yes, I almost exclusively charge clients per working hour. In my experience that is best/fair for both sides. I don't have to work unpaid and my client doesn't have to pay more than I worked for. Plus: The client always has the possibility to request additional features without repricing the whole project. And yes: This means I have to estimate the number of hours as precise as possible. The more projects I made, the better I got in estimating. I always talked to my clients, when my estimation was too optimistic or too pessimistic and we found a way both sides could live with.
For the German devs: I'm an actual freelancer, yes.
Sometimes it's hard to precisely estimate a whole project. When there are parts of a project you can not assess that well, you should talk with the client about that in advance and make an offer how to handle that. That way your estimated pricing remains transparent and the client doesn't get the feeling you want to take advantage of him.
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Makes sense. I haven't been able to find clients willing to pay per hour yet though. I may have to improve my incoming pipeline, as so far nobody was willing to move away from a per-project pricing (which essentially is a way of shifting the business risk from them - usually a larger company - to me - a small freelancer).
Have you ever had to convince a client to use the per-hour system? And what kind of clients are more likely to accept it in your experience?
I see. And you're absolutely right: per-project pricing is less risk for the client.
Yes, a few of my clients I really had to convince. I normally argue, that per hour is fair for both sides otherwise I would have to raise the per-project price because of possible additional expenses.
what kind of clients are more likely to accept it in your experience?
I don't know if there is a "kind of clients" that accept it more. In my experience, it depends on how you sell it. If someone reaches out to me for a project, I set the conditions: This is my hourly rate, this many hours will the project presumably take, so in this range will the total price most likely be. If they are not happy with that, I explain that I can do it for less hours, but leaving out this and that requirement.
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Hi Manuele,
let me first cite my answer to a similar question:
Hi Jannik,
yes, I almost exclusively charge clients per working hour. In my experience that is best/fair for both sides. I don't have to work unpaid and my client doesn't have to pay more than I worked for. Plus: The client always has the possibility to request additional features without repricing the whole project. And yes: This means I have to estimate the number of hours as precise as possible. The more projects I made, the better I got in estimating. I always talked to my clients, when my estimation was too optimistic or too pessimistic and we found a way both sides could live with.
For the German devs: I'm an actual freelancer, yes.
Sometimes it's hard to precisely estimate a whole project. When there are parts of a project you can not assess that well, you should talk with the client about that in advance and make an offer how to handle that. That way your estimated pricing remains transparent and the client doesn't get the feeling you want to take advantage of him.
Makes sense. I haven't been able to find clients willing to pay per hour yet though. I may have to improve my incoming pipeline, as so far nobody was willing to move away from a per-project pricing (which essentially is a way of shifting the business risk from them - usually a larger company - to me - a small freelancer).
Have you ever had to convince a client to use the per-hour system? And what kind of clients are more likely to accept it in your experience?
I see. And you're absolutely right: per-project pricing is less risk for the client.
Yes, a few of my clients I really had to convince. I normally argue, that per hour is fair for both sides otherwise I would have to raise the per-project price because of possible additional expenses.
I don't know if there is a "kind of clients" that accept it more. In my experience, it depends on how you sell it. If someone reaches out to me for a project, I set the conditions: This is my hourly rate, this many hours will the project presumably take, so in this range will the total price most likely be. If they are not happy with that, I explain that I can do it for less hours, but leaving out this and that requirement.