(Locked) How much do you charge clients for creating a website using a WordPress Theme?

How much do you charge a client for creating their website when you use a WordPress theme? Please include what country you live in and if possible indicate currency in US Dollars.

Typical project description for BUSINESS/CORPORATION - not individual:

  • Three home page designs (different themes)

  • Client provides text

  • You supply stock photos (iStockPhoto, ShutterStock etc)

  • Approximately 10 to 15 pages (not all have photos)

  • Two days of client requested modifications (footer, sidebar, header stuff)

  • research keywords and internal SEO optimization (not including a link-back program)

  • Five home page photoshopped images with text on slider

  • five to ten stock icons

  • Install WP on their server or hosting company and install theme and test on browsers.

  • no ecommerce or extensive portfolio

What is your hourly rate for services beyond the scope of the original project?

I try to stay in the $5,000 to $10,000 range. But have gone to $3500 if doing favor or business is slow. The higher range will include bringing in a copywriter. The hourly rate is $100 per for out-of-original-project-scope requests.

I also round my estimates to odd numbers and line-item all elements ($8,467 and not $8,550) so clients feel that the number is based on specific tasks. If they want it for less, I provide less.

I ask for half up front for new clients on first jobs but will do thirds if requested.

I am located in San Diego California USA

I don’t create “websites” for clients. I create designs for their websites. And refer them to my other friends for any extra services they need (like content writing)

I’m located in Ohio. I do everything on your list except provide 3 designs. Only once has a client not been happy with the initial design (thank God). I know I should be charging more and I’ll be doing that starting this year…but currently I get 2-3k for what you’re describing. I suppose I can do that since I work from home and expenses are minimal. But I do barely scrape by :wink:

I almost never go hourly, I just figure it’s a harder sell. Sometimes I get screwed, sometimes not. The more I get used to skinning themes and Wordpress itself, the easier it gets. What has been taking 2 weeks to finish a site, I’m trying to get it down to a week.

Great thread :slight_smile: Unfortunately I think mostly the authors, not the users, utilize these forums!

tonvie said

I’m located in Ohio. I do everything on your list except provide 3 designs. Only once has a client not been happy with the initial design (thank God). I know I should be charging more and I’ll be doing that starting this year…but currently I get 2-3k for what you’re describing. I suppose I can do that since I work from home and expenses are minimal. But I do barely scrape by :wink:

I almost never go hourly, I just figure it’s a harder sell. Sometimes I get screwed, sometimes not. The more I get used to skinning themes and Wordpress itself, the easier it gets. What has been taking 2 weeks to finish a site, I’m trying to get it down to a week.

Great thread :slight_smile: Unfortunately I think mostly the authors, not the users, utilize these forums!

Thanks for the reply. I usually give on layout as well. Seems to work if ya do it right. WordPress is a dream come true for me. The old way without CMS was insane with tons of emails asking to change this word, or add a comma etc… I am finishing up an old HTML/CSS site now and it will be my LAST one! Clients love it to.

I think you are right about mostly authors here.

You charge upto $10,000 for creating a website from a theme ?

That seems a tad odd.

You state, they supply text etc.

So presuming they supply the theme, and the text, what exactly do you offer ?

Or did you omit to state, you create a custom theme for their wordpress site ?

Just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s

The upper end is for custom work and not themes. I am just starting to offer themes. But I expect to be in the 5 to 8k range even with themes. I offer all those things I mentioned and it is usually part of a bigger branding program, product launch, or start up company launch. It may include logos, brochures, exhibit design, direct mail, emails, etc.

I market my company as a full service brand marketing firm to mid size corporations and to product divisions of Fortune 1000 companies. For this market, 5 to 10K is a very small part of their budget. I used to get $15,000 for Google page one placement in 1998. That was when few knew how to do that.

It’s kinda all how you think about your offering and brand it. And knowing what you client needs and wants. I’ve been doing this for 23 years.

Show us some of your work then.

Seems weird thread to post for someone who works for Fortune 1000 companies

@ SportTipsWorld - No offense, but I find it a bit weird that people express the need to see someone’s portfolio in order to verify their story…I personally would never divulge that kind of info on a public forum like this. There’s nothing to stop someone bent on revenge should you piss someone off. Yeah it’s far fetched but a dork could easily call a client in your portfolio and go “Hey, did you know your website is a template?”…or perhaps do a little blackhat SEO on ya. So, I’ll never be showing anyone I don’t know my portfolio. You can if you like…

Let me ask you something SportTipsWorld, If i promise to make a client’s phone ring and put them on the first page of Google and I deliver, is that worth 5000.00? Does it make a difference if I use a template or not and why? Seems like some people need to brush up on their salesmanship!

tonvie said

@ SportTipsWorld - No offense, but I find it a bit weird that people express the need to see someone’s portfolio in order to verify their story…I personally would never divulge that kind of info on a public forum like this. There’s nothing to stop someone bent on revenge should you piss someone off. Yeah it’s far fetched but a dork could easily call a client in your portfolio and go “Hey, did you know your website is a template?”…or perhaps do a little blackhat SEO on ya. So, I’ll never be showing anyone I don’t know my portfolio. You can if you like…

Let me ask you something SportTipsWorld, If i promise to make a client’s phone ring and put them on the first page of Google and I deliver, is that worth 5000.00? Does it make a difference if I use a template or not and why? Seems like some people need to brush up on their salesmanship!

No offence taken.

Dont get your feathers all ruffled, I wasnt asking out of being picky or anything untoward, merely intrigued as to what this guy does that accrues 10k contracts on what seems to be pretty basic stuff.

I am not questioning his integrity or indeed quality of workload, just mystified, as to why you would even ask other coders their “rates” when you work in such an affluent market, and why you would then go onto theme design, for wordpress… when in reality, his best expectations is to make 2.5k per project.

What has SEO and phones ringing got to do with what is a very basic conversation.

and if you are trying to have a dig at me, mate it wont work, I have thicker skin than a rhino. Been there and done that, nothing to prove.

But as an avid user of the envato marketplaces, I ask questions that perhaps others wouldnt, and when a user “sprouts” figures and puts them down on a thread, its quite a valid question to ascertain what they do for that, and what their work looks like.

For example:

We have been quoted circa $200k USD for a project we are working on, by a development company.
We also know we can goto 99 designs and get someone to do up a layout for 2-3k usd

We could also, sit on our arses and code it ourselves … but

My point is simple, If i started a thread and said “how much do you spend on a website” , cos I normally spend $50k plus… then someone somewhere is gonna ask, sheesh, show us your sites, cos they must be pretty cool.

Shameless question for a arbitrary answer. So chill your beans mate, and dont take offence to peoples natural inquisitiveness.
You never know, they may well be your best ever customer !

How about the psd to xhtml and psd to wordpress companies who offer this for a couple of bucks? Like between $40-$200. Where is the catch? Do they use framework, or automated stuff, or code templates? I can’t yet do a custom wordpress theme, but I’m going to learn it. Regular site with PHP costs $1-2K based on a template or one page style with relatively few graphics. These usually have some flash or PHP/JS extra like shop. I can appreciate the work behind quality WP themes and sites as I know it’s not easy. I guess it would take me one or two months to do one.

It’s all about who do you do business with.

Coming from the flash background, I was doing website (as a third party) for agencies for 3500$ , and the agency sold them for 10 000$ to the end client.
Then I did sites for far less etc…

Firsh said

How about the psd to xhtml and psd to wordpress companies who offer this for a couple of bucks? Like between $40-$200. Where is the catch? Do they use framework, or automated stuff, or code templates?

I’ve used PSD2HTML in the past, and I can tell you it’s not automated because the results, while always excellent, have vastly different coding styles every time unless you tell them you want the results coded in a certain style. I think they just use very cheap workers who work very quickly. There are very talented coders in countries like India, Philippines, Ukraine, etc., where the salaries are lower than in the US or Australia. If they can code an HTML page in 8 hours at $5-10/hr, that’s $40-80, when the customer pays $150, that’s a nice profit margin. Even more profitable if they can find workers at the lower end of that salary range or if they can do it in less time (I notice they charge $19 extra for IE6 compatibility).

They charge $200 more for Wordpress, but this is probably just basic conversion into a Wordpress theme…I’m not sure what they would charge to make a complex theme worthy of submission to ThemeForest.

Our hourly rate is 10 - 20$. We are located in the Baltic region , Latvian. We resell and remade wordpress skins for clients about 150 - 200$. Not so much, like UK, USA.

I usually charge $1000 minimum for a simple implementation using a theme, but that usually covers basic tweaks, changes, some custom code and forms.

I charge up to $5000 for a site off a theme sometimes but that usually involves a lot more than theme installation and typically requires a lot of extra coding or changes from a programming level.

For a comlete website based on wordpress, no matter 1 or 10 pages, with or without pictures: about 200 US

I’d charge minimum $500 for what’s described.

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If I take an off the shelf site template, convert it to modx so client can run site in future, tweek a few things [first thing is to usually bump up the p tag+line-height size !!! - Actually ALWAYS!!!] get a blog running, fill some pages with (supplied) copy, optimise some images (logo etc), upload to a server , offer 8 hours training =$3,500NZD (new zealand).

I found that clients couldn’t care less whether it’s a theme bought from here - or if I’ve spent 50+ hours crafting an original masterpiece - if they like it- they like it!

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I agree with cippo, for what’s described my minimum would be $500 US. The lowest I charge for a basic 5 page Wordpress themed site is $300.

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SportTipsWorld said

Show us some of your work then.

Seems weird thread to post for someone who works for Fortune 1000 companies

You do not even have to ask the person. Just ask Google and you get an instant answer. :stuck_out_tongue: http://www.google.com/search?q=oxford+group+san+diego+ca&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

First result.

Charge what the market will bear. Every situation is different. My Minimum website start at 2500.00. 1 year maintenance contract, hosting is included. Of course SEO is too and I take good care of em even on weekends. Charge whatever your market will bear people. Only you know what the market bears where you live etc.