Thread: How much to charge for programming

I was wondering how much do you, or how much do you think someone should charge to program for someone (freelance). usually its per hour, so how much do you think is fair for a programmer in the US?

Now how much do you think is fair for an outsourcer (in India or such) to charge? Trying to get ideas on how much a difference outsourcing costs.

Please, please outsource you programming, but don't come back here complaining that it turned out like $hit. I love the stories about how people outsource their programming to India, and they think they got screwed. Well, when the person doing the code can't speak English, you get error statements like, "Click no here, again try." You get what you pay for!

It really depends on the project, project length, difficulty, and who is coding. Short term projects cost more. Experience programmers cost more. Difficult programs cost more.

Give me some more info, and I will try to narrow it down.

I make sure they are proficient in english first, i talk to them and some interview to see their english skills. hmm. its hard to narrow it down, as I am getting many projects to outsource. Im not realy sure yet, but lets say an average difficulty project that doesnt take long, perhaps a week at most code, relating to a MySQL database. give me an estimate of how much you would charge compared to how much an outsourcer would charge. again they are estimates so you dont have to say you cant give exact numbers. thanks.

Depending on what has to be done, how long the project will last and if there is repeating work from that client, I normally charge $50/hour and up for small projects, $100/hour for more indepth scripts and run flat quotes for most programming projects. It is completely guestimation without knowing more about what you are asking for.

" Dealing with mysql databases " can easily translate into $1000's of dollars in programming, depending on what is required. Are you looking for interactive scripts, forms, etc?

I do this kind of work all of the time.

I got a question for you: lets say you are doing a project for someone at $50/hr and it winds up taking like 6 months to complete. How are you paid for all that time? Do you accept one large sum at the end or ask for periodic pay since no one can live for those 6 months without pay. These are the kinks Im trying to work out. thanks.

you should ask to be paid at each milestone

and get a deposit

yea thats what I was thinking, although I was thinking one in the same, but there will prob be more than 1 milestone. Like I had it where they pay 20% at the first alpha or /beta stage or w/e and then the final price. but maybe there should be more than just that.