Two quotes, same afternoon. A PDF with one number, a kickoff date, and the word platform. A Slack that said "start hourly, we'll know more in a month." Should you hire a freelance developer fixed price or hourly? Fixed if you can write done. Hourly if next week depends on this week. I would not send either of those.
I write a brief before I quote. I take website work and product work. Freelance or an agency is a different hire. This page is the bill, after you already picked a person.
What people mean by fixed price vs hourly
Fixed price is one number for a written job. Hourly is time and materials. You pay as the hours happen. People treat the choice as a test of whether the developer is honest. It isn't. The PDF looked honest because it had an end. The Slack looked honest because nobody invented one. Neither had a page that said done. I have watched that pair get signed because the other one looked worse.
A five-page site with the pages listed can be a closed price. A first version whose backlog moves every Wednesday cannot. What one person owns does not change the agreement. You are buying who pays when the leftovers show up.
How to tell fixed price from hourly freelance work
Look at whether you can write done. A stranger reads one page. They can mark what is in and what is out. They can say what finished looks like. Then a closed price is honest. If next week's work depends on what you learn this week, a closed price is a fight. Seniority doesn't change that. A lower rate doesn't either.
Fixed price
Done is on a page
- What's in, what's out, and what done looks like, on one page
- Changes get their own number
Hourly
The work will move
- A cap
- A day you look at the hours
- The repo is open this week
The cut
Name whether it is a website or a web product before you pick a bill. Seven URLs a stranger can convert can be fixed by milestone. A login that is still a slide cannot. What belongs in a first version is how I write that. The consulting site had pages. DelightLoop did not sit still. Both are in selected work. The bill followed the page.
When to use fixed price vs hourly on a freelance project
I use this when two quotes land. How much a custom website costs and how much a first version costs are the dollars. This table is the agreement those dollars sit on.
| The job | Better fit |
|---|---|
| Five to eight pages, listed, a stranger converts | Fixed by milestone. Name the pages and name what is out. |
| A first version whose priorities move each week | Hourly, with a cap and a weekly look at the hours. Or write the first-version cut, then a closed price on that slice. |
| A takeover, and nobody has opened the repo | A paid spike first. Then hourly. A closed rebuild quote on an unopened repo is fiction. |
| One named feature, edges written down | Fixed. Stripe with the failure states on the page. Not "payments, we'll see." |
| Bugs and tweaks after launch | Hourly, or a capped monthly slice. A retainer is not a place to hide a second build. |
| You want one number. The brief is still a deck | Write the page first. Unpaid if it is a day. A paid spike if I have to open the thing. Then I can send a number. |
After launch is a different agreement. Who owns the product after launchis the keys and Tuesday. If I stay, I name a monthly slice. I don't hide a second product in a care retainer.
When fixed price or hourly is the wrong agreement
Don't pick a model so the first email can close. That PDF was a guess with a kickoff date. That Slack was a tab.
The brief is still a pitch deck
A closed price on a deck is how you fight in week six. I write the one-page brief first. If that is a day, it is unpaid. If it is a week in a codebase I have not seen, you pay for the week. I will not bury that week inside a build that does not exist yet. Then I can quote. The PDF that afternoon never got that page. That is why I would not have sent it.
Hourly with no end
A rate and a handshake is not a plan. I want a cap, a day you look at the hours, and what happens when the hours hit the ceiling. Without those you cannot tell a productive month from a stall. I have sat on the other side of that invoice. I will not send it. The Slack with no cap and no repo is the same invoice.
A repo nobody opened, priced as fixed
Someone looked for an hour and quoted a rewrite. That is a blank page with a number on it. A takeover starts from the live URL. I open the repo. Then I can say hourly, a spike, or a closed slice. Not before.
Five pages that will change every week
You listed the URLs. You also change the offer every Wednesday. That is not a marketing site. That is a product wearing a brochure. Fixed on the URL list becomes a pile of change orders. Write the cut, or go hourly with a cap until the offer sits still.
I have sent a closed number on a five-page list. I have also refused one on a deck that already had a kickoff date. The date did not make the job exist.
Before money moves, write what is in and what is out. Write what done looks like. Name who says yes. If it is hourly, write the cap and the day you look at the hours. Send both quotes. Tell me what you're hiring for. I'll tell you which one to sign. Who types, and who holds the keys, is what to ask before you hire. The rest of hiring a developer sits next to this.
