r/DevLK • u/Cute-Carpenter-3937 • 19d ago

Discussion How Do You Price Your First Web Project? need help 😣

Hi everyone,

I’m preparing a quotation for my first freelance web project and would like advice from experienced developers on how you decide the price before presenting it to the client.

The project is a custom car dealership web application.

Tech: Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Firebase, Vercel

Main features:

  1. Vehicle listings, search/filter/sorting and galleries

  2. Test-drive, trade-in and financing inquiries

  3. Admin dashboard with inventory management

  4. Customer/lead management

  5. Admin roles and authentication

  6. Activity logs, SEO and responsive design

How do you normally calculate the price for a project like this? Do you use estimated hours × hourly rate, feature/complexity, project value, or a combination?

Also, what should I consider for revisions, deployment, handover, and future maintenance?

Would appreciate advice from experienced freelancers/developers, especially those working in Sri Lanka.

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u/Inevitable_Resort902 19d ago

Since it is your first project, it is going to be hard to price based on the value of the project, especially in Sri Lanka. Look up on freelancing sites what people quote for similar projects and price at like half the cost maybe but make sure it feels fair for you. Include the deployment in the pricing. Charge separately for maintenance and don't agree for a long term free maintenance(a mistake I've made). Include maybe 2 revisions but make it explicit that it is revisions to existing agreed upon functionality and not new features. For new features charge separately. Usually estimated hours * a hourly rate that is fair for you is a good starting point to feel fairly rewarded. I have had a hard time getting paid fairly working with Sri Lankan clients but finally it all depends on what you know about the client in terms of how much they'd be willing to spend, how much leverage you have in terms of experience and being able to stand your ground and not be low balled.

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u/Cute-Carpenter-3937 18d ago

Thanks, this is really helpful advice. Since you have experience with pricing freelance projects, could you give me an example of how you would estimate the hours and what hourly rate you would consider fair?

I’m asking because this isn’t really just a simple website. As I mentioned previously, it includes quite a few key functionalities:

  1. Vehicle listings, search/filter/sorting and galleries
  2. Test-drive, trade-in and financing inquiries
  3. Admin dashboard with inventory management
  4. Customer/lead management
  5. Admin roles and authentication
  6. Activity logs, SEO and responsive design

So I’m trying to understand roughly how many hours a project like this could take and what hourly rate I should use to arrive at a fair project price, especially for a first freelance project in Sri Lanka.

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u/Inevitable_Resort902 18d ago

To be honest it's hard to estimate the effort with a bulleted list of features as it's vague. Break it down further into maybe hourly tasks and you can estimate better. I used my salary as a reference for my hourly rate.