Hey everyone.

How do you fellow designers come up with your prices and plans for your web design company? Do you base them on langauges, amount of pages wanted, etc... Like if someone wanted 5 pages in PHP, you charge more for that than say 5 pages in HTML? But what about when it comes to like PERL and PHP or Cold Fusion and PHP? Also do you charge more if they want a database backend? I'm just curious as to how I should start pricing and creating plans.

Thanks~

There are many factors that come into play when doing this. THe calculations are based upon the number of pages to be created, amount of text (depending if text is digitally provided or it must be typed), amount of pages, administratice features. Yes, we do charge more for backend databasing.
I do not think that you can create "set plans" for web design, because every web site needs its own unique touch, and every web site cannot fall into the same specifics.

I agree with iamdave's last point: plans suck. I personally think that sites that offer X pages for Y dollars look unprofessional and I would almost never hire a design co. that did that.

Design isn't and shoule not be cookie cutter. Don't create plans. Instead, work with your client, figure out what they want, how you're going to do it, and how long it will take you. Then bill accordingly.

I think there is some rule for billing hourly. Basically, figure out how much you need to make/hour to earn a living and multiply by two. Then by something else and divide by the Arccos log function of the blah blah blah.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Plans suck!

try reading the entrails of a chicken or two... no not *that* Chicken.

After a while you get a pretty good idea of how long a job will take and can generally quote pretty well exactly. Sometimes I get thrown and wear the extra cost as a 'shame on me for getting it wrong'.

The big part is getting all the right information and get it all early. Changing direction midstream is never fun.

Greg Moore

As said above don't make "plans" all sites are different. Making preset plans just caused me problems till I figured out that plans didn't work.