How much to charge for on-call web dev
May 30, 2010 8:12 AM Subscribe
Reasonable rates for on-call tech support/web development cover?
I have a web development client (B) who would like me to be available on-call (he'd like me to be available 24/7 but I do have to sleep!). His company is currently spending around £1.5k per day on pay per click advertising so obviously any downtime is very costly.
In putting the feelers out I said I was willing to negotiate on rates but the response I got back left me somewhat speechless and I'm struggling to compose a polite response.
Their offer was £50 per month retainer plus £20 per issue.
I've never offered 'on call' or out of hours as a freelancer before so I don't know what a reasonable rate is but I do know this:
I currently charge £50 per hour for development work. I have one client (C) currently on a retainer agreement of £1500 per month to be available for 20 hours per week - no out of hours support or guarantee of emergency availability (obviously if I'm around and a client is having an urgent issue I'll do my best to take care of it urgently but I'm not contractually obligated to), generally they do use all their 20 hours.
B does send me a lot of out of hours emails and if I kept my phone on, wouldn't think twice about calling me any hour of the day or night (all of which is unpaid! - We have a 'per project' arrangement but the client tends to treat me like an employee) however, actual emergencies are rare and usually not something I can do anything about anyway (although that doesn't stop him contacting me about it) - the site uses external feeds exclusively for its data so generally, if there's a problem with the site, its almost always a problem with the feed, but I do go through the motions every time of checking the feed and the data to confirm the problem. The latest issue has been ongoing via email for 4 hours, even though the problem is not with the site code its with the feed provider.
So given all the above, I have 2 questions:
1. What is a reasonable rate for eg. 9am-11pm on-call emergency web dev cover
2. How to I compose a polite response to their 'offer'
I have a web development client (B) who would like me to be available on-call (he'd like me to be available 24/7 but I do have to sleep!). His company is currently spending around £1.5k per day on pay per click advertising so obviously any downtime is very costly.
In putting the feelers out I said I was willing to negotiate on rates but the response I got back left me somewhat speechless and I'm struggling to compose a polite response.
Their offer was £50 per month retainer plus £20 per issue.
I've never offered 'on call' or out of hours as a freelancer before so I don't know what a reasonable rate is but I do know this:
I currently charge £50 per hour for development work. I have one client (C) currently on a retainer agreement of £1500 per month to be available for 20 hours per week - no out of hours support or guarantee of emergency availability (obviously if I'm around and a client is having an urgent issue I'll do my best to take care of it urgently but I'm not contractually obligated to), generally they do use all their 20 hours.
B does send me a lot of out of hours emails and if I kept my phone on, wouldn't think twice about calling me any hour of the day or night (all of which is unpaid! - We have a 'per project' arrangement but the client tends to treat me like an employee) however, actual emergencies are rare and usually not something I can do anything about anyway (although that doesn't stop him contacting me about it) - the site uses external feeds exclusively for its data so generally, if there's a problem with the site, its almost always a problem with the feed, but I do go through the motions every time of checking the feed and the data to confirm the problem. The latest issue has been ongoing via email for 4 hours, even though the problem is not with the site code its with the feed provider.
So given all the above, I have 2 questions:
1. What is a reasonable rate for eg. 9am-11pm on-call emergency web dev cover
2. How to I compose a polite response to their 'offer'
(If these issues generally take around 4 hours to resolve, then an appropriate per-incident amount would be that times your hourly rate, so £200. Or just agree "work to be billed at my usual hourly rate". The retainer is there to cover the inconvenience factor for you, when they call you at 10:45 PM when you're already on a tight deadline with another client or are out at a show with friends or otherwise getting on with your life. Decide how much money would make you feel okay about that happening three or four times a month: that's what you should charge as a retainer.
But they're clearly never going to accept a reasonable amount, so don't spend too much thought on it; just make a bland excuse about other commitments and put it behind you. I trust you've learned from this never to accept a per-project job again -- always always always bill by the hour...)
posted by ook at 10:50 AM on May 30, 2010
But they're clearly never going to accept a reasonable amount, so don't spend too much thought on it; just make a bland excuse about other commitments and put it behind you. I trust you've learned from this never to accept a per-project job again -- always always always bill by the hour...)
posted by ook at 10:50 AM on May 30, 2010
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They've done you the favor of letting you know ahead of time that they're going to be nightmare clients; do yourself a favor and take the hint.
posted by ook at 10:38 AM on May 30, 2010