Price for custom bots?

To all existing freelance programmers, I have a question: what is a good price to charge for custom bots? Assuming it has web-interactive functionality (some kind of submitting/posting). Most scraping and analysis bots are easy to make, but the "going rate" on these would be nice too. I have a base price of $300 for bots I build, but I try to include as much functionality as I can to make it worth it. For example, if someone just needs a scraper, I try to include functions to automate other steps of hatever process they're using the scraped data for.

Yes, I'm very glad to know I'm not overcharging. $300 seemed like a lot when I started but when you think about the value of a bot to someone it doesn't seem unreasonable. For example it would take 10 mins to create a lead-gen bot for an SEO, but when they make their money back on one sale and this bot is scraping 40k leads a day, obviously its a hit they can afford to take.

It really comes down to functionality needed. $300 is a fair base starting price but including more helps build a returning customer base which is very important.

Mmkay. Well now that I know the going rate I'm a lot more comfortable throwing out numbers in that range. If it matters, I don't use uBot or any such nonsense, I mostly make bots in VB and occasionally they need some server-side assistance via PHP.
Not to discredit uBot or those who use it, but typically the range of tasks a uBot can perform are limited compared to "real" programming languages (it's hard not to sound pretentious but I'm doing my best lol).

As I use Ubot (still don't understand why people slag it of on this forum - its ideal for quick jobs and does what it says on the tin!) I normally charge from $50 for something simple to the latest bot which is $150.

I always charge on how many hours I will spend - if its an hour, hour and an half then its the 50 bucks range.

If someone wants a bot to themselves then the price gets more towards your $300 region, if they want source code then its sit down and talk time.

FB

still don't understand why people slag it of on this forum

Click to expand...

Because it's only been a month or so that all the big bugs have been sorted out
And also people buy it bang out a poorly coded $50 bot to get some cash back.
Then ubot takes the rap for not being any good, when in fact it was the users lack of knowledge that coded it,.
Most good bots take time to code whatever software you use
And yes I have done my share of knocking it in the passed but at last they seem to have sorted it

$300 is ok only if you include all funtionality in it like you said yo'll provide it so its ok or it maybe less than $300
and again it must be user friendly of course for obvious reasons

Its allways best to buy something such as the ubot as it saves money and use other tools for your needs.

I think a custom bot is no different than any other software. $50 an hour flat rate, but $300 minimum. sources included. I believe that if someone has actually paid for the software they should have the full rights to use modify sell distribute it. They have paid for it, so basically it's theirs. I do it this way. I'm strongly against closed source commercial software, because it holds back 'spreading of information and knowledge' when i look at the big picture. No dictionary at hand but i hope you get what i mean. That's my attitude to commercial software.

edit: lol this $300 range seems to be popular haha

I'm typically not a fan of giving out the source code of my bots, strictly from a competitive nature. For custom stuff that I don't see myself getting into, sure, but for keyword tools and the like I don't feel comfortable giving out source because a) most of these contain an API key of some sort, and b) I offer 3 months of support on all bots I provide, so that someone doesn't immediately lose their investment if a site updates days after they purchase my software. When you think about it it's just good business; if someone can just cut and paste my code for something they need, that's one less bot they'll buy from me, which is $300 down the drain. Not just for me either; for everyone who markets that type of tool. All it takes is one person to share your source code and boom, everyone in te business of providing whatever service that bot automated needs to find a new product to market (this is in part due to the fact that when I build something, I make sure it's better than anything the competition has to offer).

Bakers don't include their recipes when you buy their cakes, auto mechanics don't give you a fix-it-yourself manual after a repair; why should the software business be any different?

I'm Charging $100 for my Auto Poser and I am throwing in FOR FREE the Mass Ping Tool. Check out our website Vaoser....co m

Even though I've never built bots for selling them, I suppose I would base it on 2 things. 1. How much work does it cost me, and 2. How much money will it produce for the buyer. I know that I can build highly efficient powertools of pretty much any complexity, that is not quickly found somewhere else. So when someone wants that and he will make a lot with that, then I'll go for big bucks to make it. I wouldn't shy away from asking in the thousands range for some systems.. And then the bot isn't even private to the buyer, I'll see if I can make use of it for myself still! And maybe make a public version with licensing..

Generally $300-$500 will he worth my time as long as it won't take more than 1-2 days. Anything after that, like something I need to do serious research for, the price goes up to the $600-$1000 range. And yes, I usually keep value to the buyer in mind. A keyword tool that automatically spits out keywords with 1000+ monthly search volume, $1+ CPC, available exact match TLD, and "easy to rank for" is a software worth millions of dollars to te right person (just wish I could find that person, haha) so charging less than $1k would be madness. A tool that scrapes eBay for images of lightbulbs, however, is considerably less complex and less valuable, in which case my $300 minimum would apply.

On average I charge $200-$400 for the bots I build that take less tan a day of my time to build out. Sure I've built some that cost more, some less, but if I had to pick a average range that the majority of my bots fall into 2-4 hundred would be it.

Bam Bam said:

On average I charge $200-$400 for the bots I build that take less tan a day of my time to build out. Sure I've built some that cost more, some less, but if I had to pick a average range that the majority of my bots fall into 2-4 hundred would be it.

Click to expand...

The mistake people make is going to bespoke coders of C++ when Ubot works just as well.
Zenno and Ubot do have some limitations (though they are far better than the "add on" tools that CR and MS offer) but most ideas someone in IM has can be coded by these drag and drop tools.

The reason I went to UBot (well one of the reasons) was because coding a tool in C++ took 5x longer for the same result.
So for many tools, 1/2 a day in UBOT for 2.5 days in C++ or VB. $1500 or $7500 of my time

The idea is more important than the coding (that's why inventors or discoverers of ideas that WORK WELL are stupid rich and most coders can barely afford a cup of coffee).
As a coder, wanting to increase your price because of the value of the idea you are coding is not the way to go.
When most stuff can be coded with drag and drop apps like Ubot and Zenno you could be pricing yourself out of the market as well.

Scritty

I hope that you have good protection if you charge $300 a pop as people will try to rip it off and sell for cheaper

$300 for a base price sounds quite a lot as a base price I've programmed in .NET and depending on the bot my base price range was from 50-150$. The most I've charged for a base bot was $300 (I think) but after it was completed I got another $200 in extra features.
Like fatboy it all comes down to hours spent. A 30min bot will range from $35-$50 a 1 hour bot from $50-$100 (depending on what you already have programmed before) and so on..

With $300 base rate I am curious about how many people actually make second contact with you and what is your hiring rate..
I would lower the base rate (to increase the second contact and hiring rate) and offer the extras for a fee this way once the program is completed and the customer gets a working bot for 150$ (for example) they will think this feature is nice I would happily spent another $50 since I've paid $150 already.