On the Triangle AMA‘s LinkedIn group, Cobalt Advertising CEO Michael Ganey asked about market rates for web support in the NC Research Triangle:
A client asked for market rates for web support. They define web support as making changes or updates to an existing web site or web application, built on a popular technology platform. Can anyone share prevailing hourly rates in the Triangle area?
Given my experience evaluating projects for clients at Coalmarch, I posted a reply (LinkedIn login required), which I wanted to share here:
In Raleigh, my agency charges $125/hour, which includes anything from UX design to custom programming to information architecture to SEO. If you’re looking for strictly content updates (that is, the person just updates text or images in an existing CMS), you can definitely find someone who’ll charge less (but you may need to hire another person to handle any programming changes).
The rate will also depend on the content management system (CMS) involved, due to a supply-and-demand effect. For example, there are more WordPress consultants than Drupal consultants. There also tend to be more open source developers (e.g., Drupal, Joomla, WordPress) than proprietary developers (e.g., Microsoft SharePoint or other ASP.NET-based systems) for any one proprietary CMS technology, but YMMV.
Finally, it also depends on whether your client wants to hire an agency or an individual. Individual consultants charge less (lower overhead), but they won’t be an expert in every possible area. You also run into the trying-to-juggle-everything problem (where the person is handling client service on top of doing the work), since people tend to be better at one or the other. With a web design or interactive agency, you’re also getting access to the entire staff (for instance, if a client needs front-end development, hardcore programming, design, or SEO, we have people who specialize in that), but, of course, you’ll pay more for the expertise and the convenience.
Really, it all depends on what exactly your client needs. Good luck!
Can you think of any other factors that would affect web development costs?