The Cost — Per Hour — For App/Website Developers
The Two Primary Determiners: Developer Experience and Location
Let’s assume (and in our experience, this can sometimes be a risky proposition) that you already have a design for your project, either in Photoshop, Sketch, or some other illustrative software program. And we’re of course assuming you put together the wireframes for all of the different webpages/app screens needed for the project before that. You did that, right? Right???
At this point, theoretically all you need is a developer or developers to bring your designs to life for users, and to give you a platform from which to control/edit/store information on/from the site or app.
Hourly rates for (contracted) developers can run anywhere from $15 per hour to $250 per hour, and can be broken down thusly:
At $15 per hour, you hire someone abroad — manage them very closely, and take a risk on the work being good. Not a common or reliable choice, but the option exists nonetheless.
At $50–100 per hour, you’re going abroad and getting good work, or in the US and getting lower tiered work (or someone new, inexperienced — we started here). Likely the best option for a person/company with a tight budget and flexible scope requirements.
At $100–250 per hour, you’re probably getting elite work abroad or good/really good US-based work. You run a small chance of someone simply overpricing bad work as well. The best option for a high-quality, impressively engineered deliverable. For people and companies with big budgets who want a fully-functional product that will last a long time.
A mobile app can take anywhere from 100–5000 total hours to be built, and the average website anywhere between 50–1000 total hours. These are clearly wide ranges.
What can you, as the business owner, do to bring costs down? Stay tuned for next week’s update, where we’ll break down how to make the most of hired engineering.
