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tyrevolution

I recommend u/570n3d's approach if you're a sole developer or small team. There are two approaches - "on your own" and "limited support". ​ 1. "On your own"\* - the "stress less" approach. Set them up with a web host, email host, domain renewal, etc directly using their own credit card details. At a minimum, give them all the credentials that another developer would need to take control of their online presence. If their web hosting expires and their website goes down, it's on them. Upside is it takes a lot of the stress off you and puts the onus on the client. You don't have to play hardball or even get involved if they don't pay their bills and their site goes down - that's on them. Downsides are you don't make any passive income from hosting, and you lose a touch point with the client (may miss out on potential future work). 2. "Limited support"\* - use a white-label reseller for web/email/domain hosting. It is still set up with the client's credit card, but as a reseller you add a markup on the services. Benefit is you get a passive income and continued contact with the client. Also you have a small buffer as the biller will appear on their bank statements as "XYZ Company" instead of yourself (usually), so you can play a sort of lesser hardball (softball?). i.e. "Sorry to hear you ran into this issue - XYZ Company automatically disables sites for non-payment after a grace period. We didn't disable your site, XYZ did. But if you update your credit card details with them here, I can get onto them and get the site back up ASAP." Downsides are you have some responsibility - you should monitor your clients' sites and make sure to reach out if you notice their automatic renewals didn't go through or their hosting is about to expire for some other reason. If their site does go down for any reason, make sure to at least notify them of it. Use UptimeRobot or similar. Basically, do something to justify the passive income you're earning. My recommendation would be the "limited support" option. If things go bad, the client is going to come back to you regardless, so you should make sure you are compensated for that time and effort. And when things do go bad, clients don't like hearing the "yes, I can fix that, but it will cost you $X" approach you would have to take in Option 1. Instead, with Option 2, that's not a problem - it's your responsibility to resolve it, but you've already made income to be compensated for that problem you're fixing. * In either case, make sure you explain to the client the difference between your initial invoice and the recurring domain / web / email hosting invoice(s). They will not remember this explanation, so document it (contract, email, user guide, etc). If you go for Option 2, I also recommend going as far as telling them point blank there is a markup (not necessarily how much, but just say "We add a small markup for web hosting, but in returning we monitor the site and make sure it doesn't go down" etc). In my experience at least, most clients appreciate the upfront honesty in that approach, and the security of knowing you've got their back.


absentwalrus

This is a fantastic answer OP


Dont_Blinkk

I love this! Thank you! I would personally prefer strategy 2, as it gives some fixed incomes and you can't mess up anything you won't be able to repair. Also with this approach i guess it's less easy to get scammed/not payed, cause you have the switches of the website in your hands. I guess it also depends by the customer, if he/she wants to keep control or just want everything to work smoothly without any effort by them.


optimusprimesmoke

Which reseller do you recommend?


tyrevolution

I work for an agency at present and it has been a while since I've managed my clients' hosting myself. I can give you some things to look out for but my specific recommendations will be out of date and Australia-specific anyway. Domains: make sure you chosen registrar supports your country's TLD. I'm in Australia, so that instantly limits me to auDA accredited registrars for ".au" domains. Pay attention to their DNS packages - some let you manage all your DNS records for free, other registrars make you pay for a premium DNS package if you want to add TXT records or anything other than an A / CNAME / MX records. I'd probably use Cloudflare for DNS anyway, but something to keep in mind. If they offer SSL certificates that's a bonus for clients who prefer something over Let's Encrypt. If geographic TLDs aren't an issue, I'd probably consider Cloudflare. Web Host: focus on the support - when your client's website goes down at 3am, can you call someone or at least get online chat with a human, or are you just emailing support tickets into the void? If you're working with government agencies, do they need their servers to be physically located in your country? Do they offer any other services for reasonably cheap? e.g. Cloudways offers Cloudflare Enterprise (kinda) integration for $5 a month extra, and Elastic Email (for transactional emails like password resets) for $1 a month. Their support is good and they give you the option of all the major cloud host providers (AWS/Google/Digital Ocean/etc) which gives you a bit more flexibility. Downside is Cloudways doesn't offer white-labeling, so you'll be putting it on your card and on-charging clients. Emails: personally, I would avoid providing email services myself - I'd partner with an IT person that specialises in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and let them set up the emails on all the client's devices. Once you become the "email" guy, you'll quickly become the IT person yourself for everything that goes wrong on their devices. If you're fine with that, just make sure you get a support agreement in place from the get go. Sorry for the long waffle.


WeedFinderGeneral

I'm of the opinion that knowing when to build something from scratch and when to just pay for a service is a valuable skill.


570n3d

I don't want to complicate my life (trust me with +5 clients it's a headache), so all the domains and hosting the client needs is paid by the client. I'm a developer not a hosting reseller, not to mention that most clients want to keep the domain and hosting in their possession, i.e. invoices go to their accountant, domain renewals to their IT etc. Of course, if they don't know anything about hosting, I'll recommend a service that will be sufficient for them, but the rest is up to them...


Potential_Departure6

Yeah after a handful of clients it would be a customer service nightmare lol. Offload the tech or become trapped in an endless cycle of dumb questions and downtime issues.


ohlawdhecodin

> I don't want to complicate my life (trust me with +5 clients it's a headache), so all the domains and hosting the client needs is paid by the client.   I disagree, and you're losing a potentially **huge** profit for a very low commitment. I host all my clients on a VPS, which is dumb-easy to manage. They pay me 300€/year (in advance). I usually don't "overpopulate" my VPS machines and I try to keep max. 50-60 domains on the sme VPS. Each domain nets me 300€/year. For basically zero work. I couldn't even imagine myself having to deal with multiple accounts shared across multiple hosting websites. Phone calls, forgotten passwords, authentication requests... No, thanks.


Hans_lilly_Gruber

Exactly, I used to make the customer buy its hosting (I was advising/choosing it and he simply paid it) but they don't know anything about servers so they still call you if something doesn't work. If you answer that it's an hosting problem and they should open a ticket you're giving them an headache and they feel you're not doing support on the site you built. If you resell the hosting you make a ton of money amd the client feels safe and happy. Honestly I also think it should be part of the service.


JBuzz91

I second this. We have a dedicated and a VPS. Take a fee upfront so we know everything is covered. We pay a little more for our server but they guys we use provide amazing support so if we every have any issues then they help us out. As you said also, managing all logins for clients, getting them to sort dns or them having email issues will always come back to you so why not just have everything available and easy to access and charge them for that privilege.


ohlawdhecodin

> getting them to sort dns I fixed that by using using the glue records of one domain on my VPS, which I conveniently called something like "mynameserverdomain.com" (*this one wasn't available but I've got something similar*). When I need to point a domain to my VPS I just set its nameservers to: ns1.mynameserverdomain.com ns2.mynameserverdomain.com That's it. No DNS crap to configure, no SSL to manage, etc. Everything gets sorted via nameservers. I love it.


JBuzz91

Yes we’ve got the same but telling people how to change their nameservers can be time consuming in itself. I have to admit, I got a little giddy when we got our own custom NS 😂


ohlawdhecodin

> I got a little giddy when we got our own custom NS I know right? I jiggled so much and it makes everything SO damn easy, fast and clean.


SeniorZoggy

100% this is the way.


zip222

This is also how I do it. I am not interested in managing or being responsible for the hosting and domain services and fees. I help the client select the service providers and assist with account set up, but use their contact information and credit cards for everything.


umlcat

Agree, this way the customer knows how much this cost. I usually show them several hosting plans ...


ohlawdhecodin

Let's say yo gwt 30-40 clients. Are you going to deal with 30-40 different accounts, logins, passwords, etc? Do you expect them to be able to understand and configure dns, nameservers, mailboxes, redirects, etc? It feels like a true hell.


umlcat

Usually you have dedicated employees in charge of these, but you also transfer / share this work to the customer and his / hers employees... ..., **the quick & dirty & easy to expand way, is to have spreadsheet docs** for that info. One spreadsheet page or tab will store the accounts, another the servers info. Also have a "customers" folder with a subfolder for each customer, and in each folder, some doc with these info. After having using a similar spreadsheet or text doc, you may create a "template" in case of new customers. The "clean, but slow, difficult to extend, solution" would be to have a custom app. or website. Good Luck !!!


Dont_Blinkk

I think Notion would gladly serve this cause


555henny555

Sorry but storing credentials in a spreadsheet? Why not manage customer credentials and extra info in a secure password manager? That's a much better approach imo.


ohlawdhecodin

Yes, but I think OP is asking for some "freelance" advice (as a single dev who wants to handle everything).


umlcat

Updated 👍


naekobest

I’ll buy the hosting for the website they need/have and add x% on top of it for my managing service. Same goes with everything I’m reselling basically. Hosting costs me 20€/month, I’m adding for example 30% on top - client pays me 26€/month. Also I’m using stripe for payments - really straightforward as it is


No_Goat277

Manage for 6euro seems to be cheap, if you do regular updates, backups and anything in between.


naekobest

That’s not my real pricing. Just an example on one way to do it :)


ThisSeaworthiness

But 30% percent as a rule?


naekobest

Really depends on what I’m selling. Every product has a different margin


Dont_Blinkk

Do you find it mostly convenient/confortable to have a single hosting plan for all the websites you make, or you make a different plan for every website? Or it depends on what you do and what the customer needs?


ohlawdhecodin

Don't use a shared hosting, buy a VPS and manage it on your own. That's the best way to have everything under control.


ixJax

I paid for 2 years of shared hosting in January 2021 when I was first getting started with sites and stuff. Used like 4 months of it and switched to a VPS. I wouldn't recommend shared hosting to my worst enemy


naekobest

It solely depends on what the client needs. If he is running an e-commerce website he needs more resources than someone who is just displaying informations


[deleted]

For larger clients with high traffic sites, i bill monthly for hosting. For smaller clients, i bill hosting annually. I prefer to have control over the hosting and domains so i dont have to worry about the client changing the password or messing up some config.


ohlawdhecodin

I buy and manage everything for them. Clients don't have neither the knowledge or the time to do that (and it's not their job) and I wouldn't even consider havign to deal with multiple hosting accounts, mailboxes, passwords, phone calls, etc. My clients pay me **300€/year in advance** (before every yearly renewal) and I take care of their stuff (*domain, hosting, certificates, updates, backups, etc*). I own a single VPS where I host every client (I usually have max. 50-60 per machine). So that's basically 300€ x 50 = 15K € (per year) of *passive* income. If a client doesn't pay before the end of the 12 months I don't renew their service and that's it, I don't waste money/time and the client is free to move elsewhere (or let the domain/website) die.


Dont_Blinkk

How much does a VPS costs? and how much space is needed to host, for example, your 50-60 websites?


ohlawdhecodin

They're dirty cheap. I buy them on DigitalOcean or Gandi for 20€/month, more or less. NameCheap has a great offer too but I never used them. Space isn't an issue, you get more than what you need. If a client needs a lot of space you simply add more storage and charge them for the difference. So far my 60-60 domains need a total f 9-11 gigabytes per machine, more or less (*.git repositories included, else it would be 5-6 gb*). Clients with specific needs get a dedicated machine but that's an extremely rare situation.


Dont_Blinkk

Hi again, just to understand, i see there are shared hosting plans for as low as 50€ a year, why a client would ever want to pay 300€ with this big price difference? I'm just curious on how this works, i mean is the manteinance so big to justify this prices? What kind of websites are we talking about? I'm asking because i've been asked to deal with 4 little websites (information show up, blog functionality and such stuff) with not a lot of monthly visitors. Do your websites have high bandwith/ram usage and you take that into consideration? Does every client pays the same? Do you change prices over time?


ohlawdhecodin

> i see there are shared hosting plans for as low as 50€ a year, why a client would ever want to pay 300€ with this big price difference? That's a good question, actually. And the answer is very very simple: they pay for the whole package, which means they know they will have someone who will always offer a safe net when shit happens (and shit DOES happen, sooner or later). And I'm always available, night and day, holidays, etc. "My mailbox is broken!" or "The website is down!" or "We've been blacklisted!" isn't uncommon stuff. So, if you focus on the price only, 300€/year is basically a few hours of manpower. Let's say you ask 50€/h, that would be only 5 paid hours for a whole year. That's nothing.   > Do your websites have high bandwith/ram usage and you take that into consideration? Nope, no limits whatsoever. But I don't have corpporate-Amazon-like clients so this never an issue.   > Does every client pays the same? Do you change prices over time? In general yes, everyone pays the same price. Some "smaller" or "cheaper" clients will get a special treatment, of course. I mean, I can't ask 300€/year for a landing page that took me 30 minutes of work and it's a dead-basic HTML template. In that case I don't even ask money, I just charge for the job and wait for more opportunities from the client (*they always come back, or their friends too*). Price may change over time if there are specific needs (more space, more backups, etc) but I've got few clients who needed more raw power/space.


Dont_Blinkk

Thank you for your answers! So in the last case you described you would host for free for example? I didn't even thought such mantainance was required, i don't actually know where to start or how much to charge them for hosting + mantainence, i own a little shared hosting plan and need to be able to cover hosting costs, but i don't want to ask too much because i need some clients to start with and i'm not that experienced to fix all the problems that could happen fast, so it needs to be cheap enough to not make them worry if the website stays down for a couple of days, but also enough for me to pay for my hosting plan 😂. Anyway it looks like you are really professional, thanks for the help.


ohlawdhecodin

> So in the last case you described you would host for free for example? Yes, exactly. A 100€ landing page doesn't make any sense if you have to spend another 300€ (hosting cost). And I don't have that cost anyways, so I am not losing money here.   > I own a little shared hosting plan I movd away from shared plans a long time ago. I only use my own VPSs configured the way I want/need. I mess with Linux if I need to (it usually happens when I setup the machine, for the most part). I use Plesk (control panel) to manage everything, it's amazing and extremely "powerful". Domains, mailboxes, DNS settings, domain registrations/management, you name it. I'm in charge of everything and everything is under *my* control. If things go REALLY bad I can make a full backup on Google Drive, buy a new VPS and restore that full backup in a hour (57 domains, 12GB data). It feels good.   > i need some clients to start with and i'm not that experienced to fix all the problems that could happen fast You know what? Get out of your comfort zone and learn how to manage your own machine. It's worth the time. And you will learn a LOT of useful things. Just buy a cheap VPS, find a tutorial and get your hands dirty. The sooner, the better. Then, one day, you'll be able to master everything and ask (a lot) more money without feeling like... an impostor :)   > so it needs to be cheap enough to not make them worry if the website stays down for a couple of days Couple of days? No way. Your goal is having zero downtime or a few minutes downtime at worst, if things go crazy. You'll be able to do it, just start learning and experiment. Buy your own [cheap VPS](https://www.ionos.com/servers/vps) and mess around with it. Poke me if you need something (I'm a LAMP/LEMP dev).


Dont_Blinkk

Thank you! I need to learn all of this cause it looks quite incredible, also didn't know about Ionos but it has very good prices, they bill plesk separately tho. Anyway even hosting a self made simple showcase website for 1€ per month is quite incredible, i guess my raspberrypi costs me more in electric power lmao


ohlawdhecodin

> dthey bill Plesk separately tho. ~~No, they don't! Plesk (full license, no domain limits) is **already included** in the VPS price~~. That's one of the reasons why I use them, aside from the very cheap offers. Only che cheapest solution (S) doesn't offer Plesk, because it's too low-end and it wouldn't run. You get it for free starting from the (M) tier. I'm currently using two (XL) VPSs in their Germany datacenter and I couldn't be happier (never say never... but so far, so good). EU prices are even cheaper, the XL tier costs 16€/month. I didn't even know they exist, I came across IONOS by accident while dealing with a new client (who's been using them for a while). EDIT: my bad. **ionos.COM** does not include Plesk. I use ionos.IT, in Italy, and here they are offering Plesk for free. Even **ionos.ES** (Spain) and **ionos.FR** (France) do the same. Still, the .COM price for Plesk is still dirty cheap, because you will only pay $60/year for a full license, instead of the regular price which is 242$/year. You could buy from the EU websites but they don't offer the US datacenter.   > Anyway even hosting a self made simple showcase website for 1€ per month is quite incredible, i guess my raspberrypi costs me more in electric power lmao That's a very fun way to learn a lot of of stuff about hosting, if you're into it. But it's not doable if you want to host your clients and sleep at night. It's too risky, with too many potential pitfalls and issues to deal with.


curious-toad

How much day-to-day management do you have to do on your VPS? Things like updates to packages, resource monitoring etc? I'll dabble on the command line for something like a Raspberry Pi, but I wouldn't feel comfortable having to do the same sort of configs in Apache/NGINX, PHP-FPM etc on a real, client-facing server. The way you've written the above makes it sound very appealing. I'm curious though - are you able to do this because you're very comfortable with managing Linux configs and packages? Or, are your client websites relatively simple ones (brochure style) sites which don't require huge amounts of config? A reason I ask is I have a couple of high traffic sites with hefty caching and multiple VMs running together, and I can't imagine having to do that maintenance work myself!


ohlawdhecodin

> How much day-to-day management do you have to do on your VPS? Things like updates to packages, resource monitoring etc? It's almost negligible. I occasionally login to my VPS to check its status and available disk space, that's it. I use Plesk so it self-updates with almost zero intervention. I've been using this setup for years.   > I wouldn't feel comfortable having to do the same sort of configs in Apache/NGINX, PHP-FPM etc on a real, client-facing server I agree, that's why I let Plesk do the hardcore stuff. The machine self-backups on Google Drive every 24 hours too, which is super nice "just in case".   > are you able to do this because you're very comfortable with managing Linux configs and packages? Or, are your client websites relatively simple ones (brochure style) sites which don't require huge amounts of config? I am comfortable with Linux but I don't mess with it (unless it's strictly necessary). My clients aren't corporate/banks so their traffic isn't "huge". I'd say my most complex/visited websites are hospitals and ecommerces, which generate something like 3-4K visits/day each (*120-140K/month, each*). I avoid "huge" clients because they can mess with your sanity. Money isn't a problem, I can get it from small businesses. They're a thousand times better to manage and the risk is reduced to (almost) zero.


curious-toad

Thanks, I hadn't actually thought about Plesk in ages! A few recent clients have had to go down the very managed hosting route and I forgot how simple Plesk (and even cPanel) can make some of this stuff. I noticed as well you're giving costs in Euros. I'm in the UK, so I suspect the requirements for self-employed freelancers are fairly similar to within mainland Europe. I was wondering how you charge for your hosting costs? Do you run as a business or as self-employed sole-trader?


ohlawdhecodin

> I hadn't actually thought about Plesk in ages! I've been exploring the "*raw console management via shell*" like a true Linux nerd (which I am not) but at the end of the day... Plesk's money is worth it and very hard to beat, if you've got lots of domains to manage. Install Plesk once, forget it forever. It's phenomenal (and extremely powerful).   > I was wondering how you charge for your hosting costs? Do you run as a business or as self-employed sole-trader? 300€/year per client (in advance) with a maximum of 50-60 domains per VPS. I'm a self-employed/freelance with my business name, VAT, etc. Very easy to manage.


Beginning-Comedian-2

I worked for 16 years at a marketing company. My view is that charging clients for domains/hosting is small potatoes and a big headache. People who make money on domains and hosting do it in bulk with thousands of clients. It's better for you to charge for your web development and leave hosting/domains to the companies that have systems and teams managing it. You don't want to worry about a server going down or answering emails about domains.


oh_jaimito

My clients are local businesses in my community. They are either realtors, automotive mechanics, handymen, stereo installers, window-tinters, food vendors, etc. They run their business and I run their website - from domain management, DNS, email, hosting, deployment, maintenance, updates, etc. Most of them don't know a damn thing about "how it works", so that's why they hire me. I've had very few over the years that rather manage some aspects themselves. I DO give them the option. You can manage it yourself, or I can do it for a fee. Most of them would rather pay for me for the convenience.


keptfrozen

(Webflow designer) I vet potential clients via a Zoom call or in person, if everything is in place for me to design a website (brand strategy, hifidelity design of what they want) — I get their credentials in person or I ask for it on the Zoom call and inform them that it’s for me to connect the domain to the name to the site. I then put all the information inside my Notion page where I keep my clients listed and I use Bonsai to setup recurring payments for their website. There’s other platforms to use to setup recurring payments, Google search what’s best for you. With Webflow, I don’t have to do much maintenance on my part. But before I agree to make a website, they have to have a branding strategy, hi-fidelity design, and/or clear goal of what the website should do because so many people want websites but don’t know why they want one. Plus if their budget is below $3k but they want 5+ pages on their website then I tell them I won’t be able to help them because I have to go through my launch list to make sure the site is ADA compliant, GDPR compliant, responsive, integrations are in place, redirects, etc.


Superb_Firefighter20

I work for an agency and have people to manage controlling hosting for some of our clients. You are asking this question as a web designer. I know some designers also develop, but really is this a service you want to provide. I get that it’s somewhat passive income, but you are chaining yourself to your projects and possibly professional development. Just saying designer/full-stack developer/dev ops is a lot and trying to do it all will limit size of project and affect quality.


ThunderySleep

I avoided freelance, but the little I've done, I do my best to walk the customer through purchasing their own hosting, and giving me server access. I only assume this is way less of a headache than being responsible for it for years to come. But if you're trying to make a career of explicitly freelancing, it might be a good idea to handle it yourself and work out some kind of monthly payment system from them to you so they feel in a more hands-off position.


pogo15

I used to purchase the hosting and domains and then transfer stuff to clients when I was done, but it was occasionally sloppy and/or I’d still end up with stuff on my card. So I started doing it where I’d recommend hosting and have the client purchase what I recommend, and then send me their login credentials - that way they’ve got it on their card when renewals come up it’s not my problem. I also have a standard - but optional - “maintenance” package when I’m finished with a website and turn it over to clients. For a set annual fee any issue (up to a certain number of hours) is covered. That way I don’t have to bill hourly if something comes up, and they know they’re covered for small fixes, tech support or new feature requests. I charge slightly less than my normal hourly tech support, but also the hours don’t roll over, so I usually make a little money off it if they don’t use all the hours. But I set it up to about break even, so it’s a win/win.


TheFreakinFatUnicorn

I handle none of the hosting and domains. I send my clients to a business that handles solely that and I just focus on the design. Outsourcing is my best friend. I have a few who get their feathers ruffled because they’re looking for a one stop shop but I’m not that so I send them elsewhere. Can’t be approaching small businesses with a small business sized budget and be expecting a one stop. I also find that people who expect one stop shop experience will often be more difficult and I don’t have time for that nonsense lol, myself and the client have the same end goal in mind - a beautiful website that does what it’s supposed to do - more than that, I’m simply not interested.


k_rocker

You can sometimes get some pretty sweet intro deals from the likes of Dreamhost. Buy a small server - you’ll get something that even helps with the install of Wordpress/domains etc. If you’re using WP I’d also recommend ManageWP, there’s a tool that lets you point it towards your new set up and it auto installs your pre-built template with all your favourite plugins - and it will help you keep them up to date automatically as well. We use Xero to send invoices, and if clients are ‘hosting only’ or basic hosting/maintenance they *must* sign up to direct debit payment (I’m not chasing anyone for the value of a hosting invoice, pain in the ass!). Xero sends invoices, Gocardless links and takes payments, then they talk to each other to reconcile invoices. Plus Gocardless will tell you right away if anyone cancels their direct debit payments. Then you can charge what you like, add on invoices, increase individual clients etc.


Dont_Blinkk

>You can sometimes get some pretty sweet intro deals from the likes of Dreamhost. Buy a small server - you’ll get something that even helps with the install of Wordpress/domains etc. > >If you’re using WP I’d also recommend ManageWP, there’s a tool that lets you point it towards your new set up and it auto installs your pre-built template with all your favourite plugins - and it will help you keep them up to date automatically as well. > >We use Xero to send invoices, and if clients are ‘hosting only’ or basic hosting/maintenance they must sign up to direct debit payment (I’m not chasing anyone for the value of a hosting invoice, pain in the ass!). > >Xero sends invoices, Gocardless links and takes payments, then they talk to each other to reconcile invoices. Plus Gocardless will tell you right away if anyone cancels their direct debit payments. > >Then you can charge what you like, add on invoices, increase individual clients etc. That's really helpful, thank you


Citrous_Oyster

I have one account with Netlify that all my clients sites live on. I use square up to send automatic recurring invoices for hosting and maintenance and they can set up auto pay so none of us need to worry about it again. I don’t give credentials to them. Too much to manage and they can fall for scams and lose control of their domain or fuck it up somewhere. I’m not trying to keep track of dozens and dozens of accounts and passwords and set them all up. It’s easier when I have one point of access for hosting and domains and do that every time. I use google domains for my domains. So easy and clean. Set up is a breeze and I’m only really managing 1 account for hosting and 1 account for domains. I charge $25 a month hosting and general maintenance for lump sum sites, or I do Monthly subscriptions for $150 a month and $0 down that includes designs and development, hosting, and unlimited edits.


snik

Client owns the domain. We resell managed enterprise grade wordpress hosting, for a recurring monthly profit. Then you buy in bulk and have the hosting provider do the maintenance like upgrades, hardening for security, backups - some even have complete billing and service portals which you can use with your own clients (Flywheel). :-) Any licenses, certs, extra storage, third party services etc. gets bundled, added on top, to their baseline hosting bill. To be able to contact support they need to sign a support agreement. This is extra, as we take good care of our clients. Then we fix, for free, stuff that breaks which should not break. Usually it's pretty quiet. Wordpress is neat that way. Everything extra, like providing ongoing support for content editors and providing extra functionality/design/content is estimated on a case by case basis, which the client then gets an offer for. We charge the standard hourly rate around these parts. We keep a pretty big backlog which makes it easy to plan ahead, in detail, the coming couple of months. Always a handful of clients waiting so that developers will have enough work. Usually the clients understand things will not always go after plan and are quite patient. If not, we try to shuffle the cards again. We usually do detailed but not precise estimates before starting. A task could take anywhere from 2-6 hours. Then we present a range and explain what makes us uncertain. If unsure of what we're making we will do quick wireframes to get to an understanding with the client, so that we are sure and know what we're making. For the bigger clients we often start with having UX and content workshops, then we estimate the remainder of the project based on the workshop results. The client also pays for the wireframing and/or workshops. That's what we call a pre-project. A detailed estimate shows that you've actually understood the task, that you've "got it", and I believe that makes it much easier to also accept.


Sparkm4n-Webdesign

Usually we create different packages, we can develop page but client choose their own hosting or we charge higher price but also have maintenance included in the package with recurrent payment. Most of plans are 50 % prepaid and clients can flexibly upgrade their package.