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I have seen similar question on this SE site but none comes close to a sure shot answer and many are rather subjective. So i am taking a website as an example to be more objective for you to decide its development price i should quote for the complete work.I would like to have specific figures.

In past I have developed many projects for my classmates (Computer science and few .net) when i was in college and there i just arbitrarily quoted the price i will take depending on my mood and customer's ability to pay.. usually ranging from Rs.500 (about $10 USD) to Rs. 1500 (about $30 USD). I have also developed few websites but that was open-source and free.

But this time impressed by my work i have got a client that wants to get a website developed similar to this: [ http://www.jeetle.in/ ]. So taking this website as an example tell me how much should i charge for complete work from designing to payment gateway implementation (Excluding the charge the payment gateway provider will take).

Few information you might like to consider.

I am the only developer on this project if that makes any difference.

And i would be using ASP.Net and MSSQL Express for server side processing and jQuery on client.

Time period for development offered is about 4 to 6 Weeks.

Its like i know my work but not how much I'm worth

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    Impossible to answer with an exact price, especially without knowing all the details. Pierre's answer is as good as you will get in terms of helping you get somewhere near an estimate.
    – ozz
    Feb 9, 2011 at 8:55

3 Answers 3

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When I started as a freelancer I had no clue how much to charge. So for my first gig I told the interviewer a very high amount to have some room to negociate.

  • He accepted without negotiating.

Then for each next gigs, I increased that amount a bit each time (by increment of 50€ of the daily rate).

After 10 years, I charged up to four time the very high amount I mentioned above.

So I guess we are not very capable of judging about our own value.

The trick is to start with an amount then go up until you are stopped by the market price (difficult to know when you start).

For fixed price projects, I multiplicate the amount of days estimated, then multiplicate by two, then by the daily rate to get the amount to suggest.

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  • +1 good answer..but the case is the client has also got 2 or 3 other developers to negotiate.. but is more interested in me for now.. but if they quote less, i may loose it..so i am in kind of a fix right now..
    – Shekhar_Pro
    Feb 9, 2011 at 7:06
  • ...that's why i asked for a near about specific price you would have charged if you were in my place...
    – Shekhar_Pro
    Feb 9, 2011 at 7:10
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    @Shekkar: if you suggest a price that will certainly get you the job, the suggested price is too low almost by definition
    – Kim
    Feb 9, 2011 at 7:25
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    @Shekhar_Pro: of course you will compete with others, but very quickly, I was in a situation I didn't have to look for a gig anymore. People contacted me spontaneously. Still today I receive up to 10 proposals per week. Sometimes that amount per day when the market is in high activity. So I suggest to follow Kim's advice... you set a price, don't negotiate it. Don't forget the perception of value is bound to your price. Asking a high price will pay on both, perceived value and money in your pocket.
    – user2567
    Feb 9, 2011 at 8:43
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Note:
I don't usually develop websites as a freelancer, so I cannot give you a good price approximation for this project, but here's what I think about giving a price to your projects when working as a freelancer:

If you're new on the site and you have no ratings/feedback, sometimes (at the beginning) you will have to work for less money than the expected for you, because the bad thing with those freelancer sites is that this is a competition. Once you deliver your application/website, if you did a good work, that employer will hire you again if he/she has a similar project in mind in the future. Now, in that 2nd project, you'll be able to ask for more money.

I don't know if where you're working, there is a rating/feedback system. Let's suppose that when you finish a project, that employer rates you. If you are new on the site and have no ratings, when you ask for a project for (let's say) $100, and another coder with 20 ratings with 10/10 in each of them bid for the same price, there is a big percent of probabilities that the selected coder won't be you, unless you have a good portfolio or something to show, or if you just demonstrate the employer that you understood 100% specs/requirements of the project and you're able to convince him that you're the best for it.

My suggestion is:

  • Start bidding on non-usual projects, because less coders will bid on them.
  • Start bidding for a low price.
  • As soon as you finish projects, increase the price of the projects you ask. You will see how you get choosed instead of lower bids, but that's because you already have something to show.
  • Try to work hard and make relationships in order to work the next time to the same employer.
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For me... its simply a ratio between (TIME + EFFORT) Vs. MONEY

If you see a project that you think you can do in the specified time, DO YOUR RESEARCH THOROUGHLY which comes in the effort part... once you know about the employer and the work he needs...

Make a bid that stands out... (REASONABLY HIGH) because implicitly every person considers quality to be expensive.

And one more thing: NEVER EVER EVER take a project that you can't complete... it will spoil your relations and confidence.

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  • Ultimately, you are pushing for the highest rate you can command, whilst the client is pushing for the lowest rate he can get.
    – Andrew
    Sep 25, 2012 at 13:13
  • Oh, and +1 for your final sentence
    – Andrew
    Sep 25, 2012 at 13:14

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