Thread

Recently, I was having a discussion with a friend of mine who currently develops sites for small companies and individuals. He (like myself) thinks EE is the best CMS (vs WordPress, Modx, TextPattern, etc..,) for site development. However, when he discusses the cost of EE with his clients, they usually balk over the price. 

Personally, I think for $250, EE is a steal!! In some circles I’m considered a CMS expert and there are some heavy duty products available (i.e. Interwoven, Vignette, Stellent, etc..,) that could learn a thing or two regarding the simplicity of EE and they cost THOUSANDS more.

I think instead of discussing the cost and benefit of EE with a client, you should ask a few simple questions:

1. Do you want a dynamic site that’s easy to maintain?
2. Are you going to be updating content regulary?
3. Do you want a site that can be easily extended in the future?

If the client says yes to any of those questions, EE is almost a must. To me, you just add the price of EE in the cost of the project.

Back to my friend, one client of his says he can’t afford the EE business license, but he could afford the personal license of $100. Only the personal license won’t work for his site.

What’s another $150 bones?  If you’re serious about your business $250 won’t break the bank. To me its not that you can’t afford $250, its that you don’t want to pay $250.  If the price was dramatically different, like thousands more—I could understand that. But (to a certain point) we pay the price for what we want and value.

I’ve heard that EE should have a lower price point for the business license - why?  They’re in business to make money. It’s not opensource.

What are your experiences?  Am I just CRAZY!!

Personally, I don’t discuss EE all that much with clients.  Actually, I don’t charge the client for EE.  I just develop a cost estimate and then I end up negotiating final price.  If you are making a living on webdev in the US then the $250 “overhead” is a non-issue.

My momma used to say, “don’t choke on nats.”  This means, worry about the larger agenda and don’t let the smaller stuff get in the way.

As with any site that uses software/scripts as it’s base there is a cost, either in licence purchase, development or modification. Of course scripts come in a huge variety of types, capabilities and quality but as a web designer it’s your job to find the *best* solution to cater for the needs of the site and client. As Stephen says you price for the whole site and not the costs of specific items.

Of course if you have a specific budget to work with it’s up to you whether the cost of a specific application like EE leaves you with enough to cover you time. If it does then no problem, if it leaves you well short then you either up the price or use a different app that achieves the same end. When working out the requirements for any specific site I always get a list of exactly what’s needed before even looking at scripts. If I feel a particular site and circumstances is best suited to a specific script then I will reccommend it to the client.

As an example…

I’m currently putting a quote for a *simple* blogging app that is to be added to a web shop site so the users can post news and articles, and also benefit from the additional SE links. Now, the basic site header/footer style would use the same as the shopping cart so integration into the blog is a 10 minute job, then customising the CSS to style the content is going to be another hour. All in all it’s a 1/2 day job.

Now, say I’m charging $250 for the work and bearing in mind that the client doesn’t want anything fancy, just adding/managing blog entries - that’s it.

My time $250 + EE $250 = $500
My time $250 + free open source blog = $250

Big difference!

I would agree with those that say build it into the price overall and dont let them choose the technological tool you want to use. They are hiring you for a reason and that is because you supposedly know more than they do about building websites. If you find yourself in a situation where someone does not want to spend the extra 150$ then walk away as they are going to nickel and dime you to death.

Self employed persons need to learn that it is OK to fire clients.

M.

In my experience, programmers appreciate doing other things than creating well-structured, well-documented code driven only by business requirements. In an open source project where no-one is really paid for the effort, it is unavoidable that a lot of the programming effort is redundant from a business perspective.

In an open source project, all users basically have the same authority. So a commercial site with several thousand users may receive the same priorities as a student’s personal home page.

In my mind, buying a paid-for CMS is to buy into a user community that mainly consists of “real” business users, and to get access to a developer team that are continually evaluated for their ability to fulfill business requirements.

Personally, I don’t discuss EE all that much with clients.  Actually, I don’t charge the client for EE.  I just develop a cost estimate and then I end up negotiating final price.  If you are making a living on webdev in the US then the $250 “overhead” is a non-issue.

My momma used to say, “don’t choke on nats.”  This means, worry about the larger agenda and don’t let the smaller stuff get in the way.

I think this is a perfect way to handle the issue.

I spent 10 years in the auto industry as a general sales manager, and I’ll say this without question. If you give people more options they’ll ask for more in return. Every time.

Group as much together as possible and sell the project as a whole, not individually. They’ll be happier in the end too.