General Rates

We dislike checking a potential supplier's site only to find a total lack of any useful information as much you probably do, so we have provided a rough guide to the rates and prices we charge for general work for the 2010 year. We charge generally according to the going market rate for a particular job which in Ireland tends to track the UK rate converted to Euros. And unlike most, we offer substantial discounts for work on open source projects and work benefiting the wider community.

As predicted on this page last year, rates have indeed dropped by about 10% since 2009 and hence so have these general prices. We will always quote the going rate even if it drops!

General Services

Rates in 2010

Tier 1: General computer configuration and maintenance: €60/hour (ex VAT)

This includes maintenance of computers including removal of viruses, installation of software, simple configuration of stock servers including firewalls and VoIP servers etc.

Tier 2: Non-Programming Work: €70/hour, €500/day (ex VAT)

This includes website theming, data or content entry, more complex configuration of servers such as custom configurations which aren't present in the stock product.

Tier 3: General Programming Work: €85/hour, €650/day (ex VAT)

This includes anything involving the writing of computer code such as Javascript, C, C++, Python, SQL, PHP and so on.

Tier 4: Specialist Programming Work: €140/hour, €1000/day (ex VAT)

This is where we possess a skill or familiarity with a niche technology or product where finding any experienced developers who are available at all is difficult. For example, deep customisation of a Boost C++ library with heavy metaprogramming would qualify.

The daily rate discount is applied per block of eight hours worked, so ten hours at tier 2 would cost €640 (€500 + €140). We would emphasise that these rates are for guidance only and will vary according to the work quoted. Also see the special Plone/Zope rates.

Discounts in 2010

We are pleased to renew the following discounts during 2010:

• Open Source Discount: 1 tier
  If the work is to be performed on an established open source project, or the contract results in the production of an open source project likely to be of use to the open source community, we reduce our rates by one tier. This discount does not always apply to government or large corporate projects - enquire if unsure.
• Charitable Discount: up to 2 tiers
  If the work directly benefits a disadvantaged part of the community we can reduce our rates by up to two tiers.
• Personal Interest Discount: up to 2 tiers
  If we find the work to be of particular personal interest e.g. if it significantly enhances our skill base, or simply tickles our fancy, we can reduce our rates by up to two tiers.