We get a lot of requests from people asking us to quote with an hourly rate. Sometimes they insist we only give them an hourly rate. We’re told this is so they can compare pricing from multiple companies. The problem with this is just because one company has a lower hourly rate doesn’t mean they will be cheaper to accomplish the same task.
- Do they round everything up to the next hour? (So 10 min of work they bill you for 1 hour?)
- How long will it take them to finish your project?
We typically work efficiently (meaning fast) so we can accomplish a task in 4 hours where it takes another company 8 hours. If our hourly rate is $75/hr and their rate is $50/hr, you would actually spend $100 more for the other company – and it took them longer to get it done. As with everything in this industry, you get what you pay for.
With hourly bidding, what typically happens is a rate is given and an estimated time. That time is only an estimate and it could be well beyond that time. As a business owner getting work on your website, you ultimately have no idea what you will be paying in the end. There is a good chance the 10 hour estimate will turn into 15 hours and your cost for the project went up 50%. At AshWebStudio, we like to give fixed bid pricing so you know what you will be paying – no additional, hidden costs.
Ultimately hourly rates are used by every company including ours. We use hourly when a project is open-ended and we have no way of knowing how long the project will take. We also use it for ongoing maintenance of our client websites. But we don’t round up to the next hour, it’s always in 15 min intervals (since that is what QuickBooks minimum is).