I'm paying an AJAX JAVA J2EE programmer $150 an hour to work on a web 2.0 website. Is this realistic?

He's been working for months and my bills have been over 100 grand, which is more than I budgeted. Is there a way I can get him to agree to simply give me a flat rate instead of continuing to charge me by the hour. Our original contract was by the hour, but how would you recommend I negotiate a flat rate now?

I'm paying an AJAX JAVA J2EE programmer $150 an hour to work on a web 2.0 website. Is this realistic?
That sucks, you are getting cheated $100/hour, you can get $50/day freelance programmers at websites like http://getafreelnacer.com/
Reply:Yeah that is way too much. If you're just looking to hire some guy to develop for you part time, you can find a very competent programmer for as low as $30 an hour.





Think of it this way: a full time senior level developer, as in the person who is in charge of many other developers working on different projects and who makes all the final design decisions, will make $100k-$150k a year working for a large software company. So if my math is right that maxes out at around $75 / hour. It doesn't sound like you're a large software company.





Otherwise, if you're just looking for some guy to build and support a website for you, you should be paying the guy a flat fee to do the job. This is how everyone I know who builds websites on the side does it. Even with Ajax and Java, which really aren't that complex or rare, having a website built, hosted, and supported should be well under $10k depending on its size.





But if it's taking this guy months to build a website at $150 an hour, I would just say he's not living up to expectations, fire him and find someone else. If there's any reason to pay someone that much money it's to have the job done promptly, and months is not promptly. The guy knows he's taking you to the bank, and that you're over paying him.





Look for developers in your area on http://www.craigslist.com. Also, if you live near a University with a good computer science program, go put up fliers on campus; you can probably find a programmer who is as good, if not better, and will do it for peanuts.
Reply:Wooooooooooooow $150 an hour either he is reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaalllllllllyyyyyyyy good or you have a lot of money. For that amount you could get a company to do your work.
Reply:HOLLY CRAP!!! :-O !





Maybe you should just sack him and pay somebody else a much more reasonable salary.
Reply:"AJAX JAVA J2EE"





"Social website and web search website with advanced algorithms."





People charging lower rates probably never be able to develop such an web site. It's not that easy.





BUT HE MUST GIVE YOU A COMPLETE BREAK UP OF THE MODULES AND TARGET COMPLETION TIME OF EACH MODULE AND THE TOTAL PROJECT.





AS SOON AS A MODULE IS DELIVERED HE MUST DEMONOSTRATE THAT THE MODULE IS FUNCTIONING PROPERLY.





HE MUST PAY VERY HEAVY PENALTIES IF HE FAILS TO DELIVER ANY MODULE OR THE WHOLE PROJECT WITH IN THE AGREED TIME.





THERE SHOULD BE OTHER TERMS AND CONDITIONS IN THE LEGAL AGREEMENT (CONTRACT) TO PROTECT YOUR INTERESTS.





HE CAN NEVER DRAIN YOUR MONEY AS LONG AS HE WISHES.
Reply:You should pay him a flat rate per month as long as he hits all the criteray points that you should require.
Reply:Well what exactly is he doing for you? Designing a website? Designing an application? Or is he doing daily work for you? If its more of a project, i would charge a flat rate for the completion of the project.





I do AJAX and ASP.Net development for a company, and im pretty sure i get charged 80$/h for our clients.





$150 and hour is way over priced