Ask HN: How should I charge for a side project?
I've had full-time salary jobs for the past 15+ years. Yesterday, one of my colleagues connected me with another gentleman who was looking for some development work and asked if I'd be interested in a side project.
I've agreed to meet with them and learn more about the project, but that's it so far. What I'm not too familiar with is, what's the proper rate for this sort of thing?
An open Ask HN community consultation from 2019 where @pawn convened hundreds of developers and bootstrappers to share real experiences, hard numbers, and tactics.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Participants share raw revenue figures, churn rates, and stack decisions that corporate PR never publishes.
Recurring answers reveal that distribution, not coding skill, is almost universally the rate-limiting step in developer businesses.
Practical recommendations on bookkeeping, payment gateways (Stripe vs Paddle), and freelance-to-product transitions.
Community Debate Themes:
Hundreds of active indie hackers contributed case studies, pricing heuristics, and pitfalls to avoid when moonlighting on side projects.
CATEGORY Ask HN Roundtables →
HISTORICAL ERA Cloud & Mobile Era (2014–2019)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 4 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 3 comments
What type of work? What are the deliverables? Are you the only team member working on this?
These projects can be a minefield if you’re not careful about scoping them out from the start. Almost every side project turns into 2X to 10X as much work as people estimate from the start. Don’t get locked in to a fixed bid for open ended work.
If possible, ask around your network for what people charge for freelancing rates. The answer varies wildly depending on skill level, frequency of freelancing work, and range of services offered. For app development, I personally know people charging $50/hr and others billing $200/hr for what I consider to be equivalent work.
Most freelancers will raise their rates until the clients decline contracts and then back off. If this is your first round, you’ll have to guess a bit and then re evaluate the contract later.
Finally, keep in mind that this will become a drag on your time and energy. Earning $10-20K on the side is great if you have idle time and extra energy, but if you find yourself too drained to do your day job well then you’ll need to evaluate the possible career impact. Don’t miss out on promotions or new job opportunities because you’re too distracted chasing small potatoes side projects. If money is the goal, you can probably do better by actively seeking a higher paying day job. On the other hand, I’ve gained valuable experience and networking from freelance work, so consider the intangible upsides as well.
The short answer is enough money that it is worth your time. You already have a job. Presumably you have a life outside of work. So this side project has to be worth giving up some of that outside of work life.
I know it’s not the same but I make word clocks[1]. They are limited edition and (I think) high build quality. I’ve found one brand of high end word clocks. Mine are a different design but at least equal finished quality. I charge on par with those. I don’t sell a ton, but I don’t spend a ton of time. The time I do spend on selling works out to a high enough hourly rate that it’s worth it to me to give up other activities (ie opportunity cost).
1. Www.finewordclocks.com