Tech Collective Random Research
By MS and LD in Denver Worker Coop ·
This doc is a place to store random research results into a Tech Collective.Forum post about going rates for Drupal work, circa summer ’09
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The answer to this question
Posted by Arnold Leung on August 1, 2009 at 1:11am
The answer to this question is that it depends:
Off-shore rate: $15-$20/hr
Freelancer Rate in North America: $30-$60
Consulting Shop Rate: $70-$100
High-end Consulting Shop Rate: $150-$250
P.S: I also know shops that charge $300/hr, and they are one of the most experienced Drupal shops around and have built some of the biggest Drupal sites.
Each of these categories come with its own advantages and disadvantages.
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Note from Marc: The above tells me that the people who pay for such work acknowledge that a ‘consulting shop’ provides value over the hiring of individual free-lancers. Presumably, that’s something our tech collective could capitalize on. We become more valuable working as a collective than we are as individual freelancers.
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Research on Drupal, Joomla and WordPress markets
http://www.symphonythemes.com/content/where-do-drupal-joomla-and-wordpress-go-after-3-years
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2010 is the year of growth, all 3 CMSs witness a boom in service market according to the figures in Elance.com. The number of WordPress providers there increased 8 times, Joomla is quadrupled, Drupal is tripled. WordPress is clearly number one solution in the web development freelancer market nowadays.
This awesome growth may indicate that, the open source field is attracting alot of players, both providers and customers. It also means: the marketing strength and the adoption of customers for open sources are significantly rising.
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As you can see, Drupal job increase rate is 3 times faster than WordPress and Joomla. It indicates Drupal is getting more and more interest in the enterprise environment.
Bonus: Drupal, WordPress and Joomla developer salary. According to this source, average Drupal salaries for job postings nationwide are 11% higher than average WordPress salaries.
Conclusion
After collecting data and observe, I have some points here:
0.Overall, open source technology has gained more power. It is reflected by more service providers and more customers.
0.For public interest, Joomla is falling, WordPress is rising, Drupal does not increase. I hope after Drupal 7 is released this January, it will create a booming trend and close the gap between the other two.
0.Wordpress dominates the Freelancer market, but Drupal has an amazingly high increase rate in the labour market.
These trends is making my expectation that 2011 is a promising year for Drupal market.
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Link to site with a report on the 2011 Freelance Market Report (overall, not just programmers)
http://creativesatworkblog.com/2011/09/conference-celebrates-international-freelancers-day-sept-23/
“One major finding is that “Professionals who are freelancing as a result of a layoff or being downsized are more likely to earn less as a freelancer than peers who planned their way to self-employment. However, 80% of these ‘accidental’ freelancers are much happier now than they were as employees.””
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Note from Larry
I found two popular freelancer sites, http://guru.com and http://freelancer.com. The former allows a search for projects by location, but shows no tech projects in Denver. Take a look and let me know what you think.
