Are there any price standards for software services?

Question

Hi,

I haven't been freelancing for a long time now and recently a friend called me te review an offer he got for online shop. The price was way too high so he asked me to come with him and speak about price with the guy who made an offer. Anyway such talks are useless and the only right thing is to find another offer. While talking to a guy who made an offer I have got the feeling that the problem is that he is not a good developer and the price was that high because it would take him more than a month to finish the project. So I told him that good developers usually charge a lot but also make things faster and that he can't charge the same for an hour of work if he makes much less than a good developer.

Does anyone know if there are any price standards available to check online? Some statistics about price and performance would be very useful to have an idea about project prices.

Thanks!

Answer 1

There can be no such "standardized" prices. You charge as much as you thing will be fair. And the number of your customers depends on how much they agree with you. You set the price and you thus value yourself. The more customers agree to this value, the more you can be sure the price is set correctly. However, if you have TOOO much customers, you may have underestimated yourself ;)

Answer 2

Well...

There are no real price standards. If the guy can sell himself with the amount he is charging, then he is doing it correctly. The numbers also depend on region, technology and scope. Is it a fixed price offer (Then there is usually an additional "uplift") or is it only a time & labor offer?

What about getting (finding) some refferences from the guy and ask them if they are pleased?

Answer 3

IMO this depends on your location, the difficulty of the project, and your potential competitor number.

My own rule to calculate the job cost is a good developer salary per month, not some random number or multiplier for C or PHP.