Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How much are you earning as a freelance app developer?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 121 posts

Re: Ask HN: How much are you earning as a freelance app developer?

#71

Post by neuronsguy »

throwawaycash wrote: post #27

I make about 0-300k/year fixing apps that others either weren't able to finish or where they architected themselves into scaling issues. Aside from that, I am a part time programming consultant who makes about 80k a year (I have a chronic illness so I spend a lot of time not working, and it's helpful for me to work in intense bursts with rests in between. It's difficult for me to have normal full time employment in t…

This sounds cool. Two questions:

1. Without giving away secrets, how do you find such clients?

2. You must have some great stories. Would you care to share any?

Re: Ask HN: How much are you earning as a freelance app developer?

#72

Post by k__ »

lojack wrote: post #69
k__ wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying it's a team factor and a single dev can't get into that 200€/person/hour range?

I'd never attach a number to anything I said because its all relative, and I'd just be asking to be proven wrong. Like all things its pretty relative. There's teams that can charge more than developers and developers that can charge more as teams. The number you threw out doesn't seem unreasonable though.

I don't want to question your knowledge :)

I'm just trying to understand what is needed to get ahead of the game :)

Re: Ask HN: How much are you earning as a freelance app developer?

#73

Post by bobwaycott »

k__ wrote: post #48
lojack wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're asking a few questions here. I can answer from my experience working at a consulting shop that charged a lot of money... > Are they charging more because of overhead? Partially. There's overhead you wouldn't get with a single developer like office space and administrative overhead. A big overlooked piece of overhead is sales overhead. It's much easier to find 40 hours of consulting work a week than 120 hours o…

So you're saying it's a team factor and a single dev can't get into that 200€/person/hour range?

A single dev can, with the right clients. Having solid skills and work/project history helps, too.

Re: Ask HN: How much are you earning as a freelance app developer?

#74

Post by simon83 »

amingilani wrote: post #32

I don't want to share my exact rate, but I easily make a month what a Silicon Valley engineer at a seed startup can.. and since I live in a developing country it's an order of magnitude more than most people my age. If you're a brilliant engineer and are looking to work for a freelance app developer, I recommend Toptal[1]. While I now work at Toptal, I first joined the company through their freelance network, got a p…

From their website[1]:

The Top 3%

"Everyone at Toptal has a proven track record and elite industry experience. There are Toptalers from Wharton, MIT, CERN, and Google, as well as Django committers, Top 100 Rails contributors, leading global designers and art directors, professors, founders and more."

Holy crap man I'm not even going to bother, I'm none of that.

Impostor syndrome intesifies

[1] https://www.toptal.com/top-3-percent

Re: Ask HN: How much are you earning as a freelance app developer?

#75

Post by chris_engel »

k__ wrote: post #67
chris_engel wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and yes - I am working at my clients office mostly - around 1.5 days/week is homeoffice via remote desktop.

Ah, nice. I read charging per hour is bad. I charge per month, but I don't make 80€ per hour (also React stuff), haha.

My client wanted it that way. And they also pre-booked hours until mid of december. I guess they try what they can to keep talent.

Re: Ask HN: How much are you earning as a freelance app developer?

#76

Post by jasonswett »

bkovacev wrote: post #39
jasonswett wrote: post #36

For the last few years I've made a little over $100K/year. This is mostly from doing staff-aug-style Ruby on Rails programming at $100/hr. This year I've transitioned into a mix of coding and training. From training I've earned between $5,000/week and $13,000/week.

How did you switch into training?

I wrote about it here: https://www.jasonswett.net/how-i-got-started-in-training/

Re: Ask HN: How much are you earning as a freelance app developer?

#77

Post by jasonswett »

cronjobma wrote: post #40
jasonswett wrote: post #36

For the last few years I've made a little over $100K/year. This is mostly from doing staff-aug-style Ruby on Rails programming at $100/hr. This year I've transitioned into a mix of coding and training. From training I've earned between $5,000/week and $13,000/week.

How does 'training' look like. You give in-person workshops? Sell online courses?

In-person workshops, usually 3-day or 5-day classes for big companies.

Re: Ask HN: How much are you earning as a freelance app developer?

#78

Post by simon83 »

I'm not freelancing, but I'd love to hear advice from other freelancers.

I have 11 years working experience as a full stack web developer and I think I'm pretty good at it by now. I'm currently employed and underpaid, and I live in Germany. I have no idea how I'd go about freelancing. What would be your advice to get me started?

Re: Ask HN: How much are you earning as a freelance app developer?

#79

Post by dmilicic »

simon83 wrote: post #78

I'm not freelancing, but I'd love to hear advice from other freelancers. I have 11 years working experience as a full stack web developer and I think I'm pretty good at it by now. I'm currently employed and underpaid, and I live in Germany. I have no idea how I'd go about freelancing. What would be your advice to get me started?

I actually wrote a comment which may help you: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14791665
Post reply on HN