Black holes and goldfields in the web development market

You need to know this information in order to draw the right conclusions and prevent “expensive” mistakes.

Development of an online project in a web studio.
This is the most appropriate option in terms of investment protection. Work with freelancers and students is much more attractive in terms of cost, but only “newcomers” who have not yet been burned, and the most desperate Customers who are very constrained in the budget, agree to it.

To date, the price range in the commercial development market ranges from $ 1,200 USA to $ 20,000 USA and higher. We only consider the e-commerce segment. Let's see how much an online project costs and why. A simple calculation will help to understand where the cost of a professionally executed Internet project comes from and will lead to several useful life conclusions.

Consider the professional development of an Internet project. The numbers were taken from the expert mass share of each cost in the project budget. If this assessment method is interesting, write to me and I will tell you more about it.

Project Budget 6000 USD


• Documentation (contract, schedule) - 12 people / hour
• Collection of requirements, preparation of technical specifications, specifications - 59 people / hour
• Development of individual design - 88 people / hour
• Layout - 29 people / hour
• Implementation of functionality - programming - 147 people / hour
• Testing - 37 people / hour
• Content filling, primary SEO optimization, job acceptance - 12 people / hour
• Project management - 59 people / hour
• Support and warranty service - 10 people / hour

Total: 442 people / hour

cost per person / per hour 20 $ USA

This artist will add about 20% n Lair load (RFP taxes (social contribution, ECB, PDFO), VAT) + profit.

As a result, the cost of the project for the customer will be about $ 6 thousand. USA.

There is another type of development - “template solutions”.
This is the case when a ready-made template of a certain project is taken, minimal adaptation to the requirements of the Customer is carried out - without deep elaboration of the concept, without usability and design, without testing, without any serious building of long-term cooperation with the client. Such template solutions have a “short life” because budgets are small, and as soon as the work is completed, the Contractor loses interest in the project, because for that kind of money he is no longer interested. And the customer loses interest in the project, since with such a performance and quality it is very difficult to do something. “The cost of consultations” was not specified - the project is budgetary, and the Contractor is not able to consult constantly - he will simply starve to death if he consults all his former Customers.

What do “template solutions” offer:

• Documentation (contract, schedule) - 3 people / hour
• Collection of requirements, preparation of technical specifications, specifications - 13 people / hour
• Development of individual design - 13 people / hour
• Layout - 13 people / hour
• Implementation of functionality - programming - 40 people / hour
• Testing - 0 people / hour
• Content filling, primary SEO optimization, job acceptance - 0 people / hour
• Project management - 0 people / hour
• Support and warranty service - 0 people / hour

Total: 80 people / hour

The cost of one person / hour for freelancers and students will be about $ 10 USA since nor pay taxes, do not rent an office and do not reserve funds for further customer support.

That's where the prices come from. ”Site from 1200 $ USA”

And now, interesting conclusions:


1. In the range from $ 2,000 USA to $ 6,000 USA lies the “Black Hole” of problematic profitability. Doing individual projects in this range is NOT PROFITABLE. And those who want template ones simply will not go to this segment.
2. If any company can establish its processes and make individual projects in this range with an acceptable rate of return - this company will earn millions.
3. If any company takes a risk and agrees to do your individual project in the black hole range, this is an alarm to the Customer. The customer is faced with huge risks of exceeding the budget, deadlines, stopping the project and abandoning it by the Contractor.
4. If the Customer has met developers on the market who are ready to make an individual project in the “black hole” range, then the Customer should take a closer look if they are selling him a “template solution” at the price of an individual development?

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