Your overall fee should always reflect competitive pressures. Your competition are: 1. Other local developers who have the same domain expertise 2. Other loc

Your overall fee should always reflect competitive pressures. Your competition are: 1. Other local developers who have the same domain expertise 2. Other local developers who don't have the same domain expertise 3. Outsourcers 4. Alternative technology stacks Each of the alternatives have their own risks and advantage. If you are dealing with portions of technology where you are not familiar with, then you have to ask yourself whether it makes sense to charge more to cover for the additional time, or incur the cost of learning on yourself. In which case, whether it is a technology you wish to master. You have to remember it only takes one little problem for things to blow out. There is another aspect to consider: pre-built components and your own IP. You can command a higher hourly rate if you tell them that you will include software libraries that you bring to the table, or alternatively bring the overall cost down. In some countries, there are taxation differences between selling licenses and selling labour. It should also reflect timelines. Some people are prepared to wait, other people need this immediately. Your charging should also reflect this. For instance, when people have an urgent need, you should put more effort into providing confidence that the project will be delivered on spec and on time, and charge accordingly (i.e. don't try to compete on price). In addition, your cost should reflect the number of attempts the customer has made in the past. For example if he had two failed attempts, you have to ask yourself what is actually wrong, and perhaps he is unable to communicate the requirements properly.