I work on Codeable where developers estimates are averaged together and that’s the price the client sees. It’s always entertaining when 3 developers all agree on a price but the client insists our estimates are way too high. We try to be sensitive to budgets but the bottom line is we are professionals and didn’t become professionals overnight. It took years of experience, education and reputation building which costs money.

As freelancers we must pay our own taxes, fee’s to those who sent us the client/work, and expenses of running our own business. In terms of hourly rates you can see how even a $60/hr. rate quickly gets eaten up and why it’s becoming not so strange of of thing to have high quality developers charging $100+ per hour with fantastic clients fighting over the limited time these professional freelance developers have to offer in a given day/week/month/year. “Don’t make him too busy to work with me” was one of my most recent client reviews where I charged $90hr.+ and so my advice to other freelancers and clients is that this street goes both ways. If you question why an estimate is so high the developer is going to question your ability to be a great client to work for. Great developers are in high demand, so don’t give them a reason to say no to your project by starting off on the wrong foot questioning their pricing it won’t help get your task/project moving.

If an estimate is way higher than your budget my best advice is to work with the developer to limit your scope of work so that it fits within your budget. Break the work up into parts/phases, pay the developer to help you do this.

Hi Stephen!

Thank you for the feedback! I agree that the relationship between clients and developments should be a partnership–and in fact, speak directly to this in the post:

I agree with Cameron that it is on both professional and client to create a harmonious interaction; at least in my experience with WDS, so many people who reach out to us are gracious, kind, and understanding. They know that we do good (dare I say, GREAT) work and that we are a business; WDS provides a livelihood to nearly forty people (and their families) who are passionate, engaged, and committed to their crafts. But occasionally we run into this too–and much of our team is comprised of former freelancers, so they are all too familiar with this issue.

And also touch on why this post exists–because it is a common conversation, particularly in the freelance world, and development and design is often undervalued–or it’s simply misunderstood as to why rates are what they are.

Completely agreed with educating and understanding each other, and I think if you reread the quotes from above, particularly Corey’s, you’ll see that we take this approach as well–that we’re both balancing our needs and all looking to get the most out of our interactions with each other. 🙂