IT Consulting Rates – A Comprehensive Guide

Technology has evolved in years with lot of innovation in the development approach and it become difficult for businesses to cope with the changing trends and streamline the process with the right Software solution. This is where IT Consulting comes into play.

With an IT Consultant’s support, you can not only understand the differences in technology and the related tech aspects but also gain more insights into the same. So, in this article, we will walk you through the IT consultation rates, the need for IT consultants, factors influencing the cost, and many more.

Facts about IT Outsourcing Rates

Before you outsource the IT services to a third-party company, it would be best if you knew more about the rates and several other such relevant facts. To help you gain more idea in this specific section, we have offered a deeper insight into IT outsourcing rates.

1. The approximate market valuation of IT consultation globally is expected to hit the target of $82.38 billion in 2027.
2. With an average CAGR rate of 6.13%, the market valuation is forecasted to cross the limit of $82.38 billion by 2027.
3. The average spending of every business per IT consulting service is estimated to grow by $22.95 in 2027.

Types of IT Consulting Service Providers with their Price Range

Now that we have established the importance of hiring IT consultants, the roles and responsibilities they usually have to handle at the primary level, and several other aspects, it’s time to focus on learning more about the rates and charges of these consulting firms.

In addition, one should also understand how the charges are influenced and varied according to different factors. Until and unless these aspects are clarified, you won’t be able to decide which kind of consulting company you should collaborate with, the fee structure that will be ideal for your business and budget plans, and several other parameters.

Therefore, in this below section, we have described the most popular and preferred service provider classifications for which you can decide which one to go with based on IT consulting rates.

Amateurs

As the name suggests, amateurs are IT consultants who have just started their careers, offering basic level advice and consulting services. If you have a startup company or want to resolve trivial matters concerning the IT department, it’s best to hire a novice consultant since they don’t charge much and work hourly. Usually, the IT consultant hourly rate for amateurs varies somewhere between $25 and $50 per hour.

Freelancers

Another best option you have for consultancy freelancers, especially when you have time and budget constraints. Furthermore, dealing with freelancers is much easier than with any company because these professionals usually work based on contracts. Therefore, you will have the independence to terminate the contract anytime if you don’t feel satisfied with their work or the freelancer you hired failed to live up to the expectation or couldn’t deliver the work on time. As a result, the IT consulting prices will be adjustable.

In addition, you can make changes to the contract, scale the services up and down according to your business requirements, and even work with more than one freelancer simultaneously. Usually, the IT consulting rates for freelancers start from $100 and can climb up to $500 per hour. Then again, you have to keep in mind that the total expense will depend on how much experience the freelancer consultant has, the aspect for which you need the consultancy, the complexity of the project, and several such factors.

Also Read – Freelancer vs Software Development Agency

Nearshore or offshore IT consultants

Many top companies around the world hire offshore or nearshore IT consulting teams for many reasons. First, the number of choices is quite large, so they can easily choose the best consultant according to their business requirements. In addition, an offshore company can often take another small-sized IT consulting company on board and complete the project on time.

Therefore, you won’t have to worry about not getting enough response from the offshore team or the employees being incapable of meeting your requirements. For offshore IT consulting prices, the rates may vary between $25 and $75 per hour.

Small Consultancy Companies

The next best option is hiring a small-sized company offering IT services rates per hour of $75 to $175. As the name suggests, these companies usually have an in-house team of fewer than 15 employees. They take projects from big firms and companies worldwide and conduct the same for contractors so that the entire work can be completed on time.

One of the best parts of small consultancy companies is that they can offer tailored and customized services, ensuring they are synchronized with your business requirements and project ideas. Therefore, if you have to pay $175 per hour for an entire month as the IT consulting rates, it will be worth it, owing to their services’ accuracy, precision, and knowledge’s extent.

Medium-sized Consultancy Firms

Medium-sized companies usually collaborate with all businesses, regardless of the size or the industry to which they belong. It doesn’t matter whether you have a small or medium-scale enterprise or are the managing director of a large enterprise; you can reach out to these consulting firms and discuss how much it costs to hire dedicated developers for IT services.

Since the projects handled are big and complex, medium-sized consultancy firms charge a bit more than any previously discussed consulting service providers. Usually, the IT consultation rates for such companies start from $50,000 and can increase to $5,000,000 for the entire project. Based on the hourly rate, the charges will vary from $125 to $175 per hour, with a maximum team strength of 100 employees.

Big Business Consultancy

You also have consulting firms that only handle big businesses with a national presence. It would be best if you remembered that these companies do not work with businesses or enterprises with an international presence and higher IT consulting rates. That will require the consulting firm to have multiple locations spread around the globe with a team strength of more than 500 employees. Usually, for big business consulting firms, the team strength can reach 200 maximum.

They usually take up projects worth $125,000 to $5 million. Based on the strength of the team and the project cost, the IT consultant hourly rate can be considered somewhere between $200 to $300 per hour.

Enterprise-level IT Consulting Firms

Last but not least, we have IT consulting companies handling the enterprises. To go for such a firm, you must clarify how much IT companies charge per hour based on enterprise-level projects. If this is not clarified from the beginning, it won’t be easy to manage the expenses in the long run because enterprise-level projects do not end up within months.

These companies usually handle government projects, multinational companies, and Fortune 500 companies. As a result, every consultant working in the companies has a high level of expertise and knowledge concerning the technology, its scope in a real-time application, project requirements, IT managed services and solutions, and so on. The team’s strength can increase to 500 employees based on the complexity and scope of the concerned project. Usually, the IT consultant rate per hour for enterprise-level firms starts from $250 and can climb up to $850 per hour.

Top factors influencing the IT Consulting Rates

From the above discussions, you can understand that the IT consultant hourly rate is not fixed. Instead, it varies according to the project type, requirements, team strength, location, type of client, and so on. Therefore, hiring a consultant based on assumed rates won’t be a good idea, especially if you want to make the best out of the consultancy firm within a proper budget.

Therefore, to help you out, we have discussed some factors that influence IT consulting rates in real-time. With this, you can easily decide which consultant to proceed with.

Location

The first factor on which the IT consultation rates depend is location. For instance, when you hire an offshore team in another country, the charges will be according to the local currency. This is why companies in the US, Australia, the UK, Japan, and several other countries prefer to hire Indian Developers because if you compare their currencies with the Indian currencies, the local Indian currency is valued at a lower price. Therefore, the IT consultant rate per hour is pretty low. Following are some of the hourly rates estimated based on location.

IT Consulting Rates by Country

1. Australia: $75 to $120
2. United States: $100 to $175
3. Canada: $100 to $130
4. Eastern Europe: $25 to $50
5. Western Europe: $100 to $150
6. India: $15 to $30

Industry

Similarly, the IT services rates per hour will also depend on the industry to which the client’s business belongs. For instance, e-commerce, retail chains, international import and export, government projects, and so on are usually priced higher than any other industry. Healthcare, space and research, education, automobiles, and shipping and logistics are a few industries where the IT consulting rates are pretty high.

Client business size

In addition, the IT consulting prices will also depend on the business side of the client. Not going into the details, small-scale businesses won’t have to pay much when compared to large-scale or enterprise-level ones.

Skills and Talent

Based on the required skills and talent of the consultants, average consulting rates by industry will vary. For example, if you need consultancy on software development following our traditional approach, the consultancy rates will be much less because the involvement of technology, skills required, and talent won’t be that advanced.

But on the other hand, if you are looking for services for artificial intelligence, cloud computing, edge computing, blockchain, business process management, and so on, the IT consultation rates will be pretty high because the skills and talents required are specific and advanced.

Average IT development rates based on domains

Project complexity and scope

Another factor on which the IT consultant rate per hour will depend is the project’s complexity or scope. The more complex and advanced the project, the higher the consulting charges will be. This is because you need professionals with years of experience, proper skills, access to the right set of tools, and so on to handle such projects. If any amateur walks on these projects, it will be nothing but a failure.

Tech stack required

If you need a consultant with access to the proper tech stack, you must keep in mind that the hourly rate of an IT consultant will be much higher than that of a regular IT consultant. This is because the professional will charge you for your business’s tools and software programs. Since these tools’ licenses do not come in a few bucks, you cannot expect the IT consulting prices to be nominal.

IT Consulting Fee Models  

Before you hire any company, you should understand IT consulting price models based on the approximate fees charged. If you don’t understand this particular aspect properly, you may end up paying more than what is required for your business. So, to save you from paying extra, we have explained the fee models that are usually prevalent in the market.

Hourly rate

The most common form of IT consulting prices model prevalent in the industry is based on an hourly rate. From the name itself, you can understand that the consulting firms will work based on hours and charge you accordingly. The best part of such a pricing model is that you have to pay only for the number of hours you received the services from the consultants. Therefore, there will be nothing more and nothing less, creating a win-win situation for both parties.

Monthly salary

The best fee model for Fortune 500, government projects, and multinational corporations will be based on the monthly cycle. You will be liable to pay a monthly salary based on the headcount in the team, location, project complexity, and so on for the IT consulting rates.

Project-based

Last but not the least, another common pricing model is based on the project. You must remember that if you choose this particular model structure for hiring IT consultants, the valuation can go up to millions. So, you should discuss the IT consulting prices before deciding anything.

How to select the best IT outsourcing provider?

As there are so many different IT outsourcing providers, one needs to be sure of the choice being made. You shouldn’t rely on just any provider because that might lead you to a wrong choice. So, we have prepared a guide for you to work on the shortlisted options of IT outsourcing providers that you can follow to make the best choice. 

Step 1 : First and foremost, you have to check whether the IT outsourcing provider is experienced or not. It is better to choose an experienced professional because they know about various strategies and facts about different IT segments, including the recent discoveries.

Also Read – Outsourcing To India : A Complete Guide

Step 2 : Ask for a portfolio to understand what type of work they have done so far. Based on the portfolio you get, you can easily decide whether the concerned IT outsourcing provider can meet your requirements or not.

Step 3 : It’s important to gain further insights into their performance metrics and what culture they follow. For instance, check the feedback and reviews to understand what their past customers think about them. You can also go to their achievements and stories to understand whether they entertain any kind of jargon or always have a professional attitude.

Step 4 : Besides looking into the technical skills of the IT consultants, you should also focus on soft skills. These will include communication, punctuality, delivery output, and many more. It’s important you consider these skills because they will help you to collaborate with the IT outsourcing provider in the long term.

Step 5 : In addition, you also need to look for any kind of negative feedback for the concerned IT outsourcing provider. Once you find any online, run an analysis to ensure they are completely authentic and generated from credible sources.

Step 6 : Be in touch with the IT outsourcing firm and always arrange a phone call or a conference call to discuss the business requirements, changes in the initial project requirements, text stack to be used, and several other aspects. The more you communicate with the professionals, the more clarity you will gain about their work style, abilities, technical skills, and many more. 

You should also understand how much does it cost to hire a consultant based on different parameters to decide your budget.

Harikrishna Kundariya

CEO, eSparkBiz

Harikrishna Kundariya, a marketer, developer, IoT, chatbot and blockchain savvy, designer, co-founder, Director of eSparkBiz @Software Development Company where you can Hire Software Developers. His 14+ experience enables him to provide digital solutions to new start-ups based on Web app development.