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How do I price a web project?

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welshstew
Loves designing and developing websites, has over 10 years experience in the industry, and is still learning

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How do I price a web project?

How should you go about pricing up your web design & development project? What factors should you take into account and how do you compete with competitor pricing? How to justify your hourly rates?

There are many differing variables that make up a pricing structure. I find the best way to help visualise it, is to think of how a car is valued....

To find out the value of a car you need to take many things into account:

brand
reliability
safety test results
engine size
colour
options (cd player, air con, sat nav, ejector seats, rockets, etc)
and on and on

The manufacturer will then come up with a price that they think is fair for all of the above and this will be balanced against other similar products on the market to come up with a final price.

With website design & development, pricing up your web project is just as difficult. You need to think about the following (not an extensive list):

core code technology (HTML / CSS / PHP / ASP / RUBY / Flash / etc)
additional code technology (javascript / XML / jquery / etc)
management technology (flat vs cms)
content development
design (site wide design service)
design (logo’s & graphics)
value of your time and experience
other expenses

You will also need to take into consideration how much other local designers are charging and balance yourself against these, so that you are not priced out of the market.

Now, that you have worked out your value you can start pricing up projects for your clients. You may wish to provide a “typical price guide” on your site so that your potential customers are aware of how much something typically costs to produce.

i.e. A simple, flat HTML website with 3/4 pages will take approx 4/5 hours to code, plus another 3 hours for logo & graphic design. All other content and images will be provided by the customer. So, if you charge £30 per hour for your HTML / CSS skills and £15 per hour for your design skills, this will work out at approx £315 to £360 plus expenses. Not bad for one day’s work!

Your hourly rate will depend on your skill level and proficiency as a web designer and developer. You may wish to charge less if you are starting out, or if the local market forces don’t support these price levels, (or more if you are the best around).

The justification for your hourly rate to your customers will come from your site and portfolio, so make sure that these are shining examples of what you can produce.

Once you know how much you are going to charge per hour for each skill, you will need a list of requirements from the client. You may wish to include a list of basic questions on your contact form, so that you can gain a “feel” for the project before asking more specific questions around requirements.

Once you have the full requirements from the client you should be able to provide an approximate cost for the project that is customised to the client’s needs.

Remember, clients like to see a final cost, as well as a breakdown of where that money is being spent, so make sure to include this in your quote. And finally, in order to also cover yourself, you should include a provision that any additional work will incur additional costs.

I wish you luck in your next project.

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Members's Comments

Posted at June 19th, 2008 by Wolf Blade

An excellent starting point.
I have been looking for something like this for a while and found nothing that explains the basics so well. Thank you for writing this article.

Posted at June 17th, 2008 by deedmedia

It is good to hear from how others go about pricing up a job. It reassures me as a web designer who has just been to visit the first client! Thanks for the great article.

Posted at June 16th, 2008 by Grubious

I hope in the near future to be available for contract work, and im sure when this happens, i shall be referring back to this. Thankyou for putting this together.

Posted at June 15th, 2008 by saidbakr

It is the first article that I read talking about this topic. Thank you very much it will be a major light up inorder to estimate my work's prices.

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