So how much would you pay for an installation of WordPress? This question was raised by Damien Mulley of mully.net. In his post (Wanted: People to install WordPress without robbing others blind), Damien mentions that he is building a list of people with reasonable prices who will perform default WordPress installations. According to Damien, there are a few people who are charging anywhere from €550 to €1500 (Euros). This equates to $857.00 to $2,338.33. I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind who would pay that amount to have WordPress installed for them. However, when I stop to think about those who are brand new to blogging or to WordPress in general, those are the ones that when offered these prices, may believe this to be normal when in fact, it’s not.
The conversation about this topic was handled pretty well within the comments. Most people commented that they would charge $50.00. Others said they wouldn’t charge a dime while others wouldn’t mind having a beer purchased for them.
You know, if someone wants you to install WordPress and turn it into a CMS or do some sort of customization that doesn’t exist out of the box, I can understand the price. However, for default installations, there is no reason why the install should be over $50.00 maximum.
For those of you wanting to install WordPress for free, be sure to read this article in the Codex entitled, Installing WordPress for Free. Or read the other aspects of the article to figure out how you can install WordPress on your own without emptying your pockets.
I would pay nothing. I have neither paid to have it installed, nor have I charged any of the 100+ people I’ve installed it for. There’s a very clear line between selling my time for a reasonable rate of return, and selling my time as though I were a lawyer. That said, since I paid nothing for the base software, I would never dream of charging anyone else for it (or installation).
Web space, customization, bandwidth and ongoing support, on the other hand, is almost fair game. That said, I’ve never asked for more than a latte from Starbucks in return for my time.
Hi,
I never knew people charged so much for that. I guess people should do more research before going online.
I’ve done several installations across the web both for free and for a price. I do it for a price is, as you said, it required mods and such. But for a basic, bland ol’ install – why would you charge anything for 5 minutes worth of time? That just seems ridiculous.
That’s funny. I charge quite a bit on my hourly rate for coding, and spent probably 4-5 hours altogether coding my EasyWP WordPress installer that I give away for free. 😛
http://smackdown.blogsblogsblo.....-too-easy/
People charging the prices you showed are predatory, plain and simple, relying on other people’s ignorance to make money (assuming they weren’t designing custom themes from scratch, of course, which it doesn’t sound like they were doing). Even if you throw in walking them through buying a domain name and getting hosting, installing, grabbing the basic plugins, and teaching them how to switch themes… it’s still going to be under an hour.
Jeff, have you ever considered getting the “Chunk Urls for WordPress” plugin? It keeps extra long url’s from breaking out of the layout, by shortening the anchor text.
I think between $20 – $20 is reasonable. Anything more than that is extortion.
Hey im a freelancer myself on php mostly but i have worked in lot of wordpress sites and i think 50$ for installation + some plugins and a theme its a fair price but most people ask for more later on.
Anyways for a simple installation + 1-2 pointers to the client 50$ seems ok for me.
Internet related services have been my bread and butter for the past 10 years, and out of fairness to myself, my family, and to the clients themselves, I charge for my time, whether I am robotically installing software on a server, tweaking CSS files, programming code, or simply consulting, I charge. That being said, I always end up ‘donating’ time to a paying customer, especially those who understand the value of experience.
I know what I know and can do what I do because I spent years learning the ins and outs. I have invested countless unbilled hours to be able to handle the various tasks and skills required to produce results for those who have a need, but not the time…the money, but not the wherewithal, to do it themselves.
Giving away my time is tantamount to taking support away from my family. For this reason, I have no problem whatsoever charging to install wordpress, or even plug-ins. I have NO problem with my client learning how to do it on their own, and I even strive to get them to that point. But most insist they have me (or their own people) do it for them, and they willingly pay for that service.
I applaud those who can and do give away their time freely, it means they can afford to.
I think charging for an installation is fine (Within £10, I would pay) but anything higher for a standard installation, I wouldn’t bother with.
For a plain vanilla WP install, yeah, no more than $20 or I feel I’ve fleeced someone.
Now for WordPressMu, I charge substantially more, as all kinds of things can go wrong. I’ve seen it take as little as 15 minutes and as much as 3 days to get running.
I do think everyone was in agreement that anything past an install was what people were charging the big fees for. Although the people scoffing at low install prices were incorrect in assuming it was for businesses or people who needed to be hand-held through the interface. There’s different situations for everyone and thus different prices.
Thanks for the suggestion Michael, installed.
If we’re going by standard web design or consulting fees, anywhere from $50-100 is reasonable presuming that they charge at least an hour’s worth of labor and you already have Apache, PHP, MySQL, etc. setup properly. Certainly not everyone feels comfortable using FTP and shell access to setup software and I don’t think it unreasonable to hire someone to do it. Not everyone can/will follow directions. Would you call it a rip-off to pay for someone to change your oil even though it only takes 10 minutes? Besides, you’re not just getting pages dumped on a web server; you should also be getting a helping hand running through the configuration options. The “5-minute” install will get you a working copy of WordPress, but not necessarily a functional and usable one.
I imagine everyone would see the value as being greater if you hire someone to do an upgrade. Backing up pages and databases, upgrading plugins, checking theme compatibility… that’s some serious work, even for a techie.
Just to clarify, btw, I wasn’t saying that charging was wrong. I was saying that charging $857.00 to $2,338.33 to install it was. I charge a decent amount per hour for my time, but one of the reasons I charge what I do is because I know what I am doing, and can do many things faster than those with less experience can. Even if someone charges $100/hr, the low end rate quoted is saying that they think it will take them over 8.5 hours to install WordPress. If that’s the case, then $100/hr is way more than that person should be charging.
Around $50 for installation is probably fair. But setting up WordPress? That’s something else altogether.
I would say find a host (like Dreamhost) which supports 1-click wordpress installs and save the money.
50 bucks to install the thing if the installer does NOTHING ELSE is a bit too much.
It is not that hard at all to install the program yourself.
oh yeah, to answer the question, $60 would do it, for a vanilla install along with a handful of plug-ins, assuming the client is going to configure and initialize. I’ll even plop in a theme pack or two for them to play with for that install if they have some they have already specced.
I do everything in 1 hour blocks, so if they want an install, with the 10 minutes or so it takes, they still have the option to utilise me for 50 mins of my time since they are paying for it.
I just had to look at it the other way around: knowing what such a basic installation implies, I wouldn’t pay more than those 50$.
On the other side, I would neither charge more than those 50$ if someone just wanted a plain and simple installation.
BUT I would also offer to charge an additional 50$ for another hour of work, installing the basic and strictly necessary plugins for what they aim to do with their side, again no customizations, just basic helpful plugins. (do not want to go into listing those here, as that would degrade into a: whats your favorite top 10 plugins).
I do charge for my clients to install wordpress. About 450€.
But, not only I charge for the installation, there’s also a “pimping” the blog, adding a theme, making a nice header and show them how to use it.
But I always tell them the same… if you want it free, go to wordpress.com or even try it first for free there, and when you want some more customization and things… call me 🙂
They usually jump to the “easy” version, paying.
I am ready for $5 or $50 🙂
Well, knowing that I can install it myself and how it is really makes this a blind guess. I’d say no more than 5-10 USD. But that’s also coming from me who really looks at what he’s installing and stuff.
As for what other people would pay me, I’d take it on a donation basis. Really, it’s not much work. But if they think I’m worth that exuberant amount of money then I’m not going to stop them.
Well that too and updating WordPress too is being charged by many people, whenever people ask me I simply redirect them to my plugin using which they can upgrade for free.
I think that nobody should charge people for installing WP (if you add a theme to that, ok, but it must be pro, not one of that you can download for free), and if they do they should give some money to the creators of WP, cause it´s free, it like selling the oranges the man next door give you. Ok, but that´s ethic, something we are missing.
Sorry for my english!
30-40 EUR is a low-to-normal hourly rate in Germany for a freelancer. So if anyone installs WP for someone as a business, at least 1-2 hours sound reasonable to me, because you don’t only have the installation, but all the back and forth of getting the login data, selecting the theme, introducing the customer to WP, customization is likely to take place etcpp. I agree with the poster who said it’s fine if people do it for free – but if it’s your business (and you’re liable for errors!) – you shouldn’t do it for 20$ or even 20 EUR. My EuroCents 🙂
what the F…
Those poor bastards… Hosting companies like BlueHost will do installations as part of their regular package.
It’s interesting though because I was just thinking about offering this as a sort of side income. Also a great way to meet some bloggers in person.
I was thinking more around $100 – $150 , This would include helping them find a stable theme, quality plugins (SEO), and a basic tutor session on FTP.
It would be kind of a dick move to set them up and leave them hangen. WordPress.com can do a lot more for an ignorant self hosted blogger.
I wouldn’t pay anything, but I have the minimal skills required to install WP. $50 sounds fair to install, and throw an out of the box theme on it, and activate Askimet—that’s less than an hour of work.
However, I think most people who need someone else to install something so simple probably need ongoing support while they’re learning how to work with it. That definitely falls outside what $50 should buy.
I generally ask for a beer or a six pack to do it, but not much else.
Quite amusingly, people are happy for me to put a link/adsense/affiliate banner on their sites as well, which works for me too 🙂
I knew little to nothing about WP and paid $65 for a tutorial that walked me through it. Although I’m pleased with the end result, I debated with myself about paying $65 for it for months. The hosting, I understand, but to make a blog, which only brings WP more viewers, seems a lil nuts. So, I guess I’m a lil nuts.
Hmm. I did a site in April and May and charged £400 for it. Not for the install, the open-source software or the plugins, but to do a job that would have taken them some effort to get their heads around; plus the hosting, bandwidth, training, customising, tweaking, 24/7 (ish) support, advice and guidance.
Equally, I’m spending 150 hours on a new site which requires me to learn some php and some of the more esoteric features of WP, for which I’m charging nothing (though I am building a skillset I can use when I feel like getting a paying client) because it’s for a football club I work at (for free).
I see nothing wrong with charging for my time; most people pay for plumbers, electricians, plasterers and so on. You could do it yourself, or get someone in. Like all things,know what you want and get three quotes.
I have done a few installs for free then the person’s has come back to me and said now i want it to ‘look like’ or ‘have this’ at which point i state my hourly rate.
some people are happy to pay for you time and wont take no for an answer. So with this i would say $50 was fair.
Since there are so many people who give free info here, could someone tell me how to stretch my design template so it fits the screen. In other words, eliminate the 1 inch border on both sides? Please?
I feel torn between the two camps. As an on-call nerd-for-hire my time is valuable, so $50 is a fair price to me. Of course I will, like others, include my favorite plug-ins and themes and instruction on how to install/remove/activate them. However my saying goes “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you loose a customer.” I want my customers to get value, but I also want fair pay for my time. I never want someone to repeatedly have to come to me to do the basics, but I do want to be their contact for the stuff they are comfortable with. It’s a stick situation.
On that note, I will never charge for the open-source software. It’s not in the spirit of open-source.
Most people I run into find connecting to the internet or setting up email on a new computer intimidating the first time. There’s nothing wrong with that. This is normal. Even though these tasks are—to you and me—easy. Logging into a hosting provider to run Fantastico or downloading, unzipping and FTPing WordPress are also easy to you and me. But not everyone. Paying someone so you don’t have to learn or worry about those tasks. Totally worth $50 to a lot of people. That’s just business.
I do freelance WP work all the time. For a default install I charge an hourly rate of $35/hour (1 hour minimum). Honestly, if the user is already signed up for a web host and gives me their FTP info, I’ve never charged more then $35 for a default install. If they want plugins integrated and customizations done, then that just gets added on to the hourly rate. I’m not charging for software or anything like that, it’s my time and experience that the client is getting charged for.
But for simple projects like that I think you should always pay an hourly rate rather then bid for the project. Trust me, you’ll save a lot of money, at least if I’m the one doing it.
@TPNDrew – Charging for the installation is not even close to the same thing as charging for the software. Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Linux are all released under free licenses… but there is no way in hell I would install and configure a full blown webserver for someone for free. 🙂
If someone wishes to have a WordPress blog installed on my server it is installed for free, they only pay the normal costs since I, effectively, have no real work to do with the installation – and that includes setting up Akismet.
for something right out of the box, I can’t imagine paying at all for that. I suppose if someone wanted to throw me a few bones for it, I wouldn’t object. I think where the money aspect would come in is if they wanted something more than a simple installation. Do they want me to do some custom art work or something? Want me to be on hand to continue to help them? Reinstall it after they’ve crashed the thing?
Maybe then I could see some sort of a fee but even then, I can’t see asking more than $50.
I’m guessing for the big bucks mentioned up there, it must have been some sort of corporate thing?
E.
For a friend, I’d do it for free. As a business transaction, I’d charge significantly more than $50 (although probably still in the three digit range).
Why? The time they’re buying isn’t just the time sitting at the keyboard, it’s the expertise built up on how to do things properly. And, in a sense, they’re also buying their own time — the time they’d otherwise have to spend rummaging around sites with big words they don’t quite understand, worried that they’re doing something wrong and putting their site at risk. If they are a professional, their own time saved is worth far more to them than anything I’d charge.
If $50 is the market rate, and they trust the “market” installer, that’s fine with me if they go that way. That’s because there’s no way I’d want to deal with the support calls from someone who shopped around and picked a low-ball flat-rate installer. No way.
I genuinely enjoy learning about these things, and I still would gladly have paid more than $50 for a truly professional install. I spent many hours trying to figure out plugins, whether I had to worry about ping servers, registering feeds with feedburner, getting sitemaps setup, registering for analytics, getting a decent backup solution, etc.
If you charge $800 – $2000 just to install WordPress, your probably one of those self-proclaimed “WordPress Rockstars.”
To me that is an unreasonable price for small businesses and indivuduals. I think $20 – $40/hour is very reasonable especially if you throw in free support after the installation is complete.
I’d install it for free, I’m happy to help people out for free in my spare time, when I have time. I wouldn’t mind a beer, or the paypal eqiv. but i’m not charging something so ridiculous as $50 for a base insatll
No love for the “fool and his money are soon parted” way of looking at things? I personally wouldn’t charge any more than 20 bucks, if anything at all because if I were to do it for anyone it would probably be a friend or family member. But if you can find somebody willing and able to pay a ridiculous amount for something quite simple, why not take advantage? I’m not really in a position to turn down $2,338.33.
I don’t charge for basic installs because most of the time I can just point them at Fantastico. I DO charge for complete sites in WordPress though, because I’m install, designing, caring for and doing ALL of the setup work. I charge at an hourly rate, and my clients love me for it. I’ve shown them they can get it for free, and they still hire me, so I must be doing something right – but at the same time, my ‘fee’ covers them for a month and means they are a logged client, if hacked, so I can go in and fix it for them, without a lengthy signup process.
And then I donate back to whatever script I’ve been involved in – under a benefactor name 🙂
I would be the worker’s regular hourly wage, as long as the interventions are properly justified and explained, in advance.
I should probably add that we also do upgrades – for free – because there’s nothing worse than a perfectly brilliant blog getting hacked and the owner losing out cause their coder has abandoned them/isn’t available/is too expensive.
Well, I have to admit that it sort of depends on who it is, how they treat me and how much time I have. If I’ve got the time, and a pretty girl asks me to install WordPress for her, I’d do it for the price of a link back to my site and a thank you. And, well, honestly, no one else has asked me for help! LOL!
But, charging almost $900 for a plain, vanilla install? That’s highway robbery! OTH, if someone doesn’t do the research and is willing to pay that, well, is that the installer’s fault? You can only charge what the market will bear, so if the market will bear those prices…
There are many people who are happy to pay someone to install software, even something as simply as WordPress, they are paying for the time and knowledge.
I would probably only charge $10 to install WordPress for someone, it only takes about 5 minutes, so why would I charge any more then that?
You cannot really go against the market laws. I Someone is ready to pay for a service… the price is never fixed.
We all make mistakes, but I don’t really think somebody charges 500$ for an single install…
For that price You MUST have the hosting included, a custom theme, and a follow up for later customs… Like Ads.
I’m thinking about a 3 day job dedicated to the customer.
The real question remain what do you really get for that price in terms of features, customizations, hosting, spam protection, Seo Optimisation, and plug-ins…
I would not charge for the installation itself, but rather for my consulting time. This would be charged at my regular rate of $50 per hour. That being said, it should only take an hour or less to determine what the user needs and get them all set up with everything they need for a default WordPress installation. People charging the exorbitant amounts for the installations are unethical and taking advantage of others. Then again, caveat emptor, right? An intelligent consumer should always do some research first, or ask a friend or consultant in the know.
Hi
a short story why I do not install WP for free.
1. email:please install default WP with the default theme..
2. email : I need all the data:userpassword, ftp account database and so on…
3. email: only ftp account without database username ..
4.email: please all the data I can’t install without them
5.email: I got all the necessary things..
6. email: here your adminaccount ..have fun..
7.email: could you please tell me how to…
8.email: I give an answer…
9.email .. I need information about plugins… gallery… email… and so on..
10.email: I give the information
11.email:please could you install this for me..
12.email: I have done …have fun..
13. email: I would like to have a custom homepage ..how to..
14.email:please read our support forum…
15.email: Why? YOu have said you do it for me…
15 email… is more time than 5 minutes for the installation and it is my time—my spare time.
and after 15 email with good information the person told “the whole wide world” :Monika is a fool..no support…no anserws…
***************
since this I would like to have money for installation – and more than 50€ – I have learned that a default installation need more than 3 hours with all the emails-all the questions.
regards
Monika
In my experience, setting up a WordPress site takes a lot more than an hour. The basic setup is very simple, but how many people want the default theme? You have to find a theme that fits the site, which in my experience takes a LOT of time. Then, once you’ve found one they like, you have to modify it in some way because it rarely does exactly what you want. I agree with Monika on this – installing a WordPress site is more than simple installation and takes a lot more time than most people expect.
Why not let the market work? What authority do you have to say a certain price is “wrong?”
Asymetric information is part of business.
And anyway, if the installation is being done for a serious enterprise, and they are paying for top-flight consulting and worthwile recommendations about what plugins to use and what platform or hosting solution is optimal for their site, it could well be worth the money to them, which is the only measure of whether it is the “right” price for that transaction.
Besides, through the magic of the GPL, people who are simply distributing free software like WordPress are allowed to charge for that software:
“When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish)…”
My recommendation to the WordPress community: don’t cheapen the value of “free software,” especially if it really does provide value to clients. Charge what it’s worth–or whatever you can get. If you are truly overcharging rather than asking a fair price for hard work, that will probably damage your reputation in the long run anyway.
I have never charged anyone to install word press, though I’ve installed it for about 50 people. I’ve accepted donations though. *LOL* Some had given me as high as $100. But, that was not for Word Press per se. It was also for registering their domain (they paid for it) and getting them a good webhost and finally installing Word Press for them. 50% of the time, I don’t get paid, but for those who paid me, though it was in the guise of a donation, I truly appreciated it because in the end, I also become their tech support. 🙂
Thinking about it because i may install it for some people, i believe that something between $50-$100 USD for creating a database, installing wordpress, showing the user how to manage it and customizing the default install is reasonable.
However, charging for just a vanilla installation is wrong because most people with a domain and the knowledge to create a database and one ftp acocunt to upload will accomplish the WP installation in no time.
I have helped some friends install and customize WP without even thinking about charging them for it. One time i went with a guy to a cafe and throw him a crash course of WP in a few hours.
Some of them did buy me a beer, though.
i have yet to pay for any type in installation on any of my servers
Frankly, I still haven’t been able to get the hang of the WP beast. If tomorrow, the header image vanishes for no rhyme or reason, I wouldn’t be surprised, at all. Maybe the money is needed to insure things don’t go awry for those who could have a lot riding on it.
Terrible to read that a few ‘rogue’ people are actually charging such astronomic amounts for a simple installation of WordPress! One reason everyone likes it so much (I’m sure!) is that it *is* a 5-minute installation.
I started out on the blogger platform at the end of 2006. I converted to the WordPress platform less than a couple of months after. I’m not a techie at all, and, I have to admit, I was a little intimidated at first. But once I read the Codex instructions, and followed them step by step, I had not a single problem. So for a person who is not a techie, but can read directions, I didn’t have a problem. Would never pay for a WP installation.
For clients who order custom design – I charge for the design and theme development – and throw the installation in at no charge, along with 6 plugins of their choice.
For clients who are hosted with me – I install for free, and charge a nominal fee for upgrades (which includes full backups, theme testing, plugin compatibility and troubleshooting) $35.
For non-hosted clients and those who have not ordered custom designs? WP default installation w/ Akismet activation and a stable, optimized, non-sponsored free theme install – $50.
Prices also cover those initial ‘how to’ questions that are reasonable and expected.
Placing value on your time is not a crime, nor is it unethical. $2K for a basic, default install, though? That’s crazy talk.
I would install and setup the WordPress files for free, so then the Blogger could do their thing. (That is if they were already hosted)
If I HAD to charge a price it would only be $1.99.
It’s not that difficult to drag and drop some 100 files into a public_html folder.
For customization, such as extra things, custom themes; i would charge VERY little.
10 bucks for a theme. (quick estimate)
~ If you do need a WordPress Default install and setup, i’ll happily do it. No charge.
Need anything else on there, just ask me and I can set something up for you.
Drop me an email ><
That’s is way too much for a simple installation of WordPress. C’mon! download/upload, unpack, config 1 simple file with 3 lines, and that’s it! Now, if someone is looking for a personalized WP install, ok… modifying or creating themes and making some “teaks” can be a time-consuming job which should be paid accordingly. But that’s it.
But as far as advise and “plain installation”, I have given tips to people with no money return in my mind. And I would accept an invitation for a beer or a coffe, mostly to converse and socialize.
I’d pay the money to set up things like a shopping cart or credit card service, but I’ve never been able to find consensus on what is a reasonable price to pay!
Rudy
$2000 is crazy for a simple installing of WP. I think it should be free of charge, excluding the fee of hosting, domain name, themes and plugins designing.
If the person needs assistance understanding how the installation takes place I would be happy to explain. I consider it help so they know how to do it themselves next time.
On the other hand, should this person need custom coding of a layout including the installation, I would consider a price. The only reason for that is my services will then be used. The difference between the two is providing someone a friendly hand and giving a business service. Many have difficulty determining where to draw the line.
$2000+ for a plain installation… its a madness.
You can feed an entire village in far flung Africa for many months using that amount of mine.
I am wiling to pay max $5 and no more.
Default installation for a beer.
In my experiences, no-one has ever asked for a “plain install”. Something is always needed that takes it to at least an hours work time. It’s also not always the code side that racks up man hours, once you have it installed you can point the client towards the admin area and then he’s on the phone asking how to put a post in the navigation and why doesn’t a page get listed like a post.
I have no problems charging to install wordpress, because I know that it’s more than an install.
I do not know the prices at USA or other countries for web design or development. At Austria you are a very poor man if you earn 1000€(1558.08 USD this days)for 162hours/month.
I’m a freelancer. I have to pay 42% social costs and taxes, because I earn more than 1000€/month.
1/3 of my time is for marketing -no marketing no customers;)
so I have to calculate a minimum of ~ 38€/hour to earn 2000€/month or ~4000€/month pre tax.
Sometimes I got 10-20emails /day asking for email support for free. This is time, my spare time, but my spare time is the german support forum for WP (~ 10hours /week) – the rest I would like to spent my time for me and not for “anonymous email user” who asks for a free install ;)-with more than 15emails…. 😉
Time is money-“have to be money” in this world – if I hate this rule or not, I’m living in this world and so I have to accept.
regards
Monika
So I’m not a ‘rogue’ (Mosey two comments above)
To say I cannot imagine to charge a significant amount of money for installing WordPress means to say I cannot imagine a professional use for a corporate customer.
If a private person from the ‘hood asked me to set him up with a private blog, the charge would obviously be a bottle of good wine, even though he, too, is receiving good work for it.
If a corporate customer came up with a professional demand for, err, excuse me, a blog? Well then, if so, I would establish the details of his needs, which almost certainly would involve consulting, customization, and subsequent support and backups – and yes, then I’d damn well charge him my hourly rate times x, and then x is certain to be a considerable number, just as in any other professional website job.
These are just two extremely different things. No way I could bring myself to charge a friend money for neighbourly help, but no way also I could imagine any corporate job that could be finished properly within an hour or two.
I think the price for the installation should be based on what the person is going to do with it. For example, if you install WP for a friend or acquaintance just so that person can blog then either a free or nominal (<$50) installation fee is acceptable. However, if the person is going to make money or attempt to run a business then it is only fair that the installer profit from the installation as well. In summary, I feel that the cost for the WP installation should be based on the benefit(s) received by the end user.
$50 sounds like the right price, although I have others who offered $7 per installation in forums.
€1500 is crazy if that doesn’t include design or content work.
Admin@bsevz.com if you need anything.
When people want blogs, I just give it to them. Hosting, and in some cases, domain name included. I’ve even done some custom theme and plugin coding for a few friends, at no charge.
However, if someone wants to use WordPress for a commercial purpose, I charge from 500$ to 1500$ on launch, and charge 50$/mo to 150$/mo to do the updates and keep the installation running. I think it’s a fair price for all the custom work you do.
For the people with reading comprehension issues, they were talking about prices for a DEFAULT install: no themes, no plugins, no NOTHING.
Charging for your time is great, charging for your expertise is awesome. Charging an exorbitant amount for a 5-minute install is hugely wrong.
LOL @ Andrea_R
Frankly, I *would* charge for an vanilla install, but nowhere near that (a solid $25 off the top of my head) because although it does take less than 5 minutes to install — especially when you’ve done it a time or three hundred — it does take time to get the information/communicate with the client and monkey around with their settings.
Basically, it may only take less than 5 minutes to install, but you could easily end spending 30 min to an hour of your time just going back and forth with the client.
Now, in general, I rarely accept a WP install unless they’re a previous client or ordering another service from me (in which case the install in usually included). I’ve developed a habit of directing them to my free FTP and WordPress installation tutorials or the Install4Free service.
My 2 cents.
@Monika: Thank you for your financial breakdown, but I am actually really really puzzled as to how my comment was interpreted in that way? I did clearly relate rogue with astronomical prices, but I’m sure anyone would agree that a simple installation of WordPress can’t possibly be worth 550€-1500€ (I’m referring to a straightforward installation without any of the extra frills – clearly additional work is a different poin for discussion) I quote from the original article:
Thanks
I’d pay nothing.
I’d charge what I could get away with.
Garage repairs are £27 an hour, same as plasterers, electricians and plumbers. They don’t work for nothing, so if they don’t have the skills or knowledge they should pay for mine the same way as I pay for theirs.
I would charge something bewtween 50$ (installing the basic-version) – and up xy 5 (creating a own design, implementing conten (like moving an existing page to wordpress)
1500 Eur for a 5 minute job, not bad an 18.000 Eur salary an hour. Work 8 hours a day and you make 144.000 Euro, work 4 weeks taking the weekends off you make 2.880.000 Euro.
Really hope there’s not that many people out there falling for such scams as that’s just plain ridiculous.
Something like 10 Eur tops is what it’s worth I’d say, definitely nothing more. Even for that price I’d say it’s already on the high side seeing as to how simple the job is.
@ Mosey I understand your meanings 😉
@ all maybe 1500Euro for a 5minutes Job or for 3hours are more than enough money, but
😉
I can say I would like to have this money, the other hand there must be a customer who is willing to pay this money.
If someone could find a customer who is willing to pay 1500euro for 5 minutes or 3 hours , – congratulations.:-)
A very common software is more than buggy, but millions of customers are willing to pay for it 😉 more than this they are proud if the get the newest (buggy) update from this software.
Bill Gates was one of the best seller in our world, so why should not a little developer do the same as a big concern…. (with more than one blink in my eyes ;))
Monika
I think it is necessary to ask for a minimum compensation – about 50 Euro for a default WordPress installation. I mean just a default WordPress installation, but I know very well it doesn’t end there, many would bombard you with rather obvious questions that could need more time to explain and process then the rather easy 5-MIN WP installation.
I’m available to help anyone willing to pay $500 for installation!
(pick me, pick me, pick me…)
I’m going to have to agree with most everyone on here. Charging hundreds or thousands for an installation better include a domain name, hosting, and some pretty fancy customizations. But charging $20-$50 for an installation is simply charging for your time. You know there are going to be questions and other issues that you deal with when setting up any site for someone. It’s only fair that you get paid for your time, and they get what they pay for. I’m a big proprietor of the open source community, I love both WordPress and CakePHP for when I need to do things myself, I also contribute to those people for their time because I’m thankful for what they do.
I work for a company that charges that high prices. Though they are never just for the WP installation as a blog platform but includes turning it to CMS by adding all the plugins the specific customer might need for his site, modifying it a bit, often creating a new layout or making a wordpress theme identical to what the old site looked on different platform and testing it on all browsers, moving the content, etc… So what is included in those prices are quite a lot more than 5 minute installation.
That all said, even the 5 minute installation isn’t a five minute installation when a company does it. Especially if they *don’t* host it themselves.
There needs to be a customer contacting one of the salesmen, then they discuss a while, salesman contacts one of the technical guys, they then concider what might be the best platform and what the customer really might need for his company, the technical guy calls the customer to discuss that and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Then, the techie needs to start contacting the people who own the servers the customer has bought webhotelling from, need to contact the customer for all kinds of passwords to the old site, need to find out the passwords, database names, etc. for the new webhotel,..
If you haven’t done that kind of stuff in a midsized company, believe me, it often takes time. The process that goes as 5 minute installation when one of us installs a WP for our own system might take 3 manhours from a company. Then, what might seem just “5 min installation and analytics added to it” might really be “5 min installation, 1 hour of consulting and contacting customers, 1h55m to try to get all the necessary passwords and such, do the book keeping etc. AND then two hours more when consulting customer on what his needs in analytics are, what analytics software he should use, what filters to install, configuring all that, teaching a customer how to read it all…”.
What we do in 20 minutes for ourselves or our friends might take 5 hours for a company that needs to contact many different people, many different organizations, consult the customer and teach him how to do things.
I don’t believe that a thing such as “5 minute installation” EVER works for a company because either that’s a very small portition of the time that is needed to talk with a customer to find out if WP really is the best for his needs or the company is doing something very wrong.
Naturally, charging 1500€ for 3 hours would still be horribly overpricing (we charge a lot less per hour) but much less so than 1500€ for 5 minutes.
I usually would charge around $50.00 per install. But, that covers uploading the files myself, on crappy dial-up connection (at $10.00 per month for fee) and then making sure everything is installed properly and working like planned.
That also would include SOME support if the person needs it. Not counting any upgrades they’d want done, when the time comes for needing upgrades as well. There again, you’re using “time” in general, and connection(s) which I’d have to pay for.
ALSO, you have to consider in, any factors that would take up more time, more resources, more support and such, if a users host isn’t really setup for specific versions of WordPress, and various other possible obstacles that may come up.
$50.00 to $100.00 isn’t a bad price at all, if you stop and think about it. I’ve done near 100 FREE installs before and USUALLY there are more issues / problems than there are easy 5 minute installations.
I would charge depending on the customer and the work involved. I see nothing wrong with a $50 installation or even a $200 installation (though the latter would involve domaon name, hosting, consultancy, some customisation etc.
The other day I got a new exhaust fitted to my car. What I paid for labour might well seem surprisingly high to a skilled amateur mechanic, but I was happy to pay. Why? Because I don’t have the knowledge, the equipment, the time or the interest to do it myself.
It’s the same for IT work of any kind in my view. If people want to develop the skills and devote the time and cultivate the interest, then fine. If they would rather get on with their business and pay me to take care of all that “complicated, boring computer stuff”, that’s an arrangement that suits both parties — just like the car mechanic working on my car.
Hum, I charge as much as I feel is decent. I’ve spend many hours getting comfy with WordPress and all its ins and outs, that experience is well worth something. Last time I installed WordPress, edited a theme, added content and provided a 1 hour training I charged €450. The company was more then happy, I got a decent hourly rate, good stuff I would say.
Let’s face it, it is a little bit of work and that doesn’t end with the installation. You probably will have numerous questions to answer after installing WP. However, that said, I feel that for a basic install, $10 bucks would cover any labor, since we are probably sitting on our backsides to do it!
I always charge more than $50 for installation since I have never had a person want just a default installation. There’s always a need for a set of initial plugins, installation of a theme, some minor to major customizations, and/or some consultation on using WordPress. Technically, it’s offering those additional services and providing a tested WordPress install that I’m charging for.
In my experience, the clients that scoff at paying $100+ for installation are also going to be the ones that expect free consultation and other services after the installation. It’s better to weed them out with a reasonable price than end up paying dearly with your time just to get a small amount at the start.
I would expect that many of the people that do installations on the cheap are also the ones that quickly ask for more money when the client has a simple question or tell the client that fixing problems such as broken uploaders and 404’d permalinks is not covered in the installation cost.
For a Basic Install of WordPress, the cost should be 100% Free.
Either a vendor can provide two options:
1. Install it with no questions asked.
2. Provide the directions on how to install.
To Install WordPress with an un-customized theme, the cost should be 100% Free.
Why? Not only you can build good will with a potential client, and gain their trust & loyalty, but you can also provide advice, which can be a consulting service.
For a installation of wordpress with a Custom Theme that takes activating & configuring plugins, this price depends on the “TIME” that it takes to perform the maintenance, or a price that is a fixed price not over $30. Why $30?
1. Building loyalty to a potential client.
2. You can provide future consulting service.
3. One satisfied client builds great word-of-mouth.
Overall, WordPress is about the Extension & functionality. If you are not doing anything with extension and functionality, you should be doing it 100% free. But hey, no one else would speak the truth on this. I’m not only a programmer myself, but also have been a client.
I always charge 60usd for a linux server and 80 for a windows server (because they’re always a PITA). I don’t have an issue with charging that since I offer free tech support for the life of the blog. My clients don’t seem to mind either.
Marti
I would charge for theme design. Other than this, the web hosting. The installation, bundled. From a point of web developer.
Wow, I see there big prices. I was afraid that I’m charging too much… Last time I charged 140usd for WP+modules install, theme customisation and 5h training.
We’ve had cases where we did extensive customizing and design for commercial clients, essentially building a one-off wordpress CMS. These guys then wouldn’t pay us, because “wordpress is for free”.
For basic default WP I wouldn’t charge more than $25 USD. The price would go up depending on what else they wanted. I can’t believe the prices people are charging and that people are paying for it.
It depends on how much the supply/demand was. If I had a regular business of installing WP for people, I wouldn’t mind charging them only $20 or so, but if I have just one person a year ask me, then I’d have to charge more. Another thing to keep in mind, is alot of web hosting providers have wordpress built into the control panel, so installing and upgrading wordpress via Fantastico makes the process a simple one-click installation, which is what I would do if I were a reseller. Having said all that, I can install wordpress from scratch fairly easily, but what I can’t do, which I wouldn’t mind some help on, is having someone help me with my theme. The theme I have on my website now I like, I modified it from an old theme back from the 1.5 days, but the problem is its not WP 2.5 ready, and I’d like to add things like widget support, and just some general optimizations so its more 2.5 ready, because right now I’m afraid to upgrade to 2.5 because my theme, and not all my plugins, are 2.5 ready, but I just don’t know how to get them there is my problem.
like right now I have lightbox installed as a plugin, but its not 2.5 ready, and there are a couple other things (like my sidebar for instance) that was hand coded in using a plugin that could be done better with functions already built into WP, similar to how to admin panel is already setup, but I just don’t understand how to code all that stuff by hand into the theme like that so my theme is 2.5 ready.
May be they don’t know that it just took 5 minutes installing wordpress. they just to read the readme. It’s a robbery I guess, sorry to say…
I agree with your statement that installing a not-built-by-your-own-hands cms especially like wordpress costs no more than 50 bucks, or even less. It’s like when you ride a cab in foreign town, the driver notices and cheats as he goes round-and-round to raise the taxi-meter.
Modifying the CMS should be way cheaper than a CMS which is built from scratch, and it should stay that way.
Hey, it’s a free market. If someone wants to charge $10k for a cheese sandwich and someone will pay it, fine. And because it’s a free market, the fact someone charges $10k means there will be ample room for anyone who wants to charge less…or more…or free…or use “free” as a basis for upsells and add-ons. Remember too that installation and configuration is the basis of all that follows. Some companies may wish to cover the responsibility of that within their fee.
Wow.. that could make me rich…:P wordpress standard instalation from €550 to €1500 (Euros). :O
Does anyone wanna pay for it??? 🙂
Does this site accept trackbacks?
I’ve written a post, “Paying $857.00 to $2,338.33 to install WordPress is just fine in Japan” on my blog. If you are interested to read what Japanese has to say, please visit my blog.
i think this may be a matter of semantics. there’s a huge difference between going to dreamhost and using their one-click install (although if something goes wrong, it can still take up to an hour) and doing the whole blog setup, starting from choosing a blog name, choosing a host etc. to choosing, configuring and testing every silly little plugin.
it’s quite possible that those who charge high fees aren’t really talking about one-click or 5-minute installs, they’re talking about the whole setup, which, as we all know, can require endless back and forth. e.g. if i’d have hired someone at a reasonable hourly rate of $50-$70 for the problems i had with my permalinks alone, i’d easily have spent $300 just on that.
i like the comparison with the oil change.
Some people are doing business other than installing stuff on the net. These people need others do sort it out for them, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is pretty shortsighted to claim a wordpress install is 5 minutes only, as we all know that after installing there’s about 30 minutes minimum of tweaking and installing plugins. Throw in the choice and adaptions of a theme and it’s clearly a paid job. And so on.
Thanks for this info.
I usually don’t charge anything for the installation of software and plugins to customers who buy hosting from me. 🙂
Regards.
I charge an hour of my time, I spend that installing useful plugins and locking it down to mkae tiharder to crack. I think that’s fair.
$2200 for an installation and pre-made theme is a rip, but a few hundred dollars is perfectly justified.
The least I’ll charge for setting up a blog for someone is $340 US, that includes domain name registration and dedicated hosting and I upgrade there wordpress installation and plugins when required.
WordPress installation could take only minutes but that’s not it. You need to customize the layout to the desire and needs of the clients.
And you are being paid for the skill you acquired in the past. One who is a newbie is totally clueless that’s why WP installation service is need.
So I charge basic fee of 50USD. I think it’s just fair.
How much to charge for resizing, uploading, tagging and posting 300 photographs as separate blogs (articles), and adding keywords to wordpress site?
Charing $50 for a “vanilla” install is fair. There is the possibility that the install will have complications. There is also the chance that the client won’t know much about their hosting setup and databases and you may have to jump through a few hoops just to get the info you need to get thing installed in the first place.
For everything that could go wrong in this “simple” installation on top of having to explain some very basic information to a client that may or may not be “tech savvy” $50 sounds for a “minimum” to charge people if you are dealing with this in a “professional” way and have guaranteed your work.
With any service you are not only paying for the work but potential complications, as well as guarantees. I once paid someone to fix my air conditioning. He pushed a copper piece into place in five seconds and it was working. That cost me $100. On the other hand I didn’t know how to do this simple thing, and if something went wrong I knew he would come back and take care of it.
Bare factors like this in mind before deciding a price is “unfair” or “extortion”. We often get what we pay for, and when we do it ourselves we have to live with the consequences and have no one to blame.
Interesting, I find it tough to believe that some people will do this for free. I don’t know if it’s because they can afford to, are ignorant, or both.
Installing WordPress shouldn’t be free, as it does take time to get access to the hosting account and ensuring that it’s working well (even if you do use Fantastico). You then can’t simply hand it off to the client. I’m positive that 100% of the folks above have spent time explaining how to log in and get started or, at the very least, have pointed clients to some external source for additional help.
You need to understand that the payment is not for the tool itself, but for your knowledge spent in knowing how to get the job done (brought up by Roberto Blake’s comment directly above).
I’m perfectly find with charging $75 an hour, but this includes help with getting started (as I’m not a fan of just installing WP and then leaving clients high and dry).
While I do have a family to support, I don’t let this be the basis of my reasoning in charging clients. I’ve spent significant time in IT and Web development and I expect a return for that investment… plain and simple.
I usually do WP type sites for free for friends, though if it’s for a client I’d just charge hourly with everything else, which usually includes logo and print design. WP is so quick, come on, an hour or two to get everything up, you’re just ripping people off to charge 1000’s!
Seems overpriced for something available for nicks on the wordpress site themselves. Well I guess this is why all the website designers these days make their bread (and ham sometimes) by leaching off joomla and wordpress.