Going Rate for Website Maintenance?

[Jimbo]

Hope you guys can help me...

What would you estimate the going hourly rate for website maintenance to be?

By maintenance I mean, no radical, structural changes to the site, just graphic and text changes, copying the look-and-feel of existing pages, shopping cart updates, etc. The text and graphics are generally already prepared...some may need minor edits or resizing or format conversions, etc.

Thanks in advance!
-Jim

 

[robr]

depends on the website really. if its basic html, or if there is java, xml, css, etc.
if it's the first, you could probably find any high school kid to do it for cheap money, if you go independent contractor, maybe $25/hr. if it's the latter it will cost you more. i just hired an independent contractor at $35/hr full time to work on a web based java application in the boston area (that is CHEAP for what i needed, found through craigslist). if i had wanted to outsource to a company, i'd be looking at twice that.

if the html developer doesn't need to have face time with anyone, i'd post to craigslist in various areas and offer $20/hr if its basic html and see what you get for responses.
helps though to have an idea how many hours things should take so you're not gouged.

 

[rickysals]

you get what you pay for most times,

I wouldn't touch it for $20 bucks an hour, you're gonna find someone relatively new for sub $30 an hour. But if they get the job done, then you'll save some money. Real/professional web design is expensive and worth it

 

[robr]

absolutely agreed.

 

[NSX-Stalker]

Good developer $50 an hour. That's what my wife gets but she has a CS degree and 15 years experience in mainly software development. She spits out web code like it's nothing, and does it all in notepad.

So for example. A website may take her 50 hours to develop but 150 for the cheap ($25 an hour) guy.

So for $25 an hour you might be lucky to get a fresh CS major right out of school. Most likely you'll get a lame web site coder who taught himself and got a couple of websites under his belt for that price.

People to often try to get something done cheaply. You'll do better hiring a recommended developer who may get $50 an hour but most probably you will pay less overall.

NSX-Stalker