My preferred ‘pricing model’ is simple: I will design and build you a website and give it to you as a gift, and I trust you to gift me back what you think is a fair value for my work.
The idea is a very ancient concept called a Gift Economy. It is an idea based on mutual trust and gratitude. It’s something I think we need a little more of in our world, and I am willing to trust in it and you.
I appreciate this concept might seem a little unusual, but the model works very well. It is the basis behind open source software, Wikipedia, Creative Commons, non-commercial scientific research, and file sharing.
– Charles EisensteinThe gift economy represents a shift from consumption to contribution, transaction to trust, scarcity to abundance and isolation to community.