Hello,

I am a new Web Developer working primarily with Ruby on Rails. I have been working with a Dev Team for over a year developing Web Apps, and I recently decided to start taking side-projects on my own in order to build my portfolio and get some experience.

I got in touch with a client that is willing to pay me for building a basic CRUD App.

I have a general idea of what my client wants, but he would like to have a proposal (with an estimate price) before moving forward.

I would like to be very professional and transparent throughout the whole process (starting with the proposal) and I was wondering if you have any advice or elements that I MUST include on the proposal.

So far, I found Thoughtbot's Playbook very helpful, and it mentions that it is better to not have a very detailed fixed bid (since the project might change or take longer) but to work under a budget and breaking the product into stages (Sprints).

My client understands this, but he would like to have at least an estimate.

Any advice? How do you calculate your hours? Do you include hosting (Heroku) prices as part of the proposal? Do you normally charge a monthly maintenance fee?

** I am planning on building a PWA using Ruby on Rails.

Reading articles from dev.to has become part of my routine, but this is the very first time I write something here. I appreciate your help! :)