Ask HN: How do I know what to charge?

[thumbtackthief]

An associate has asked me to build an iOS app for him. I am a new iOS developer and this would be my first freelance project of any kind (I am a full time Python/Django developer with 3-4 years experience). I have no clue what would be a reasonable fee to charge him. I want to skew to the low-end since I have a personal connection with him and would be learning as I go, but I want to be fair to both him and me. I would assume a flat rate is better than hourly given the slow speed with which I will program. He's looking for an app that would get a user's location in the city we are in (so, limited to just this Metro area), provide a route somewhere else via Google Maps and our local bus transit's API, and pop up with interesting trivia along the way (that he would provide me). The project seems interesting and at the right level for me, skill-wise, but I have no idea how to estimate what that's worth.

[dsacco]

Oh goodie, I love these questions.

I'm going to assume the following is true about you:

1. You can translate someone's desires for a product into a software spec.

2. You can translate a spec into a real, working piece of software by programming it using your favorite languages and tech stack.

3. You can do the above in a reasonable amount of time, reliably and consistently, and follow a project deadline with milestones without too much supervision.

4. Your friend is asking for this because he wants to market it as part of a product or service.

Great! If you want to be fair to him and give him "mate's rates" then charge him $2000 per week.

Why $2000 per week? Here is the logical progression:

1. You have the aforementioned, assumed skills (which I am deducing from you being a developer of 3 - 4 years) that make you very valuable.

2. Your floor for making an iOS app for a client would be $5000 per week. Why? Because it's mostly arbitrary and it's what the market would pay, and I assure you the market would bear someone of your skills being paid this much money.

3. $2000 per week is a vastly discounted rate from the $5000 figure quoted above, which is appropriate for friends. Note that this is appropriate for friends working together as business partners, not for something so insignificant that a friend is doing it pro bono. That you want to be paid at all indicates this situation is not the latter.

When I do technical consulting I always bill weekly. I fundamentally disagree with billing hourly for a variety of reasons, so I think you're right that you should not be billing hourly.

If you don't want to bill weekly you can set an entire project fee. In that case, I would take the above amount and multiply it by the number of weeks you anticipate working.

What I would emphasize to you is that pricing is basically arbitrary. You simply charge the highest amount the market will bear. If this project is worth doing and "serious" enough to warrant you being paid, you might as well be paid generously, even if it is very discounted for a friend.

[thumbtackthief → dsacco]

First off, $5000/week?!? I clearly need to get better at this fast. Thanks so much for your detailed response; posting this was a shot in the dark that I'd get anything at all.

So, I'd be working on this part-time at best. I have a day job and a life, so my time is limited. I use the Seinfeld method of productivity so I can guarantee that I will work for at least 15 minutes a day, but for many days that will be it.

I'm still learning a lot--here's the most complicated app I've made to date: https://github.com/pnichols104/guess_who/commits?author=pnic.... It's a guessing game app; you get a picture and four multiple-choices to identify it. I started in March and am just about done. This one is much more complex and I have a lot to learn about it. Although I've been developing for 3-4 years, I started iOS development about a year ago.

I couldn't possibly charge him $2000/week. Honestly, I was going to charge him a flat rate for the project (which if I could finish in three months, I'd be very proud of myself) and was wondering if $1000 total was too high! Given the specs I listed, which is pretty much all I know so far, what would you think is a fair price for the whole thing?

Thanks again!