--- title: I charged $18,000 for a Static HTML Page | daily.dev description: A contractor shares their experience being hired for what should have been a simple one-day HTML page project. Due to organizational dysfunction, delayed... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-charged-18-000-for-a-static-html-page-c7jwayhy5 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I charged $18,000 for a Static HTML Page | daily.dev og:description: A contractor shares their experience being hired for what should have been a simple one-day HTML page project. Due to organizational dysfunction, delayed... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-charged-18-000-for-a-static-html-page-c7jwayhy5 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/c7JWayHY5.png og:image:alt: I charged $18,000 for a Static HTML Page og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I charged $18,000 for a Static HTML Page **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 9 min read · 254 upvotes · 36 comments ## Summary A contractor shares their experience being hired for what should have been a simple one-day HTML page project. Due to organizational dysfunction, delayed responses, missing assets, and endless email chains, the project stretched from an estimated 20 hours to 7 weeks of on-site work. Despite feeling like an impostor for charging so much for minimal actual coding, the contractor invoiced for their time. The company not only accepted the $18,000 invoice but recalculated it to $21,000, acknowledging the contractor had been available and ready to work throughout the extended timeline. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@jamesdavis7** · 29 upvotes > bizniss **@akkitto** · 19 upvotes > That should be the default. It shouldn't make anyone feel like an impostor, but it's sad, that we are conditioned to feel that way with too much corporate propaganda over more than a century. **@yaireo** · 14 upvotes > I've seen one-page promotional static pages quoted at much much more, 20 years ago. **@abhiroop43** · 14 upvotes > You didn't get paid for the HTML page; you got paid for your time. **@friedrich** · 10 upvotes >  ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Freelance Profit Leak: Time, Scope & Margin \(2026\)](https://daily.dev/posts/freelance-profit-leak-time-scope-margin-2026--xfwodix5j) · Alex CloudStar · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Web Development Outsourcing: Services, Costs, and Case Studies](https://daily.dev/posts/web-development-outsourcing-services-costs-and-case-studies-aigjqwb8l) · Netguru · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [What Do You Charge For?](https://daily.dev/posts/what-do-you-charge-for--uocqephu7) · Ibrahim Diallo · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#html](https://daily.dev/tags/html), [#project-management](https://daily.dev/tags/project-management) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-charged-18-000-for-a-static-html-page-c7jwayhy5) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I charged $18,000 for a Static HTML Page","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-charged-18-000-for-a-static-html-page-c7jwayhy5","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-charged-18-000-for-a-static-html-page-c7jwayhy5"},"datePublished":"2026-01-04T19:41:55.755Z","dateModified":"2026-01-04T19:42:18.914Z","description":"A contractor shares their experience being hired for what should have been a simple one-day HTML page project. 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