I trying to find out what a programmers rates usually are. Do they usually charge by hour? Or per project?
If you can give me your input on this please do.
Sincerely,
Keith
$25 to $50 dollars per hour sounds reasonable. Of course some people would like a per project basis but I couldn’t even take a guess due to project differences. Could be a few thousand or $100 million if you want the next GTA
Take the yearly salary you would normally make working for an established company. Divide that by 2000 to get the standard “hourly” rate. Multiply that by 3 to cover overhead, insurance, etc that is normally paid for by your company. That is your contract rate. Example - if you would make 60K per year, then your hourly standard is $30. Your contract rate should be $90. This is if you are trying to match what being employed is like.
If this is just a hobby, charge whatever you feel your time is worth.
I’m doing some freelance coding, and am trying to get an idea for how much to charge.
Can you recommend the best way to track the hours I work on the projects?
You could always record your work sessions or just run a timer. If your trying to live off of freelancing then defiantly go with Jami’s rates as mine were more hobbies/side money rates.
Well if you are a code, just write a tool to track your time. 
Now there is an idea I never thought of, good idea!
I am all ready to work for 1$ an hour lol
I think maybe times by 2 not 3 is a bit more reasonable. A mid level programmer makes roughly 100k, but its rare their contract rates would $1200 per day, more like $600 - $1000, you can verify this on a job board pretty easily. If they are from a large company then their rate might be significantly higher but thats because you are hiring the company and the assurance that goes with it.
You could go by small and short milestones instead to protect yourself. Never pay for works in advance.
If that person wants to leave in a hurry, let him go ahead and let him leave and do not even pay him.
From what I have seen of your posts so far you really shouldn’t be earning $25-$50, as it seems that you have no portfolio? (Prove me wrong and I shall reconsider 
). Eg giving up on a lot of WIP games within a matter of weeks, if you want to work for money you need to commit.
However, in order to charge full fare, really, you should be at an at least Advanced stage understanding Delegates, Polymorphism, Generics, probably multi-threading and a buttload of other stuff. When I was at the intermediate stage I was only charging $15 per hour.
Not trying to be mean, but trying to help you be safe from a bad reputation if you try to bite off more than you can chew. Your Commercial thread is fairly nicely set out and is a good start so keep trying! Recently you said you were 13?(needs citation) People generally will ask if you are over the age of 18 and if you aren’t you won’t be take on (from my personal experience, I’m 17 and nobody wants me 
).
But keep at it, build a portfolio of fancy stuff and you can change the tide very quickly, so keep at it and try to build something that will grab potential employer’s eyes.
Good luck!
Myhi
What you earn depends on where you are, the cost of living and your own skill level and demand. Unfortunately for freelancers it’s illegal to discuss rates (collusion and monopoly laws), so you will only get rough guides in here, however there are industry papers that cover average wages and so on for you to make an estimate from.
One piece of advice I’ve had that’s looked after me well is “always be definite, don’t bullshit, be forthcoming and up front” it applies to all things in work, not just wages. It can seem daunting at first to ask for what appear to be very high figures as a freelancer, but once you factor in your overheads, risks and how much time you may be working you can find that sum is not so very high. Consider it in the same vein as hiring anyone yourself, to put it in perspective for working in this industry you should not be earning less than a plumber.
People are more willing to stomach what might to you seem a high rate if you are simply up front and honest, if you make people secure about what to expect in the future and take away any surprises then it becomes a relationship not just of trust but of respect. Just as a good client doesn’t faff around and knows what they want and what’s expected of them, the same is true of a good contractor/freelancer, it reduces stress for everyone involved and smooths out the road to the finished project as well as to future projects in the same relationship, charge a lowball now and that client will always expect the same price and will be surprised and hurt should you wish to change the relationship, it’s not that they’re being some cheap asshole treating you like crap, it’s you that’s set this relationship up this way and when you suddenly change the ground rules that can throw a spanner in the works of their own plans and causes cognitive dissonance. If your rates are to change you have to let your existing clients know as and when they change, not at the start of dialog on a new job.
This about not just research but common sense and experience. You will learn to let clients know about overrun costs, or any other costs in advance, about negotiating things like up front and delivery sums, how long is acceptable to wait beyond the end of the job before payment is due and so on. It stops everyone getting burnt. And at the end of the day this, being definitive, not bullshitting, not forgetting the details, making the ride smooth and predictable, in fact being a professional, this can be much more important than the actual rate.
How many completed, published game titles have you worked on?
That is what most prospective employers will look for. If you don’t have any you’ll probably need to hover around the $10 an mark if you are beginner/intermediate level.
If you are intermediate level and understand Unity, and have a couple of published games, you can easily bump that up to $25 - $30 an hour.
Thanks for the kind words,
FYI, I have already got someone interested in having me make a prototype for them, he gave me his ideas and asked what my rate is.
You can make $15/hour cleaning pools. If someone offers you $10 you are better off flipping burgers or just doing your own project.
Which will ensure you only ever earn $10-15 hr as a coder…
You dont magically earn more as a coder by getting experience doing other dead end jobs.
As far as time tracking is concerned, I’m pretty happy with Harvest - I log time and expenses either on my PC or on my iPhone (if I’m visiting a client site or something - e.g. I log train ticket expenses while I’m still at the station via my phone) and then it can generate invoices for me automatically.
Sigh… if only real life worked like RPGs…
Even if you’re paid $10, after 1 year would you rather have 1 year’s experience in cleaning pools, or a years Unity experience and some projects on your portfolio?
Like getting ganked by a group of pigs in some enchanted forest? No thanks 