The cost of a custom theme from NewSchool Learning has always been determined by a conservative estimate of the time it would take to complete the work from start to finish. With Moodle 1.x, this estimation was easy to predict since themes were only given access to the header, the footer, and the CSS.
One of our favorite new features in the forthcoming 2.0 release is that theme designers now have even more control over the presentation of the software. We can now create alternative layouts, add theme settings, and with a little programming even alter the way Moodle renders objects on the page.
While we think this is great news, it does throw a bit of a monkey wrench in the way we price our themes. How can we estimate the amount of time each 2.0 theme will take if the scope of each theme project we take on is completely different? Something needs to change.
We don’t want to move away from our package pricing model - it’s worked well for the past three years and we think it’s a very straight forward way of doing business. We do, however, need to set some limits on what is included in each package and provide some pricing, up front, for what we consider additional services. Here is a table showing our updated pricing and package descriptions for Moodle 2.0:
| Package |
Description |
| Basic ($275) |
For our Basic Package, we customize an existing theme. We take your branding, logo, font, and colors to make another theme your own. We’ve increased the price of this package slightly ($30) to take into consideration new features like the dock, custom menus, multiple layouts, and settings. Essentially, for this package, we’re committed to modifying all aspects of the existing theme. Of course, additional features will require additional charges. |
| Plus ($795) |
Our Plus Package gets you a new Moodle theme that matches your existing site or design. For this package, we’ve increased the price slightly ($50) for additional time we anticipate spending on custom layouts. We’ll include up to two layouts (one for the front page and one for all internal pages) at no additional charge. Since we don’t anticipate that everyone will want the new dock, custom menu, settings page, multiple layouts, and renderers, we’ll be creating a new Add-On pricing table for these items. |
| Max ($1595) |
Our Max Package is our complete custom design and development service that gets you your very own Moodle theme designed from scratch. For $100 above the 1.x price, we’re throwing nearly everything new with 2.0 into this package: multiple layouts, the dock, custom menu, and settings. Altering the core renderers will be an additional charge since we think most clients won’t need this service, and the time we’d invest in this area is tough to predict. |
As you can see, not much has changed. We’re increasing the price of all of our packages as little as possible while increasing the services we provide across the board. Our goal is to give our clients a better theme for Moodle 2.0 at a low core cost.
We’re going to wait until Moodle 2 is officially released (sometime in September last we heard) before we update things on our site, but feel free to contact us if interested in getting a jump start on your theme for Moodle 2.0. We’re knee deep in creating themes for the core and are more than ready to start your project.
There is, of course, more to come. Please stay tuned for more news on our Moodle 2 Theme Update Package and Add-on pricing.
I’m happy to announce the release of our first Premium Theme to be upgraded for Moodle 2.0 - Accentuate. 