Have been a freelancer for the last 10 years. Yesterday, I was hired full time. Hopefully, this will help someone else as much as it did me when estimating project costs.

Feb 21, 2025 4:18 AM

Tinkerbellatrix

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I made this spreadsheet years ago, because I was sick of assuming what a project would cost, and how long it would take. Hopefully, I can share it with other freelance web devs who may find it useful, since I won't be using it much anymore.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19bKebP_WjySyw3YG1SsRSBecmgb1ZuPbqAkVZcDIwaM/edit?usp=sharing

Fuck I give away so many services because I don't want to put them into words. This is a great template. As someone who has been doing this since the 1900's it's amazing to see how little has changed in the business. I used to have to convince clients the needed a website. Now they think it's just a button we press.

7 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Thanks for the info kind sir

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Nice.

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

@op is a Rhodie?

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Holy! This is super useful! Thanks for sharing

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Fellow recovering freelance web dev here, this is awesome, you are awesome, good luck and Godspeed in your new role!

7 months ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Nice of you to share.

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

you're a rockstar. thank you for sharing this.

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Congrats!!! And you are an absolute good egg for sharing such data!

7 months ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Thanks for sharing! I hope i'll remember about it when time comes. Cheers!

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Thanks very much! I may need this at some stage so this is GREAT!!!

7 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

do you have the spreadsheet is a doesn't color of blue? the ceo isn't a fan of your blue

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

:D I didnt realize this'd get such traction! Thank you all, and I hope you enjoy!

7 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I have no use for your spreadsheet, but I will commend you for sharing it. We are all better when we lift each other up.

7 months ago | Likes 158 Dislikes 0

I have been freelancing for the past 5 years (consulting all my professional life and if I can give one advice, it's to never sign a fixed price contract. Do your due diligence, go through the evaluation phase but always sign a time and material. No

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Congratulations on escaping contract hell! Getting that full-time job is magic, isn't it?

7 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

Thanks mate, will make a UX designer version.

7 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

.

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Most of it is cool but I don’t understand why fixing errors and bugs has a higher rate than most of the dev work. Surely it would be at the same rate

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Let me put it this way: With code when your 90% done your 10% done. Another way: 20% of programming is figuring out how the code how it should work, 20% of programming is writing code how it has to work, and 60% of programming is figuring out why the code doesn't work.
Turns out the computer does exactly what you tell it to do and that is a problem for all programmers.

7 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

.

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Accolade for sharing your work to help others, @OP.

7 months ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 0

7 months ago | Likes 38 Dislikes 0

‘Digital Hi Five for a Job Well Done’. I’ll never need this spreadsheet but found it interesting anyway.

7 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Awesome share. Wish I had this when I first started building applications for clients.

7 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Thanks for sharing!

7 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

This is basically what I use at work to estimate project budgets. It's really very helpful to break down a project into small tasks that you can easily estimate how long it will take.

7 months ago | Likes 27 Dislikes 0

The scrum way of project

7 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

7 months ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

It is almost Twin Peaks day. :)

7 months ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

What do you use / recommend for web platforms?

7 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Wordpress? Square space/Shopify? Hand code?

7 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

theyre both good with pluses and minuses but work quite differently. id probably start with shopify for an ecom site; it's crazy easy but not as cheap.

did web dev for 10 years until 2010ish. op's doc is probably for a wordpress site. and it's comprehensive. but spending 18k on one is rare.

7 months ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I'd say 95% of the sites I work on are run on WordPress - everything from dentist offices to pet rescue shelters to electric companies, honestly I don't think there's an industry I haven't done at least one site on WP for. I have a few scragglers that are on Wix, Square Space and Shopify, but they're few and far between.

7 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

My partner uses Wordpress for most of his small side jobs, i noticed a lot of websites i find of smaller shops are all made with WordPress too.
I have honestly only seen youtubers using square space, and a few small buisnesses using shopify.

Personally im looking into shopify to sell my art on.
But i would say, learn the basics of all of them, and use each tool depending on the project and costumer :)

7 months ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0