Ask HN: Should HTML5-based websites be more expensive?

1 points by Annet ↗ HN
Should HTML5/CSS3-based websites be more expensive for clients in comparison with XHTML/CSS-based ones?

3 comments

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What exactly do you mean by HTML5-based? The term is way too loose to make assumption about the effort or price. Do you mean using new APIs? Just changing the doctype and removing some slashes?
When a client asks for new APIs and more complex HTML5 specific features, it's clear and it's easy to explain why it could be more expensive. But if he/she asks "Develop me a website in HTML5 because I think XHTML is obsolete and has no future", the answer isn't so evident.
Should a PHP script be more expensive than a Ruby script that does the same thing?

What are you trying to achieve using HTML5 instead of xHTML? Are you using specific HTML5 apis? Did your client asks for a special feature that it's only available in HTML5?

I would usually do my works in the best technology available and acceptable to my client, but it really depends on your client needs. I would for sure ask more money to make a website IE7 compatible, for instance.