Dani Rodríguez, Freelance Software Developer

Unfortunately, the answer is it depends. It is not possible to just throw a price tag, because there are many price ranges. Software and web development requires some analysis and planning, as different projects have different complexities and that implies different time and effort estimations, which ultimately affect the total cost of a project.

For example, a small website project (such as designing and publishing a small WordPress website) can cost between $1000 and $2500 depending on the requirements and the size of the site, maintenance not included. However, this is just an example. The only way to know the final price for a project would be to get in touch so that I can plan a budget, no obligations attached.

Hourly rates can also cost between $40 and $100 depending on the needs and if I am applying any discounts. I usually discount my rates when bundling time in advance. For instance, for a full day of work or if you book an entire week of my time I can lower the price since it is also making me easier to manage my schedule. Again, get in touch with me if you have an idea for something so that I can provide you a quote for free.

Again, it depends. I prefer setting up hourly, daily, weekly or even monthly rates, because this allows you to only pay for the job that is actually done: you only pay for time I spent working on your project, either design, creating the software or website, or communications and support.

However, for some projects it makes more sense to budget the full project at once and have it split in two or three installments. Installments are configured at the beginning and end of project, and at other important milestones. This provides expectations and safety about the provided services both for you and for me.

Once again, the only way to know what tailors best to your kind of project is to contact me so that I can advise about the options once I know about your project needs, no strings attached.

Yes, that is expected. I don't work without prior agreement, as signing some kind of document is the only way both you and me can be clear in regards to project expectations, third party intellectual property access, milestones and payments.

I try to keep the paperwork simple because I am not good at these things. At the very least, I provide a basic agreement with clauses and conditions both for me as an independent developer and you as the customer of my services that are standard in our industry, as well as clauses based on things I've seen during the time I've been a freelance.

However, many projects will require a specific agreement. The agreement tries to be fair to both parts, it will reflect that it is expected for me to deliver in a professional way, while at the same time making sure that the client will not try to cheat on the project development during our business relationship. You're guaranteed to have time to review and accept the agreement before the work starts, no strings attached until signature, and of course, at no cost.

Of course I can. Say for example that you are already building something and you need more labour working on it, or that you inherited a codebase and you don't know what to do with it. Maybe you already got a webpage a couple of years ago but you can't or don't want to have the original team updating it.

In this case, I can provide services such as adding new features, maintaining the application to fix bugs or to keep it online and working, or updating the application in case it stops working properly under new hardware, browsers or operating systems. Contact me explaining your needs and I'll give you more information about how can I help you.

Yes, I can join your team as an external member, also known as a contractor. For example, if you need to back a team member that is in a leave or if you have a spike of work in your company and you need more hands working in the team but you already know the tide will go out and you will need to downscale your team in the future.

For rookie recruiters: remember to check the definition of freelance developer. No, I will not join your company or your customer's company as a full time employee. I am self-employed and I provide development services to different professionals and organizations. While I am describing here working for companies, it is an independent relationship between the company and me.

If you are a CTO or a more technical person and your project has technical requirements that need to be checked (such as whether I have experience with your software stack), contact me so that I can provide more information about that.

If you want a maintenance contract, it can be added to your project and billed separately. I do not enforce them by default -once the project is finished, I consider it closed. However, planning software is difficult and sometimes it is desirable to keep a hotline for new features or fixing bugs that may arise during the lifetime of the application.

In those cases, keeping a maintenance contract is useful as it allows you to keep a emergency line to address issues that may arise, provide support for the application, or plan new features or changes that may be required depending on your needs, even after the project is supposedly finished.