My mom recently retired, but she wants to keep busy with some freelance consulting work on the side. We were chatting the other day about how the hardest part of both of our jobs is knowing what to charge our clients. Whether you’re a freelance consultant, writer, designer, or in some other field entirely, bidding on a project is often more stressful than the work itself. Bid too high, and you’ll bid yourself right out of the running for the job. But bid to low, and you’re not doing yourself any favors. Thankfully, I found an app that might just help me out the next time I’m submitting a project bid: MyPrice.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

MyPrice helps freelancers what to charge for their skills. You can get rates for hourly or per-project work. Fees are calculated based on a number of factors, including your location, your experience level, and the project itself.

Pros

• Delivers rates to charge for both hourly work and “per project” rates
• Tip of the Day function informs and educates newbies
• Registration is super quick
• You can save project estimates for reference at a later date
• Simple to navigate

Cons

• App currently only has solid data for the following countries: US, UK, Spain, Australia, Canada, Mexico. Other countries can be selected, but the data is less precise and not guaranteed
• Main freelance profession is limited to the following: community manager, graphic designer, illustrator, multimedia designer, online advertiser, SEO expert, UX / UI designer, web designer, web developer, and writer. There is an “other” tab you can select, however.
• Questionnaire could be more flexible: there are plenty of people out there who are both self-taught and have formal education that relates to their work, but the app will only let you pick one of these options.
• Some of the questionnaire questions are vaguely or ambiguously worded

Discussion

There’s never one right price for a particular freelance project. However, this handy app can help make sure that what you are charging is in the ballpark. Say you just moved to a new city. You might be charging rates that are either too high or too low compared to what others in your area would charge. MyPrice takes your location, as well as your experience level, overhead, and education into account when calculating your hourly rate.

One beef I have with this app, helpful as it may be, is with the questionnaire. It could be more flexible: there are plenty of people out there who are both self-taught and have formal education that relates to their work, but the app will only let you pick one of these options. Additionally, the app makes you select whether you predominantly work with big companies or small businesses….and as someone who works about equal for both, I wasn’t sure what to pick!

Also, some of the business expense questions are tricky: you might not buy a new computer every year, but you might buy a new one every 2-3 years. However the app asks how much you spend per year on things like software, computers, and conferences…all of which might be biannual expenses for you, rather than annual ones.

I wish that there was a tool in the app that would allow you to adjust your hourly rate based on where your client was located, instead of focusing on my location. This would be helpful when converting my rates into another country’s currency, or knowing if I should charge overseas clients more or less than my standard rate.

Conclusion and download link

While it’s not perfect, this app is really quite well-designed and very helpful. Check out MyPrice if you’re a freelancer…you might just find that you’ve been undervaluing your skills for years!

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 2.1.2

Requires iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, iOS version 5.0 or later

Download size: 25.5 MB

MyPrice on Apple App Store