The question of how much to charge is a popular one in the minds of web developers and it's a topic which crops up often on discussion lists. However, it's a subject which is difficult to discuss. For instance, see the HTML Writers Guild Pricing FAQ for an explanation of the legal issues involved with such discussion among members of an industry or profession.
Nevertheless, the purpose of this guideline is to provide web developers with a number of ways to arrive at rates, and to do so without once discussing the actual rates of any particular web developer.

1. Introduction

The question of how much to charge is a popular one in the minds of web developers and it's a topic which crops up often on discussion lists. However, it's a subject which is difficult to discuss. For instance, see the HTML Writers Guild Pricing FAQ for an explanation of the legal issues involved with such discussion among members of an industry or profession.

Nevertheless, the purpose of this guideline is to provide web developers with a number of ways to arrive at rates, and to do so without once discussing the actual rates of any particular web developer.

Certainly web development is a new profession, but web developers are not the first to confront the task of setting rates for the work of creative professionals. Ad agencies long ago figured out how to set profitable rates for work that is in many ways similar, if not identical, to that of web development. Copywriting, art direction, graphic design, illustration, and related creative problem solving and technical work are services provided by ad agencies and web developers alike. Indeed, it is this author's opinion that web developers can learn much from ad agencies in many aspects of running a business. Consequently, we will begin by taking a look at how ad agencies go about the task of setting rates.

Of course, when one thinks of hourly rates, there are many other types of professions which come to mind and we will look at some of the ways attorneys, accountants and others set their rates.

We'll consider too how you might go about determining an hourly rate for your entire business and why you might want to do so. And finally, we'll take a look at how you can figure out just exactly how much your services are really worth!

It is my hope that by understanding the different approaches outlined here, you'll be able to choose the one that is best for your web development business. This discussion may be the only time you will actually enjoy doing math!