Thread: How much to you charge / pay for web design and maintenance?

Just out of curiosity . . .

Do any of you maintain a website for someone else? If you do . . . how much do you charge?

If you pay someone else to maintain your site, how much do you pay them?

I'm wondering what the going rate is.

Thanks!

from my experience anything from $25 a month to 150 a month depending on amount of maintainence required, frequency of maintainence, complexity of website structure/code and the size of the website.

Originally Posted by david

from my experience anything from $25 a month to 150 a month depending on amount of maintainence required, frequency of maintainence, complexity of website structure/code and the size of the website.

So, if I were to start offering my services in this area . . . $25 a month would be a good price?

Originally Posted by Zepora

So, if I were to start offering my services in this area . . . $25 a month would be a good price?

Well, there is a difference between maintaining and design a website. If you are maintaining an existing website by making updates once a month - and they are minor updates such as adding/removing events/links/information on existing pages - yes, I would say $25 is a good starting price. That would exclude any page additions, design changes, etc.

Yeah . . . that would be about what I do. I use iweb on my computer to do this. So . . . . it's pretty easy . . . . most of the time . . . although it can really be time consuming as well. So, I think I would suggest that the person pay for their own webspace (host) and I would just charge $25 a month. Do you think that's too much for what I would do?

Originally Posted by Zepora

Yeah . . . that would be about what I do. I use iweb on my computer to do this. So . . . . it's pretty easy . . . . most of the time . . . although it can really be time consuming as well. So, I think I would suggest that the person pay for their own webspace (host) and I would just charge $25 a month. Do you think that's too much for what I would do?

Yes, they pay their domain name and web space, you handle the maintainance. I dont think $25 is a lot. Its barely a dinner at a restaurant. Its not even a parking ticket. Its 1 trip to the movies with a friend incl. modest helping of snacks.

I would add a clause to your contracts that said that anything requiring more than X amount of hours will have additional fees. That way you dont get abused with some minor visible detail that requires a huge overhaul on your part.

Originally Posted by david

Yes, they pay their domain name and web space, you handle the maintainance. I dont think $25 is a lot. Its barely a dinner at a restaurant. Its not even a parking ticket. Its 1 trip to the movies with a friend incl. modest helping of snacks.

I would add a clause to your contracts that said that anything requiring more than X amount of hours will have additional fees. That way you dont get abused with some minor visible detail that requires a huge overhaul on your part.

Cool! Thanks for putting it into perspective.

I appreciate your insight!

Adding new info. You should charge per hour. Between $25 and $60 an hour would be standard...The company that designed and maintained our Web site at work charges the same hourly rate whether it is design or maintenance.

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

Adding new info. You should charge per hour. Between $25 and $60 an hour would be standard...The company that designed and maintained our Web site at work charges the same hourly rate whether it is design or maintenance.

How would you prove to your client that you actually spent a certain amount of time on the site? Seems like they could say they don't believe you spend X number of hours on it and opt not to pay . . . ?? How is that handled?

Definitely include clauses out the wazoo.

My boyfriend was naive, and he let this up and coming comic take advantage of him. He trusted him because the kid is young (20s, like us). The kid kept adding stuff on, fancy stuff, and worse yet, the kid never paid him the full fee.

I wanted my boyfriend to confront him on it (I was tempted to do something jackassy and make a comment in the comic's blog on it), but for some reason, he won't.

IN short, don't trust anyone and make sure it's crystal clear in writing. I'd also include a clause about how fast you can expect to do the updates.

Originally Posted by Zepora

How would you prove to your client that you actually spent a certain amount of time on the site? Seems like they could say they don't believe you spend X number of hours on it and opt not to pay . . . ?? How is that handled?

Most service professionals I know will listen to the client's request, and then estimate how much time they think it will take to do it and tell the client. That way the client knows what to expect. A conversation can then follow on whether the client wants to simplify the request to make it take less time.