
Ask HN: How do you charge clients for hosting their mobile backend? - vuyani
If you&#x27;ve developed a mobile app for a client and you handle the hosting. How do you sufficiently charge them while lowering your risk? if for example the app starts being resource intensive?
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techjuice
Require pre-payment for a set number of API requests, bandwidth transfer and
bandwidth throughput above what it costs you to deliver it. This insures you
are covered for infrastructure upgrades, contract bandwidth increase costs,
security and more as you grow. What ever bundles you create, insure that the
pricing is enough to give you a good profit so all of your expenses are
covered and you have money to put aside.

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vuyani
Thanks for that advice man. I shall do exactly that

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brudgers
If paying for a client's hosting needs is a potentially high risk arrangement,
my gut reaction is to have the client's account tied to their credit card and
to invoice maintenance and other services separately. Because:

1\. It means that the client owns the resources and that is good for the
client.

2\. It means if the client stops paying for hosting, you're not out the money.

3\. It means that if hosting gets expensive, you don't own the problem...you
own the solution in the form of additional billable services.

4\. It means that the client can make the decision to pull the plug if usage
gets to high and you're not involved.

I'd add that under this scenario, you can maintain the client's account on
their behalf and charge a nice fee for doing so...maybe a fixed fee plus a
percentage of hosting costs. If the client wants to move to a cheaper
alternative, you can charge for that work too. The most important thing is
that you do not own hosting costs when there is a problem.

Good luck.

