

Ask HN: How much to charge? - csomar

I learnt programming, web development and all IT things myself. Lately, I have started to work as a freelance. I'm 19 years old, I started programming since 12, I was and I still an amateur developer.<p>So my question is "How much to charge?" (the hour), right now I did few jobs (only 2) ($30/hour for a small job at Odesk and $120 for a 2 hours task). Last week, I got a request from a company to review and rewrite (some technical papers) for them. I told them my rate is $25 and they were happy with it!<p>I have stumbled upon few websites discussing it. M.I.T students are getting an average $20/hour for programming (http://web.mit.edu/sfs/jobs/wage_guide.html); so I thought $25 will be good considering my age and qualifications (no qualification rather than a small portfolio and apps I made). Also average freelance workers (freelance sites like Odesk) is $10.<p>So am I underestimating my capabilities? How can I measure my rate? If age doesn't matter, how can I evaluate my experience and charge accordingly to the market rates.<p>I fixed my rate for that job; but it seems that another startup may be interested on some JavaScript debugging (as I have similar experience to their issue, some event bubbling). This is why I posted this question. It seems that some freelancers are charing $100 the hour and even more. Why? Is it portfolio related? How do you set your rates?<p>Thanks for the advice.
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mogston
IMO, it's largely based around the following highly subjective calculation:

((value you will add to client's bottom line) + (your relevant experience &
portfolio) + (speed and accuracy of delivery) + (kudos)) * (budget & urgency
of project delivery) * (industry) = rate per hour

You can't really get to a figure from what i've said above, but i just wanted
to illustrate a number of factors that can go into a rate that's attractive
and workable to both parties.

Age doesn't matter, but (relevant) experience does.

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JayNeely
Freelance Switch has a collection of good articles on this:

<http://freelanceswitch.com/blog/explore/#2>

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python123
Those are on-campus jobs, which are often part of federal work-study program.
They are meant to pay less than regular jobs.

