$60/hr sounds reasonable. You're paying for expertise, professionalism, near-perfect code (perfect in my eyes), explained logic, good documentation/commenting, and the fact I'm English (sorry - sounds a bit harsh, but you try working with someone who you just can't communicate with easily.) Dan
A decade ago, as a struggling college student I would freelance for $15-$20/hour and that was before I really had experience and knew what I was doing. Now, with a lot more development experience and talent on my side I would at the very minimum double that rate. Don't forget as a freelancer you are going to cover ALL of your own expenses, from education, hardware and software to insurance and and taxes. The added charges for being a freelancer cover those costs and pay for the additional effort that you must put in to run your own business and remove that burden from your contractee.
my team takes 15$ per hour. 7 years experience Overtime if needed even on weekends Many languages: php, C#, java, js\ajax, actionscript, dhtml, different databases, experience programming for mobiles, using google apis, postgis modules, mapservers.
Depends on the project and the caliber of programming needed. $20/hr may be find for some contact forms or whatnot. If you need them for something complex, sophisticated and mission critical, you may want to look a little higher up the food chain. You may find someone appropriate down at the low end, but you'll need a lot more luck...
Seriously? A whole team makes $15 an hour? Where are you and your clients based? It seems that in any first world economy that low a rate for a service like web development would make for an unlivable wage, especially if split among more than a single person. In the US at least, a developer charging only $15 would probably be considered a poor developer who isn't aware of what he is worth or doesn't know how to provide the right service.
$12 = Horrible. But then again... if you are a crappy programmer or a child that may be good. Think of it this way... If you wanted a professional web based application that you plan to make hundreds of thousands of dollars off from... And you paid a programmer $12/hour and he worked 100 hours over the course of 2 weeks. He would receive $600/week from you. You would basically pay him a little more than what walmart pays their employees. You won't get a quality programmer for that amount. ANY programmer that jumps and says "Pick me pick me" for $12/hour is not a quality programmer... But hey who knows.. maybe you will find a low selfesteem programmer lol
Quoted for Truth. Sorry, but I had to. That post is amazing. By the way: to the guy that said "Some kid straight out of college"; that's mean man... I'm only 17 and so far (in the last two years) have learned XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, and basic Javascript. I didn't go to college, and I'm trying to get on my feet, it's almost impossible right now with the economy doing so badly and me living in bum-f**k Arkansas (oh yeah, lots of web design jobs here)
I meant no offense. But later you will see that experience is everything. No insult is intended at all Sir. I respect young people taking initiative and taking control of thier lives.
Hi Good and nice paying freelancing is all about quality. You produce quality and you will get quality money. I have seen a lot of freelancers doing a very bad job, that will not help them in anyway... In the world of freelancing Quality attracts Quality is the mantra. We charge 20-30$ per hour and we have good selected clients who knows what they are paying for and eventually gains in their business.
Fellows programmers, I must say I am in the programming field for about 5 years, I have excellent programming knowledge, management skills, great references (have my own company) but still not able to get jobs paid more than $20 per hour. Why? Because I live in a country called "Romania". What suggestions do you have for me ? When I complete a job the customers are saying "Great job! Will get back to you" but when I tell them a bigger rates per hour like $30 or $40 they always run.. Should I go to America ? What else should I be doing to be paid in the price range other developers from rich countries are doing this. I repeat, my programming skills are outstanding. Thanks in advance for suggestions