but I would really like to get some insight on what $200+/hr web-development is like. I mean, what are the expectations versus a $50-developer?
I've done a number of projects for $200 per hour. To me, the biggest differences are:
1) Business knowledge. I work full time at an investment bank but I also do side work. I spent 350 hours per test studying for the three CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) tests. They have nothing to do with technology obviously - they are widely considered the hardest tests in finance. The years I took the tests, I took them with multiple business people from my firm where I ended up passing and the business people ended up failing. Business knowledge is the single largest thing that will gain you respect (and a higher rate) from a company.
2) Full stack knowledge. When a client's website is down, he doesn't want to hear, "OK then. I've checked all my code and it is just fine. This is a database problem. I'll forward this to the DBAs." They want you to fix the problem no matter where it lies.
For example, I could probably build in 10 hours a customized, nice-looking Twitter bootstrap Rails site with Stripe integration and deploy it onto EC2 and set up Capistrano to integrate with whatever existing Github flow they have
You're obviously new and sincerely inquiring, but I'll tell you - writing what you wrote here shows just how new you are. Anyone can build an app with a lot of moving parts "in 10 hours". Ya know what that's called? A prototype. It doesn't have proper error handling in it, it doesn't have proper logging, it doesn't have proper monitoring, it doesn't have proper business logic, it doesn't have proper features, etc. The 10 hour prototype you built is probably 10% of the actual project. A $200 per hour software engineer with business knowledge and full stack skills knows that.
I've done a number of projects for $200 per hour. To me, the biggest differences are:
1) Business knowledge. I work full time at an investment bank but I also do side work. I spent 350 hours per test studying for the three CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) tests. They have nothing to do with technology obviously - they are widely considered the hardest tests in finance. The years I took the tests, I took them with multiple business people from my firm where I ended up passing and the business people ended up failing. Business knowledge is the single largest thing that will gain you respect (and a higher rate) from a company.
2) Full stack knowledge. When a client's website is down, he doesn't want to hear, "OK then. I've checked all my code and it is just fine. This is a database problem. I'll forward this to the DBAs." They want you to fix the problem no matter where it lies.
For example, I could probably build in 10 hours a customized, nice-looking Twitter bootstrap Rails site with Stripe integration and deploy it onto EC2 and set up Capistrano to integrate with whatever existing Github flow they have
You're obviously new and sincerely inquiring, but I'll tell you - writing what you wrote here shows just how new you are. Anyone can build an app with a lot of moving parts "in 10 hours". Ya know what that's called? A prototype. It doesn't have proper error handling in it, it doesn't have proper logging, it doesn't have proper monitoring, it doesn't have proper business logic, it doesn't have proper features, etc. The 10 hour prototype you built is probably 10% of the actual project. A $200 per hour software engineer with business knowledge and full stack skills knows that.