My boyfriend is going to do some freelance work for the company I work for, redesigning our web site. He has no idea what to charge. What is the going rate these days for web design work? Basically he is redesigning our whole site, which consists of a main page and about 20 connected pages. This would include making graphics and all the coding, etc.
Also, should there be some sort of contract detailing what he’s going to do and how much he will be paid, etc?
Thanks a lot for your help!
I’ve always been told that the very minimum should be $25 (CDN… so about $20 US) but people have a way of taking web designers (and anyone, really) more seriously if they charge more, unfortunately.
If people think this rate is too high (oh, they often do!), he should keep these things in mind:
freelancing costs more because there is no guarantee of employment and you get don’t get the benefits of having a full-time job, like medical coverage and getting paid even when there is nothing to do.
He’s taking care of the business side of things himself. He’s being his own salesperson and CSR. He’s also being his own proofreader, tester, etc.
-he’s had training for this (assuming he has)
-Aside from paying to make the website, advertising a company thraough a website is pretty cheap for them. Hosting for a year costs around as much as getting a couple sets of business cards printed!
He could also give them a package deal, but depending on how he estimates how many hours it takes, it could be a good or bad idea.
YES! Make a contract! There should be a lot of free templates if you search the internet.
Another reason that he can charge quite a bit is that in theory, he’s bought all the programs he’s using! For Adobe CS Suite and Macromedia suite, it would cost about $3000 CDN!
If he’s just doing this on the side and wants to be somewhat ethical (not steal the programs he’s using), he can put the money he gets from freelancing aside until he can afford the programs he’s using.
I’m doing that. Multimedia freelancing is not as lucrative as I’d like, so I’m putting all the money I’ve earned into a fund, and when I have enough, I will buy bona fide versions of the programs so I’m more borrowing them then stealing them. Maybe it’s not the most legal thing I’ve ever done.
I would charge by the page, say, between $250 to $500 per page. So in your case, it would be at least $5,000. And then put in an on-going charge for maintenance like $250/month. You can charge less if you’re desperate for the work, but good web design ain’t cheap.
The question is unaswerable without any idea of what the company wants in a website. Will this be a plain, simple HTML site with some images? Or do they want a fancy flash-trash site with lots of eye appeal? The cost between the 2 should be a lot different.
Also, is this company interested in search engine rankings? And if so, does your BF know anything about search engine optimization? If the company wants a site that does well in search engines, and your BF is knowledgeable about SEO, then this should make his services a LOT more valuable. (I do professional SEO, but know little about web design. This is why I am so good at SEO. Web designers create sites to appeal to humans. SEO means that the site has to appeal to search engine bots and algos, and they look at a site a LOT different than humans.)
Time and Materials, $125 per hour. That’s a professional price for professional services by a professional. And that’s low end. Assuming your boyfriend is professional quality and beyond the AngelFire (still around?) quality.
Those rates are obscene if the company just wants a basic website. However, if they want flash animation, etc. then this starts looking reasonable.
Typically in web design the contract is $X dollars per page or such, and some stipulated price should the company want to change the site, etc.
He can either figure up his time and give them a total for the entire website, or he can charge by the page, or he can charge hourly. If he’s not experienced enough to do the first, then he’s not experienced enough to charge top dollar for his services. Around here,web design work goes for $25-$250 an hour (a little more if per page), depending on what’s needed (straight text vs. graphics vs. animation vs. interactive vs. applications…) and the experience of the designer. (We also have a lot of college students, which tends to keep wages low.)
So the questions are - what type of website does your company want, and how much experience does your boyfriend have? Without those bits of info, can’t even begin to suggest pricing.
He absolutely should get it all put into a contract. However, I’d consider a good, written, signed-off plan more important than a contract, assuming he doesn’t want to end up with the whole thing a huge mess with the company pissed off while he ends up making $5/hour. He needs to sit down with management and develop very explicit, detailed agreements on exactly what the website will be for the contracted price and/or timeline. In writing. Then when the company changes their mind, adds pages, adds graphics, suddenly wants flash animation, etc. etc. etc., he can refer back to the plan to show them that (1) they’ll have to cough up more cash (if he’s given a flat amount), or (2) that the deadline will need to move out (if he’s being paid hourly or at per-page rates).
I’m telling you three times: website scope creep will eat your lunch, dinner, and start on your toes before you even realize that your breakfast is gone.
Everyone is right about the specifics here. It really depends on what you’re doing.
I am glad to see some of the rates others are posting here, tho 
My company (just me and 3 others) does web design and our rates are:
$65/hr simple HTML and graphics
$75/hr Flash
$90/hr database and programming
I forget how we got these rates but I know we had a rate sheet from some big Cleveland firm (before they went belly-up) and we either are 1/2 or 2/3 their rates.
The first step in our process is to make a scope. We outline every detail of the site and give them a price and hours. So like 15 hrs HTML @ $65/hr, 32 hrs programming @ $90/hr, etc. If we can we break it up into “features” so they can leave parts out if they’re not happy with the final price.
The scope price also “comes” with 3 mock-ups which we figure in at about 12 hours. They choose and sign off on a mock up and that is the final design. If they don’t like any of the three (which were based off their original wishes), they pay by the hour for more mocks.
The scope also includes a list of items we need before we can begin work. Databases, mock data, logo graphics, text, photos and colors (if they have specific company colors).
We also make a timeline in the scope. Sometimes the timeline is arbitrary (ex 30 days from final scope signing) or has set dates if the client has some sort of launch date they need. We note in the scope that if we don’t have the above mentioned materials by X date, then the launch date can and will be pushed back.
We also insist that the signed scope is returned by a certain date to coincide with the timeline. Late scope, late launch.
One other part of the scope is usually a payment schedule. It usually depends on the client but for the most part we ask for 15% down at the start, then set up a reasonable monthly payment plan. We’ve found that companies will hesitate at $5000 flat payment but will be willing to do $1000/mo for 5 months. This is actually hard on our wallets but sometimes it’s better to get paid $1000/mo than lose the contract.
Every time someone asks for something above and beyond what is in the original scope, we draw up another scope for the changes and submit it seperately and ask for it to be signed and remitted. Payments are then tacked on to the originaly payment schedule.
Your boyfriend needs to get EVERYTHING in writing, and not deviate.
As redtail said - scope creep will get him if he’s not careful.
Thank you everyone for the advice so far, keep it coming. Let me give some more info.
The site will be somewhere in between. I want it to look crisp, clean and professional, with not a lot of frills, but up-to-date, using some more modern technology. Also, I don’t know if he knows anything about SEO, I will ask… but I have a feeling he must know something about it.
Yes he is a professional. He is a programmer/network admin/web design guy for the Air Force. He’s doing this freelance job as a favor for me, and for fun. However, since my company is kind of cash-strapped and has a low budget, he’s trying to offer a really budget rate, because in truth he really loves doing web design, and because he will be able to get other freelance projects from my company in the future, so this is his foot in the door.
Let me post this and I will make another post with more responses…
Write up a contract. Write up a contract. Write up a contract.
As for the charge, it depends heavily on what he’s doing and how experienced he is. If it’s just putting together a site using clipart and Microsoft FrontPage, there are probably a hundred teenagers willing to do that for $10-$20 a page, and it’s probably not even worth that.
It he’s compatibility testing on multiple browsers (IE, Netscape, Firefox, Safari, Opera…) in multiple operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux…), doing his own graphic design, taking photographs, writing the copy, building style sheets, designing the navigation system, and generally building a top-notch site from scratch, then that $250 per page number is sounding about right.
If he’s doing Flash animations, CGI (server-side) programming, e-commerce, chat systems, message boards, and really taking it to the next level, then you’re looking at a $10,000 job, easy.
Overall, the OP is like asking “what’s a bookshelf worth?” I have a wall shelf I bought for $5.00 at a garage sale, and a very nice $350 solid oak floorstanding shelf unit. There are Web sites you slap together in a day, and sites that take massive amounts of effort.
Three additional thoughts:
Of course, these are worst case issues. However, I’ve seen so many of them I now consider them the norm and not the exception.
That is the prime question: whether to charge by 1) the project 2) the page or 3) the hour. What I had him do was to take a look at the site and all the associated pages and estimate how long it would take him. So far we have estimated approximately 40 hours, but it really all depends on how fancy we get. The main task is to be creative and develeop a whole new look: new color scheme, graphics, logos, etc. That is what is going to take the longest, but I am going to be helping a lot on that.
My boyfriend has quite a bit of experience. His job with the Air Force involves all sorts of computer stuff - network admin, programming, web design, etc. So web design isn’t ALL he does, but he knows what he’s doing.
Anyway I am thinking that the company can give him a set number of pages to do and basic parameters of what they want, and he can re-estimate his hours and charge one price BUT write into the contract that anything additional that isn’t defined within will be extra, at an hourly rate.
WOW Thanks everyone! In just a couple of hours after my post, I got SO much awesome information. I knew I could count on the SDMB and dopers for their help. 
You guys have really educated me. I really was in the dark. I am sending him all this information. Keep the advice coming if you have it! Every little thing is appreciated.
ZipperJJ, your post will really help us in planning it out and doing a contract. Thanks to everyone who emphasized the importance of a contract.
Also, very good advice to get a down payment. Thanks so much everyone.
Check the e-mail reply I just sent you. (For those reading, the OP already contacted me and I know the current site, and the URLs of competing sites and what they look like.) Definitely you would want to know the exact number of pages and the parameters of what they want, and quote a rate on a per page basis. This way the company knows exactly what the cost will be, and won’t be afraid it goes over budget. If the company wants anything more in the future, it should be on a per page basis. Each new page should cost the same amount per page at the same rate for any new page. If they want an old page tweaked (such as modifying the text), that should cost somewhat less.
And DO write up a contract.
Moved to IMHO.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
I see a lot of people suggesting charges “by the page.” This is another reason to ask about professionalism again.
The vast majority of the truly professional sites are no longer built out of “pages.” They’re run using some type of content management system (CMS). Google’s got a nifty feature that describes things; here’s their description of a CMS.
There are free CMS’s out there, and a lot of them are quite good. Even if not for this project, it would be a great idea for your boyfriend to investigate CMS systems for future work. This changes the scope of his work substantially, but truly for the better. As he gets adept with it, he’ll also increase his scope of web serving knowledge.
Static pages are difficult to maintain, and really are dinosaurs in this day and age.
I’m not saying that you cannot do a professional site in static HTML. Only that it’s not really worth the effort any more.
FWIW, many of these CMS-based suggestions all have a similar visual design, using a newspaper column format and boxes for articles and other content. I have yet to find a freeware CMS not based on this PHP Nuke look and feel.
There is nothing wrong with a CMS system, nor PHP Nuke. But if want a site looking unique, and not like 99 percent of all the other CMS sites, you will have to pay for a high-end CMS if just to get away from the boring cookie cutter look and feel everyone seems to be using.