How I Price Web Development Projects (And Why I Stopped Hourly)

I charged hourly for the first two years of freelancing. I got faster at building things, my hourly rate went up, but my income per project stayed roughly the same because the hours dropped. The incentive structure was wrong — I was being rewarded for being slow.

Why Hourly Billing Doesn't Scale

When you charge by the hour, clients focus on the time, not the result. Every conversation becomes a negotiation about hours. More importantly: your income is capped by the hours in the day. A fixed-price project can be delivered in fewer hours as you get better, which means your effective hourly rate increases without the client paying more.

Fixed-Price Projects With a Clear Scope

The move that changed my business: write a clear scope document before quoting any price. "Five-page marketing site with contact form, hosted setup, and one round of revisions" is a scope. "Website" is not.

Once the scope is defined, pricing is straightforward. I know roughly how long it takes me to build that kind of project. The client gets a fixed number with no surprises.

The Discovery Call Before Any Quote

I don't quote without a 30-minute call first. The call tells me whether the client has a realistic budget, whether they've thought through what they need, and whether working with them will be straightforward or difficult. All three affect the price.

Handling Scope Creep

Fixed-price only works with a change order process. When a client asks for something outside the scope: "That's outside what we scoped — I can add it for £X, or we can swap it for something else in scope." Not a negotiation. Most clients respect this when it's handled professionally from the start.