Small screen. Big fingers. How much?

December 3, 2007 10:45 PM

How much should I charge for a mobile website?

I've been asked to create a basic mobile website for a local company. The work involved is very minimal, as simplicity is the name of the game.

I will be displaying four things on the mobile site:

- Events
- Contact/location info
- Hours
- Small bio

This isn't my first time making a mobile site (I've made a few) but how much should I charge for it? It isn't intensive work for me, so I don't want to overcharge, however, I don't want to be a bargain deal either.

posted by 913 to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

No idea. I only do web stuff for people for in-kind (e.g. my yoga teacher's website for 5 lessons), for a cut of increased revenue or so that I get to pursue my hidden agenda (for the latter I charge what a plumber does per hour). Suggestion: get a couple of quotes from a web design or web app shop.
posted by singingfish at 11:24 PM on December 3, 2007

$30-$75 an hour, give them a not-to-exceed value and hold to that.
posted by disillusioned at 11:29 PM on December 3, 2007

As with all pricing for skills-based work, it purely depends upon how much you're willing to do it for, and how much the client is willing to pay. So you need to carefully consider the former based on your lifestyle, expenses and schedule, and make a decent guess at the latter based on what you know about them. Don't be afraid to charge more if you're busy and good at what you do.

These things can literally vary by a couple of orders of magnitude depending upon the situation, so it's hard to be any more specific.
posted by malevolent at 12:12 AM on December 4, 2007

As a freelancer, I would charge for projects (which were generally small) one of two ways:

1. By the hour, with an hourly rate agreed upon up front. Your rate will depend on how much time and effort the job requires on your part, your geographic location, and the client's ability to pay. The $30-75/hour rate that disillusioned mentioned is a good starting place.

2. By project fee. This one can be tricky, but I'll usually look at a project and say "This will take me X hours, so at Y dollars per hour, the project fee will be Z." The tricky part is making sure that the project really only takes X hours and that the project does not change scope along the way.
posted by geeky at 9:45 AM on December 4, 2007

For something simple I would fixed-time/fixed-price this.

4 screens @ 4 hours/screen = 16 hours

16 hours + 4 hours testing = 20 hours

20 hours @ $60/hr = $1200.

Adjust the numbers as required, but I think $1000 is the right ballpark if it's all static, if there is some dynamic/database work I might double that.
posted by cmicali at 12:05 PM on December 4, 2007