This is often written about by other web designers and I’m not breaking any new ground here but often potential clients looking for our services have no idea the time involved in creating a well-designed website. These same people are often shocked, if not dismayed, when they contact design companies, freelance or otherwise, when it comes to getting a website designed and get a quote back that is far off from the $200 they had in mind. So with this thought, I decided I wanted to write an entry breaking down what is involved and then do some multiplication to get our hourly rate for those with the $200 website mindset.
Information Gathering
If a website is to be designed well, time should be spent on gathering information from the client. This can take a few minutes if the client is extremely prepared to hours if you need to guide them through the process. So let’s just estimate that client discovery takes 4 hours.
Design
Designers work differently, I for one like to create a wireframe first that outlines the navigation. The basic structure of the site. When doing this I generally create 3 versions to give the client a choice. I often estimate 24 hours for this which includes the initial design time and revisions.
Then we have the concept designs where the actual design comes in play. We’ll estimate another 24 hours for this with 3 concepts and revisions. We’re up to 48 hours of billable work and we haven’t even begun coding the site yet.
Coding/Development
Once everything has been approved and signed off on, we head into the development phase. This takes me about 12 hours for both the CSS and XHTML coding for a 10 page site. Now we’re up to 60 hours of work.
Site Testing
We could skip this step but why would we want to? It’s probably the most important step of the process. This takes about 3 hours so now we’re up to 63 hours.
63 Hours Divided by $200 Equals Slave Labor
According to my calculator, that works out to $3.17 an hour—it’s not even minimum wage. I suspect that people tip more than that when eating out and less time is spent on that venture. Of course that doesn’t include the 4 hours we spent on client discovery because I don’t charge for that. So how would a potential client react if I came into their business and I asked them to provide their service for that rate? I’d more than likely be laughed out of their office or store.
It is often evident that a potential client hasn’t put a lot of thought into not only the actual process that goes into designing a site but expenses we have running a company. Obviously a freelancer has less expense than a company but we’re not devoid of expenses. I personally have rent, a car payment, car insurance, utilities, oh, and lets not forget, food. I don’t have health insurance, life insurance or any other benefit that comes with working for a company so if I get sick or injured, that comes out of my pocket. I’m also responsible for my own taxes, which is another expense to hire an accountant. All of these things go into pricing a project as well.
Hopefully potential clients reading this post will realize the amount of time and effort that goes into designing a website and rethink their mindset when it comes to a realistic budget. If any web designers are reading this that offer their services for $3.17 an hour, you’re breaking the law by not paying yourselves minimum wage.
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22 People Have Bloviated
aw | Feb 7
here, here!
Dawud Miracle | Feb 7
Thank you. Someone has to make this point. And all of us need to make it over and over again. Somehow, clients need to understand the value of what they’re getting, and the time it takes to deliver. This is less of a problem for me today, personally, but it sure was a pain when I was ‘coming up.’
Lorissa | Feb 7
Well said!
Pop Stalin | Feb 7
It just happens all too often. I see unrealistic expectations for web design/development on messageboards especially. Just recently someone posted they wanted an e-commerce site for $500. If you break down the time it would take to develop even a basic site, that works out to about $5 an hour. I’ve decided when I see “offers” like this, I’m going to do the simple math for these folks and try to point out how unrealistic they are being.
Lakshmi | Feb 7
Often the very same client will willingly shell out fistfuls of money when they are dealing with a high-end agent such as “Ogilvy and Mather”(no gaurantee that those elevated souls deliver the goods). Sadly humans are such that glitz, marketing and slickness gets better results than an honest post like this. So its good branding and marketing that wins at the end of the day. So the practical question we need to ask is I am charging 1000$ but would like to charge 2000$. How do I reel that guy in? On a corollary, the cheapos who want you to do it free (but doing you a favor instead! they are giving you 200$!!) may never pay you. You may find them constantly shopping. Cest la vie..
yagna | Feb 8
This is where low-scale outsourcing comes in to help designers like you guys. Imagine if you were to take just your XHTMLising and ship it to India, and we give you code thats validated and cross-browser compatible…low risk and good value. You focus on design(which is very difficult to outsource) and we code at costs that would help you make a decent profit. Everybody’s happy. Production outsourcing for pure designers.
Pop Stalin | Feb 8
@ Yagna: The same could be said for you but it doesn’t work equally does it? We outsource work to India for low coding costs (though I personally can do that myself) and we provide you a living wage but what do we get in turn? Are you going to be able to provide us leads for design that provides us a living wage? Often people go the outsource route because they can’t afford good design and coding so basically they pay for coding and let the design suffer. At least that’s been my experience.
@Lakshmi: It’s all about perception isn’t it? There are people out there that know the value of paying for quality web design services but reeling them in is indeed the real task.
Web development pricing :: David Airey :: Graphic Designer | Oct 8
[...] Here’s a nice article from Pop Stalin, titled “What Everyone Ought to Know About Web Design Pricing“. [...]
First steps to graphic design pricing :: David Airey :: Graphic Designer | Oct 8
[...] What Everyone Ought to Know About Web Design Pricing [...]
Justin (pusha) | Oct 8
I might just have to print this out and show it to a client:)
BlogBuzz October 12, 2007 » Webmaster-Source | Oct 12
[...] First steps to graphic design pricing. By the way, 63 hours of work divided by $200 equals $3.17 an hour. [...]
uesoftwn | Nov 18
Hello link
janis | Mar 7
This is helpful… Thank you for this…
God Bless you
janis | May 7
Hi.. Im linking your article to my site… Thanks
My Dev Blogs » Blog Archive » Starting a Web Project | May 7
[...] So building a premium website brought questions in me. And will just sink on one, ‘How do I start it’? Maybe it’s easy to say, but I was thinking of how do i price the development? Hmmm… Good thing I found a website that will help me with my question: “What Everyone Ought to Know About Web Design Pricing“ [...]
Nate Sullivan | Jun 24
I’ve found that a client that doesn’t understand from the outset the value will never be educated – at least not by you (the web designer). They will need to go through a process of self education, hiring someone cheap and then being unsatisfied with the results.
karline | Aug 1
excellent post. so well said.
Jason | Aug 27
Something I read that really fits… A refridgeration repair person is called to fix a broken fridge. The repair person looks at the fridge, opens the door, listens, closes the door and walks around to the side of it and gives it a swift kick. The fridge rumbles and comes back to working order.
“That will be $100.00″ says the repair person. The client’s eyes widen and he says “$100.00 for kicking my fridge, are you out of your mind?!”
The repair person says “Im perfectly sane. $5.00 for kicking the fridge and $95.00 for knowing where to kick it.”
People sometimes forget that it takes skill and experience and that is a large chunk of the bill.
Cheers, great site!
Joanna | Aug 29
Hey I really like what you have written here. I’m a web designer.. well I’m in college studying to become a professional web designer. But I’m always struggling with the business aspect of it all.. so this blog you wrote was very interesting and made me think. Thanks for taking the time to share this info.
Ralph | Sep 22
Wow, thank you! I’ve been working for slave labor.
-Newbie developer.
Thanks for this posting!
Leon | Apr 1
But you’re forgetting that web design can be a hell of a lot easier than this! If you use open source cms and get the client to pick their own commercial template, thats most of the work done! Unless the client has VERY specific requirements, then all of what you mention is unnecessary..
Jen | Apr 1
@Leon: Yes, web design can be easier than this and I could purchase a template but most of the folks that hire me, hire me because they don’t want a template. Sure, I could purchase the template, wade through someone else’s crap code and then give the client a cheap site. However, how many cheap sites do I have to do a month to pay the bills? How many clients will I have to say, “Sorry, I don’t have time for you.” I’d much rather go with a client that actually pays the going rate and have one or two GOOD projects a month than doing a bunch of crap projects that I left the corporate world to get away from anyway.
I don’t begrudge anyone who makes their living that way because we’ve all got to make a buck, however I do have an issue with people who think the service I provide and the service your describe go part and parcel because they don’t.