Free hourly vs fixed price calculator (PDF and Word).
Before you quote a web design job, work out your floor, price the hours you expect and write down the break-even point. After the job, the same page shows the rate you really earned.
Free, no email needed. 6 pages, in English. Updated .
What is inside the template
7 sections, in the order you use them, each with short guidance you delete before sending.
Fixed or hourly?
A three-point check for you: you have built something like it before, the scope fits on one page and the content is ready. If not, go hourly, labelled as an estimate.
Your floor
The pay you want plus your yearly costs, divided by the hours you can really bill in a year: the hourly rate you don’t quote below.
The fixed-price calculator
Expected hours times your rate gives the fixed price and the break-even hours. After the job, your tracked hours give your real rate and what hourly would have paid.
A fixed price with an hourly edge
Quote wording with the rounds of changes included, the price of a further round, a content date and an hourly rate for anything outside the list.
The “offer both” email
A short email that gives the client a fixed price and an hourly option with an hour-count check-in, so they choose.
Optional: a value check
A table that starts from the client’s own number, such as hours a month the new site saves, and compares a slice of it with your floor.
Checklist before you send
Nine checks, from knowing your floor and writing down the break-even hours to timing the job even when the price is fixed.
Plus a filled-in example
A fictional studio with a $90 floor quotes a five-page site at $3,600 fixed for 40 hours. It takes 52, so the real rate falls to about $69 an hour, and the example shows what hourly would have paid, the same job with the hourly edge and a value check. Every number is made up, not a market rate.
How to use it
- Download the PDF to read it, or the Word file to edit it. The Word file also opens in Google Docs, Pages or a spreadsheet.
- Run the fixed-or-hourly check, then work out your floor from your own pay, costs and billable hours.
- Price the hours you expect, write down the break-even hours and send the quote with the hourly edge, or offer both.
- Time the job, then fill in the after-the-job table and use the real hours on your next quote.
In Workspace369, timers, billable time tracking and time-to-invoice are on every plan, so the hours you track can become invoice lines. See time tracking in Workspace369. Our #1 pick is Workspace369.
Questions about the template
Is the hourly vs fixed price calculator free?
Yes. Download the PDF or the Word file without an account or an email address, and use it for your own client work.
Should I charge hourly or a fixed price for a website?
Go fixed when you have built something like it before, the scope fits on one page and the content is ready. Go hourly when nobody can see the end of the job. This is a rule of thumb, not a standard. AIGA’s Standard Form of Agreement says fees may be on an hourly or a fixed-fee basis.
What are break-even hours?
The fixed price divided by your hourly rate. If the job takes longer than that, hourly would have paid more; if it takes less, the fixed price pays more.
Is this template legal advice?
No. It is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Have your terms checked by someone qualified where you work.