't get paid for.

    Factoring all this in makes pricing a lot more complex.
    Trojan wrote: »
    Note that these threads normally go like this:

    Poster comes on asking about cost of professional design
    Designer gives realistic costing
    Low-baller accuses designer of overcharging
    Designer gives detailed breakdowns
    Low-baller argues the breakdowns (usually underestimating or even completely omitting important tasks)
    Designer gives up on pointless discussion (as a true professionals time is valuable)
    Low-baller "wins" the discussion
    Original poster doesn't come back to thread.
    Walk away. Clients like this are always the ones who'll seek the first opportunity to stiff you for payment.


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    #6
    but43r
    Registered Users Posts: 539 ✭✭✭but43r


    The Corinthian wrote: »
    It's actually more complicated than that. If you're making a living from this, you ultimately also have to indirectly charge for non-billable hours, such as time spent invoicing and credit control, sales and pitching for projects, and so on. Then you have to remember that you don't work (or want to work) five days a week, 52 weeks a year - you need to consider public and personal holidays, not to mention sick days, that you won't get paid for.

    Factoring all this in makes pricing a lot more complex.

    Walk away. Clients like this are always the ones who'll seek the first opportunity to stiff you for payment.

    It actually is as simple as hourly/daily rate multiplied by length of time to do the work. All the overheads should be factored into this rate from the very beginning.

    It's all about averages. If you start billing customer for Invoicing, Credit Control sales and pitching for projects, the customer won't be happy ;)

    Pricing can be either easy or difficult depending if requirements are well defined and if you know the tech well.

    You should not be afraid to give an estimate rather than a hard prices. If someone comes to me with couple of paragraphs of requirements, with few assumptions I can come up with an estimate (making it clear to the customer that this is an estimate and is subject to change).

    Although, I might be doing it wrong as looking at Freelancer and similar sites it seems that developers are able to commit hard prices to a request where the full requirement is "I need a website" or "I need a Java program"


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    #7
    TonyStark
    Registered Users Posts: 851 ✭✭✭TonyStark


    but43r wrote: »

    Although, I might be doing it wrong as looking at Freelancer and similar sites it seems that developers are able to commit hard prices to a request where the full requirement is "I need a website" or "I need a Java program"

    They can because they are a race to the bottom in terms of price, not a sustainable model for developers to make a living.


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    #8
    Trojan
    Registered Users Posts: 16,402 ✭✭✭✭Trojan


    but43r wrote: »
    It actually is as simple as hourly/daily rate multiplied by length of time to do the work. All the overheads should be factored into this rate from the very beginning.

    Yep, and this is the part that leads to this:
    Trojan wrote: »
    Designer gives realistic costing
    Low-baller accuses designer of overcharging

    Because none of the low-ballers are actually professionals making a living from this long term.

    🎙️ The Recognized Authority Podcast



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    #9
    The Corinthian
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,777 ✭✭✭✭The Corinthian


    but43r wrote: »
    It actually is as simple as hourly/daily rate multiplied by length of time to do the work. All the overheads should be factored into this rate from the very beginning.
    That was my point. You would be surprised at how often would-be developers don't do this; there was a thread some time ago here where someone posted the calculation whereby charging a rate of 150 Euro per day was plenty because this translated to a gross salary of 39,000 Euro per year - effectively multiplying the rate by five days per week, 52 weeks per year to arrive at this figure.

    It may seem obvious to you or I that not every hour is billable and so you have to factor that into your rates, but it's amazing how many don't realize this.
    It's all about averages. If you start billing customer for Invoicing, Credit Control sales and pitching for projects, the customer won't be happy ;)
    Where did I suggest one should itemize such activities into an invoice? Does a restaurant add an item charge for heating when you're handed your bill?
    You should not be afraid to give an estimate rather than a hard prices.
    IMHO, you should never give any hard or fixed price until you have a signed spec.
    Although, I might be doing it wrong as looking at Freelancer and similar sites it seems that developers are able to commit hard prices to a request where the full requirement is "I need a website" or "I need a Java program"
    In such cases, I suspect what such quotes represent is a quote based upon X number of hours work. Once they have the potential client hooked, that's when they start negotiating if the requirements would push the number of hours above this. Having settled on one supplier, many clients will accept this rather than have to go back to find a new one.


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