I need a very heavily modified wordpress platform developed in PHP. What is the going rate (what should I expect to pay) and US freelancer or company to develop this project? Do you recommend hourly wages? I'm going to have him build the site off of a test account I have, just to make sure he's working the time he says. Do I take his word on how many hours he works?
I personally work anywhere from 10-20$/hr on a project then estimate # of hours it will take me to complete and add an extra hour to it as my estimates are fairly accurate then even if it takes longer. I don't complain and still deliver script at same price.
I've seen anywhere from about $10 - over $100 per hour depending on the task and how experienced the person doing the work is. If that person has a good reputation and references, I wouldn't worry too much about them burning time. Also, take testing into account. Some people do very little, some people do a lot, which can greatly increase the overall cost. I've outsourced a few projects where the majority of the cost in the end ended up being testing, tweaking and making sure everything was secure.
Full time in the South West is about 42,000 to 65,000 a year depends on experince. I know when I hired staff ..I would get them for 32,000 a year to start for 6 months. Then pay them profit sharing to help there cause. Need less to say I grew fast. Just so you now ..indian dev teams now days ROCK.. they comunicate well.. and have a work ethic that is hard to beat. I live in the states ..but they have a customer service poilcy that is so top notch. Love the US but India is dam good at what they do as well.. :0) Hope this helps.
I'm not really sure how this test account would work but I doubt it could tell whether the programmer is logged in and watching videos on youtube or logged in and writing code in a text editor on his/her computer. As some people have already said it can be easier for the client and the programmer to decide on a cost for the whole project rather than an hourly rate. That helps to prevent disagreements but it is important that the project is tightly defined before it begins. Some people are willing to accommodate small changes without adjusting the price. Other people won't be.
Whenever I do or request work I only do it on project based. Only non-professionals do hourly type of jobs for they have no idea how it will take them or are not contracting correctly. Peace,
Myself I'ld work project-based too; I never work hourly based, as for the buyer it might turn out very disappointing sometimes