My hosting offers a 3 free shopping cart softwares, one being OSCommerce.

A client has asked me to customize their OSCommerce cart.

I need an idea of what to charge them.

How much do you know about PHP? Have done it before? Do you know how long it will take you?

Think about how long it might take you - say 10 hours. Then add about 10% to that (11 eleven hours). Charge them for 11 hours of work.

I don't know PHP. I'm just getting into it.

I did set up the cart on my domain just to play with and was able to change the look of the site with the .css. Went through some other code and changed the logo at the top etc...

Since they are my test subject I was thinking about charging a flat rate of $500.


PS - Any good newbie PHP site, books etc...?

wow, 500 is good!

Getting $500 from a client to learn PHP. I wish I had someone like that :P

oscommerce is a PITA but once you learn how to customize, its very easy

LOL...:pimp: maybe $250 then?


I asked this question before on this site but I'll ask again, maybe point of views have changed....

If not OSCommerce is Interchange or Agora carts any better?

$500 is probably a bit too pricey.. $250 might be too much too, but that's just my opinion.

What is your time worth? Don't sell yourself too cheaply. Since you are learning PHP I would discount the fees you would normally charge by about 25 - 30% to take into account the learning curve. But make sure that you do not bite off more than you can chew and you can deliver the cart as promised.

Good point McKenzie!

What kind of time frame are some of you able to do it in?

I was thinking 10 hours might be a good estimate??

It's been awhile what is the going hourly rate for web developers these days? I'm in Illinois.

10hours X $10 rate, hmm $100 is good for a start. opinion only.