Question for freelancers out of curiosity

Community
1

Im basically just wondering a few things from people who build websites freelance for people…

  1. When it comes to hosting, would you set the account up in your name, and the client pays you? or just simply register for hosting with their payment details
  2. Since its such a broad field depending on what each client may require, how do you price it? Per page (hardly fair on people who need a page without alot of form action or jquery or whatever compared to those who do), by hour?
  3. Is it best when designing a page for a client, to design and code the page as a template for a CMS such as drupal (not something i know alot about yet)? that way the site is built on a cms making it easier for the client to make their own changes etc? Rather than handing them the static html and if they want something changed having to contact you to modify code

Just out of curiosity im still in my student stages lol

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There are no real rules that I know of for this. But personally, in terms of hosting, I have a VPS (a hosting account that allows me to set up many websites on the one account) and most of the sites I do sit on that. Then I just bill clients for hosting.

In terms of pricing, you would probably work out an hourly rate, but not necessarily say so. Find out what the client wants and set a price for the job. Perhaps mention that any extras will be billed at some hourly rate.

A CMS site tends to take longer than a static site, so it may be a question of the client’s budget. But certainly there is a big advantage in building a site around a CMS.

3
  1. I have a VPS—for me as a developer it is, of course, a necessity to have access to my own environment. However, I strongly (and I mean really strongly) prefer the client setting up an appropriate hosting account in his/her name. I really don’t want to get into the hosting side of it since it would mean too much overhead. Instead I will gladly recommend an appropriate hosting provider and account type for the client, and set it up as part of the project.
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  2. I have what I call a “target price” pricing model, which is basically a fixed project price (the target) but with hourly rates added/subtracted in case of the target not being hit. That works for most projects. So it’s generally a combination. However, for smaller tasks or more complex projects, I can of course also do hourly.
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  3. Never static, always some sort of back-end. Whether it is a custom Ruby application, Rails application, or whatever else I may use, depends on the project. No tool fits all projects.