Pricing a web application project?

[gen8x]

Is there any guideline based on the market rate for web application project? (not web design)

My project involves :
- storing customer data
- inventory management
- inventory usage by staff for client-related purpose
- web interface
- database design
- generating complex reports

I plan to use JSP+MySQL for everything
I estimated it to be about 3 months (full-time) to complete

How should i price it?

[LampPC]

Is there any guideline based on the market rate for web application project? (not web design)

My project involves :
- storing customer data
- inventory management
- inventory usage by staff for client-related purpose
- web interface
- database design
- generating complex reports

I plan to use JSP+MySQL for everything
I estimated it to be about 3 months (full-time) to complete

How should i price it?

By hours of work + estimated hours for future debugging.

By the way, JSP is not recommended for a shopping cart. Under heavy load, it will start to experience slowness.

[luzhixianus]

just two points.

1. JSP is not recommended. use either php/mysql, or asp.net/mssql. forget jsp if you are not that kind of enterprise users.

2. if you plan 1 person 3 months for this project ( full time). i think you can roughly know your cost for this project about human cost. assume one people's pay is 2500SGD/mth.
Btw, i think this project should be able to be finished around one month, at most two months (including debug). the longer you use ,the higher cost you will encounter.

Good luck.

[crystalcube]

By the way, JSP is not recommended for a shopping cart. Under heavy load, it will start to experience slowness. mmm which world do you all live in ? :lol:
sorry but even php will experience slowness under heavy load. Its all about designing right architecture. You can design a good one with jsp and bad one with php. Or the other way round.

jsp and php both are tools, equally good and scalable. They both have their pros/cons.

That said if you dont have your own server finding JSP + MySQL combination is not easy. As its not easily available option from most web hosting companies it will potentially reduce your target market.

[hkloo@Netsarius]

I totally agree that JSP is not meant for simple web apps. Too slow to run and develop. PHP and ASP.NET are both good.

The inventory part can be tricky. We have experience for a CD website, takes 2 months x 3 persons. The system includes a very complex inventory. Some more 3 persons are all experience programmers, 3+ years minimum. Also, client could change requirements half way down the road, so please do not under quote.

A general rules of development. Charge $600 to $800 per man-day. So, in your case, 1 person x 60 days x $800 = $48000. Then, remember to mark up 10% for buffer.

[acidz]

What?? $600 - $800 per man-day? Is it that profitable?

[hkloo@Netsarius]

gen8x,

When i was still employee, I saw quotation for project development that cost $600, I also said wah! cost so much. I only looked at one thing. Say my salary was $3000 per month, and work on this project 5 days, boss can already cover my salary.

But when I look back now, from IT employer point of view, that price is just about right.

1st, you have to buy software, development tools, libraries, components etc for development. Also, every 1 to 2 years you have to buy new hardware. 2nd, to be able to capture high profile project, you need experience technical guys, and their salary needs to be adjusted 15% to 20% per year.

3rd, to stay ahead of competition, you need to send them for training, certifications etc.

There are many other hidden cost. If your current project does not make enough, you could cover daily operations but cannot grow. When new technology comes out, then you will be left behind.

Well, my price is based on my experience working for enterprise web solutions. SME solutions maybe you can charge $120 per day to $200, but that makes it so cheapo. We IT personnel are professionals also. Lawyers, accountants, probably charge $300 per hour man.