ARE YOU UNDERCHARGING FOR WEB DESIGN SERVICE? 

The hardest part of designing websites for a living is setting your prices. Setting a fair price for your services is something that nearly all of us struggle with.

If you’re lucky, you’re part of an agency that has experienced design leads who can assess projects objectively. But if you’re a freelancer — or if you’re one of those design leads — you have to set your own rate.

It’s a challenge to find a sweet spot in the market. You want to be competitive or you’ll price yourself out of jobs. But you also want to be able to live the lifestyle you aspire to.

The truth is there is always someone cheaper. There is always someone who believes in the ‘exposure’ myth and will do a project for free. You can’t compete on price, and you really shouldn’t try. If you have been competing on price, you are almost certainly undercharging for web design. Where you should compete, is on quality and results.

When you’re no longer competing on price, you can put your rates up.

How Much Do You Charge for Web Design Services?

To find out what most professional designers charge, we’re asking you to answer the following two questions (anonymously).

We’d like to know how much you charge for web design services per hour. (We don’t necessarily recommend you charge by the hour, but with projects varying in scope this is the best way to compare pricing.)

How Much Do You Charge for Web Design Services Per Hour?

Note: If you are salaried, you can work out your hourly rate by dividing your annual income by 2000 to find an approximate hourly rate. For example, if you earn $45,000 per year, your hourly rate is approximately $22.50.

• Less than $5 per hour
• $5 – $10 per hour
• $10 – $20 per hour
• $20 – $30 per hour
• $30 – $40 per hour
• $40 -$50 per hour
• $50 – $75 per hour
• $75 – $100 per hour
• More than $100 per hour, Because the value of the dollar varies a great deal — $1 goes a lot further in Patagonia than it does in Norway — we’d also like to know how
  much you charge per hour as a percentage of your monthly housing cost (your rent or mortgage).

How Much Do You Charge for Web Design Services Per Hour as a Percentage of Your Housing Cost?

You can find this percentage by dividing your hourly rate by your rent, then multiplying by 100. For example, if you pay $1,500 rent per month and charge $22.50 per hour, then you charge 1.5% (1500 / 22.5 * 100 = 1.5).

• Less than 1% per hour
• 1-5% per hour
• 5-10% per hour
• 10-15% per hour
• 15-20% per hour
• More than 20% per hour

Remember, most experts in the field agree: No matter how much you’re charging for web design services, you’re probably undercharging. Perhaps it’s time to put your prices up.