How do Developers work?

[UniBoy6666]

Hey!
I have heard that if you have a server Developer you get free custom plugin...
Um... i'm confused please explain to me how it works....

 

[PandaPlaysAll]

That makes no sense.
Some developers do free plugins for vouches and you can use the plugin for the server
Most people don't make plugins for free.

 

[Harry]

You won't be able to get a developer who produces plugins for free unless they've been using Java/the Bukkit API for a good 5 minutes (and want to build a portfolio).

Most developers charge on an hourly basis, or per plugin, so keep that in mind.

 

[UniBoy6666]

No, I meant that most probably you pay them let's say... for a month and he codes the plugins and stuff you want.

 

[JoshyDEWstive]

Hey!

Plugin Developers generally will not make free plugins, unless they are new to the industry and want to build their portfolio (as mentioned above). Most developers will charge a fixed price per plugin if they are developing single plugins. If they work for a server or network they will most likely be paid monthly with the monthly price determining how much they will work and what they will work on.

For example, if say I get paid $150 per month by Bob Network, and I would generally charge $20 per hour, I would only work 7.5 hours for that month, but being me I would work just a little bit longer because I'm that sort of person.

In regards to pricing single plugins it can be difficult, the developer has to take in a variety of factors; Who is buying it? How many are going to buy it? What does it do? How long did it take for me to make it? Are there any other similar plugins already out there? All those questions, and many more, are perfectly valid and are always going through a developer's mind.

Say I made a custom plugin, and you wanted to have a simple GUI that teleported you to a location, I wouldn't charge much at all, I would actually recommend free plugins to do this instead. This is because the plugin is overall not complex, the two main things for this plugin are:
- The GUI itself and how it opens and displays to the player;
- The handling of the events when the player clicks on an item to teleport.
You would be wise to note that it only teleports you to a single location, hard coded into the plugin with no configurable options for the location or the GUI. It doesn't even allow you to add new locations and items in the GUI. If you insisted that I create it, I would only charge something really minimal, like a dollar. Or free if I was feeling kind and just wanted to expand my portfolio.

Now, for example, you want to have a custom plugin which lets you set new locations to teleport to. You want to be able to add and remove new locations via configurable files and commands. You also want the plugin to be able to handle large amounts of locations, so we would need multiple pages in our GUI. There are many parts and concepts one must know to be able to create this sort of plugin, which may not be obvious to the buyer:
- Creating commands and permissions;
- Creating, reading and writing configuration files and reload them when necessary;
- Creating configuration files that can be easily read by human beings and the server alike;
- Storing item values and locations in configuration files (Harder than it sounds!);
- Creating automatic GUIs that get made depending on what page your own, and expand to how many locations there are
- Error handling if the locations are corrupted, bugged or non-existent.
- Handling events, who clicked the item, what slot did they click? What location is that slot assigned to?
- What type of database should we be using? JSON, YAML, MYSQL?
All things plus many more go into the development of custom plugins, even if they look small on the outside they may be filled with many features that you wouldn't even realise exist. I would charge around $10-20 for this sort of plugin.

The last big thing I want to talk about is how you are purchasing your custom plugin, if you are getting it custom made for you it is generally more expensive than buying one premade. I would recommend looking at free and premade plugins first before getting a developer. However, if your planning to run a server with many custom plugins, I would hire a plugin developer and get some sort of monthly contract with that developer.

Thanks for reading.
Josh

tldr: Plugin Developers will charge a fixed price if they are developing a single plugin, if paid monthly they will work an amount based on how much they are paid.

If there is any thing else you need help with, or if I made a mistake, feel free to contact me