Moon on a stick
We've all seen them - those projects you regularly find on other services where the budget is clearly too low for the work that needs to be done. These kind of projects are not good for the Magento ecosystem as they devalue the market and don't benefit either the client or the developer. For the client, while it may actually be possible in some cases to get the job done for a very minimal price, the quality of work done will really suffer. The end result of this will be that very often in the future the client will have to have further work done on their store to fix the bad solution that has been implemented by the minimal-priced developer. To fix this and get the work done in the right way will end up costing more overall than it would have done to get it done the right way initially. For the developer, not only does it encourage continuing work by developers who probably don't really have the skills and experience to actually be working with Magento in the first place, but it also drives a dynamic where more experienced developers can feel they need to undersell their offering to compete. It also continues the thinking that it is possible to develop Magento for the same price as having an HTML page built and this devalues the market further.
The reality here actually is that no, the experienced developers do not need to undersell to compete as what you see here is very much in the bottom end of the market where both projects and development work is often low quality. The continued creation and fulfilment of these kinds of projects on other services actually ends up segregating the market to produce a bottom end where the lowest possible price is the only driving factor and quality is of little concern. We are not looking to cater for this end of the market at Developer Connection. Here we recognise that skilled developers deserve to be paid fairly for their vast knowledge and applied experience in Magento development and that there are a huge number of clients who want any Magento development work on their store to be done the right way. Have a look at our posts on what it takes to be a top Magento developer and picking the best developer for your project for more thoughts around this.
In this post, we will be looking at a range of projects across a number of different services to see how many are clearly 'moon on a stick' Magento projects where the project spec far outstrips the budget. Obviously we will only be considering projects with a budget whether that is a fixed price or hourly, and will also only be looking at projects which have fairly specified work for example a store build as opposed 'we need a developer to work on various projects'. We'll be looking at the first 10 Magento projects across other services which fit this requirement - if a full 10 projects are available.
Upwork
E*Commerce (B2B or B2C): $15 - £30 p/h
This equates to £12 - £24 p/h. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento2 Developer: $19 - $46 p/h
This equates to around £15 - £37 p/h. Might be touching on an acceptable hourly rate for some developers, but realistically not. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento application setup on Google cloud: $19 - $46 p/h
Again this equates to around £15 - £37 p/h. Moon on a stick? Yes
Install Docker + Magento 2 on server: $35 - $63 p/h
With this project's budget falling into the range of around £28 - £50 p/h there are probably developers who would find the higher end of this hourly range generally acceptable. Moon on a stick? No
Senior Magento 2 Commerce Developer & Architect: $40 - $60 p/h
With the budget falling into the range of £32 - £48, again there are probably developers who would find the higher end of this hourly range generally acceptable. Moon on a stick? No
Expert API Dev Needed to Get Items/Database added on Amazon: $500 fixed price
This project has quite a few requirements to format product data for correct listing on Amazon including some which require a level of investigation before implementation. There's no chance this work could be completed for the budget. Moon on a stick? Yes
Window Treatment e-Commerce Development - Magento Platform: $10 - $20 p/h
An hourly rate of £8 - £16 p/h is far too low. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento 1 and 2 Fast partner: $5 - $10 p/h
Around £4 - £8 p/h. Do we need to say more? Moon on a stick? Yes
URGENT: Experienced: PHP - Magento 2 - NGNIX - AWS - Customizations + Server Issues and Maintenance: $20 - $45 p/h
Considering the range of skills requested, a rate of around £16 - £36 is too low. Moon on a stick? Yes
Customized 360 products cart: $500 fixed price
With this project being an entire site build for around £400, this budget is clearly not high enough. Moon on a stick? Yes
Percentage of Upwork jobs considered moon on a stick: 80%
Freelancer
Magento Ecommerce PWA Website: $160 - $490 p/h
This project is for an entire PWA site build for £128 - £386. Moon on a stick? Yes
Create a Website on Magento: $840 - $1680 fixed price
This project is again an entire site build, and the budget of between £678 - £1356 is not high enough. Moon on a stick? Yes
Looking Magento 2 Native Multiple Store Mobile App: $500 - $980 fixed price
Again an entire store build for £400 - £790. Moon on a stick? Yes
Create or copy a website in Magento: $750 - $1500 fixed price
Another entire store build for £605 - $1210. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento site: $280 - $840
Yet another entire site build for £225 - £677. Moon on a stick? Yes
Copy this Website in Magento: $280 - $840
Another entire site build for £225 - £677. Moon on a stick? Yes
Rebuilding Magento Web Site: $280 - $840
And another entire site build for £225 - £677. Moon on a stick? Yes
Update and fixes for a website on Magento 1.7.0.2: $250 - $750 fixed price
This project is to help recovering an old Magento site and update it to the latest version for around £201 - £605. With the project details being typically sparse I would not expect it to be possible for the budget. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento website improvement - magento 2.0: $164 - $493 fixed price
A fairly long list of bug fixes and improvements to an existing store for around £132 - £397. Just not possible for the price. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento Project: $30 - $250 fixed price
Migration of a sizeable product catalog plus integration of shipping and payment gateways. Just not possible within the budget. Moon on a stick? Yes
Percentage of Freelancer jobs considered moon on a stick: 100%
Guru
Magento2 + Wordpress Multisite Integrate: $5 - $15 p/h
This equates to around £4 - £12 p/h. We don't even need to know about the project spec to make a decision here, this hourly rate is far too low. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento 2.x developer for ecommerce site: Under $250 fixed price
This project involves modifying the core Magento menu to include the category description and equates to around a maximum budget of £200. It may be possible to complete this project to budget but I would be very surprised if the client didn't come back with modifications as the spec is very thin. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento application setup on Google cloud: $20 - $50 p/h
This equates to around £16 - £40 p/h. Again we don't need to look at the spec here as it's an hourly rate job. The top end of this budget may be an acceptable rate for some experienced developers, but the bottom end definitely not. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento 2.3.3 Multi Seller Shipping: $400 fixed price
This involves working with Magento as a multi-vendor marketplace with work customising shipping functionality for marketplace seller, buyer and shipping method. The project states in no uncertain terms the budget has a maximum of $400 which equates to around £320 and the client won't consider an existing extension. The amount of work here is clearly not possible in the number of hours of development time allowed by the budget. Moon on a stick? Yes
Looking for Magento 2.X developer: $3 - £10 p/h
Really don't need to say anything more about this project. Moon on a stick? Yes
Customize magento 2 theme for multisite: Under $250 fixed price
This project has a list of 15 issues which need resolving (I wonder if the issues are because of previous cheap development work done?). Some are minor changes, some are bugfixes, and some are more significant changes. The budget for this project equates to around $200. Far more work here than can be done for the budget. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento Installation: $250 - $500 fixed price
A long list of extensions to be installed with others removed. Considering these types of projects are never as straight forward as just installing the extension with additional requirements always coming to light, for the price of around £200 - £400 this is just not possible. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento cart has 3 customer problems: Under $250 fixed price
This project describes 3 bugs which sound like they have probably been introduced by customisations to core functionality. This immediately rings alarm bells as it's probably an indication of poor development across the entire build. I would be extremely surprised if these bugs could be resolved within the budget. Moon on a stick? Yes
Percentage of Guru jobs considered moon on a stick: 100%
PeoplePerHour
To migrate magento 1.9 online shopping site to magento 2.x version: $10 p/h
Doesn't really matter what the spec is, around £8 p/h is just too low. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento 2 Developer Needed to Ecommerce Site: $50 fixed price
At around £40, really no comment needed. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento 2 high load while import products via the API: $188 fixed price
This project is to track down and fix an unknown bug. Extensive experience of debugging leads me to believe there is very little chance this issue could be resolved for around $170. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento 1.9 migration to Magento 2.3X: $495 fixed price
A full Magento 1 - 2 migration is just not possible for around £400. Moon on a stick? Yes
Need a Magento Developer: $218 fixed price
Minimal spec with this one but at around £176 I can't see the budget being in any way realistic. Moon on a stick? Yes
I need Magento 2 developer: $221 fixed price
Again minimal spec but for the same reason I can't see the budget being in any way realistic. Moon on a stick? Yes
Troubleshoot and fix issues related to AWS Magento 2: $37 p/h
A rate of around £30 p/h is just too low for virtually all experienced developers. Moon on a stick? Yes
Transfer all data from old Magento Website to New: $800 fixed price
This is another full Magento 1 - 2 migration project for around £646. Just not possible. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento 2.3.1 Fixes: $805 fixed price
A pretty extensive list of bug fixes with all of the causes unknown. Highly unlikely to be possible for around £650. Moon on a stick? Yes
Magento Migration: $217
Another full Magento 1 - 2 migration project for around £176. Not possible at this budget. Moon on a stick? Yes
Percentage of PeoplePerHour jobs considered moon on a stick: 100%
Conclusion
So virtually every project across every other service we looked at had an unrealistic budget. On average 95% of projects have unrealistic budgets across other services. It's clear to see how continuing work in this bottom end of the market devalues the Magento ecosystem and encourages low-quality development work by inexperienced developers. It also continues propagation of low quality, buggy Magento stores making for a poor customer experience and also potentially introducing security issues from not working to best practices and high standards.
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