One good programmer vs. bidding for each project?

I see a lot of people on the vBulletin.org forum post each time they have a new project. I just wanted to share my experience in the development world.

I'm not a genius with forum programming, but I can edit templates, add plugins, and do other basic tasks to get our site looking/working the way we want. When it comes to bigger mods, I need to seek paid help.

At first, I would post projects and go with the lowest bidder. But then I realized, some of these people made me feel very uncomfortable and/or disappointed in the final outcome.

One day, we had a huge mod request and by chance ended up with a great programmer. He finished the request so quickly, and it exceeded our expectations - we gave him a bonus for his work. So the next time we had a request, I decided to try going directly to him. He gladly agreed, and again was incredible.

Now, I feel like he is almost a part of our site's team - he understands our forum, he gets my horrible programming style, and I am able to follow every mod he implements. Above all, he is friendly & honest. It makes this whole process so much less stressful. Now whenever we need something done, it is the easiest process ever.

What is your take? Worth going for the lowest bidder? Or sticking with someone you trust?

 

The one time I hired someone to do work for me (on a joomla site) i used oDesk, the bids came in and a guy from India was middle range with his rate. I hired him, he was blazing fast and competent, so if I need something else I will be going to him.

 

Depends. People (*me*) don't really dabble in 'professional' development, so they (me) don't know a reasonable charge. Knowing me, I would post something quite cheap

Now, there are some people out there that would do a mediocre job - and they generally seem to be the cheapest. However, you can get some cheap & good developers out there.

I would never take on a paid job if I had doubts I could do it - although if I though I could do it, I might express my interest (and explain that I might not be able to do it to the hirer). It would probably get me turned down, but better than a bad reputation, right?

Anyhow, to answer your question - I would always go with someone who I trusted. So, they may not be the cheapest, but trust doesn't usually come cheap

Anyhow, I would normally try and do most things myself anyway

Liam

 

There are excellent developers who charge a reasonable rate. There also are crappy developers who charge a high rate. So cheap does not necessarily mean low quality. Rate is also highly dependent upon location. European coders tend to charge twice the rate that senior developers in the middle east, south America or Asia charge. It is certainly valuable to work with developers who have proven to produce quality and who it is nice to work with.

 

A developer that delivers good product and is fast that is worth a lot, if that developer knows what you want that's like striking gold. You should always remember does developers and try to hire them again and build a relationship with them.

 

In any business, there are three factors that have to be balanced: Quality, Time, and Money. The old adage is of those three, pick two, and that is what you can get (meaning you sacrifice the third for the first two). This leaves three distinct possibilities:

Low Quality, but on time and on budget.
Takes forever/Is Late, but is of good quality and on budget.
Over budget/Expensive, but is good quality and on time.

Now, in the real world you'll probably get something of a happy medium: more than you want to pay, a little longer than you thought, and of Ok quality. Really you can go down the tubes too and get bad quality, over budget, and late, but that's real world economics for you.

I don't think "always go cheapest" is a good mantra. It is certainly a shortcut, but not a really worthwhile one. You might just take the time to read through information and find someone suited to your projects.

 

Actually most people posting bids on forums and freelance sites are wanting to make a quick buck.

While you can find a decent programmer and even a very good one that makes an awesome job for cheap, it's truly hard guessing who of all those bidders is the right one, and going with the one with the highest bid is either guarantee that you will get what you are paying for.