How much does a website cost?
In a previous article 'how much does a basic website cost' I talked about a typical entry level small business website consisting of 3-6 pages. Most websites (we build at Redfox) are larger and more complicated than that and require more time and additional skills to build them. It is handy to know what things you should think about when planning your website and how this can help you when you brief your potential web designer.
There is more diversity in scope and scale of a final product in the website design industry than almost any other product I can think of. The cost of a website mostly depends on the amount of time required to build it. To give an estimate of costs for a website, your web designer needs to collect as much information as possible so they can estimate the time required to build the site.
Questions your web designer might ask you
To help you plan your own website you can download our
If you are in a hurry - scroll straight to the website pricing examples
Business Objectives
- What is the nature of your business?
- What are your goals and objectives for the site?
- Who is your target audience?
- How do you plan on driving traffic to your website?
The Scale of the Project
- What are the main parts of the site?
- How many pages would there be in each section?
The Design
- Are there websites with a look similar to what you are after?
- Do you have a professionally designed logo and business colors?
Functionality
- Does the website require online forms?
- Is there an image gallery?
- Are there newsletter signups?
- Is there any e-commerce involved?
- Is there a membership component or password protected parts of the site?
- Is there any other special functionality required?
Content
- Who will write your content?
- Do you have examples of typical content items?
Content Management
- Do you want to mangage the content of the website yourself?
- Who will perform the updates and what is their skill level?
How do your Answers Affect the Price of your Website?
To give you an idea of how your answers might affect the time required to build your site, I have outlined some of the different aspects of our work as website builders and give some estimates in the time it takes to complete these parts. After this I will provide some examples of some typical websites and show how a web designer might cost your project.
Planning
More complicated websites require planning of layouts and navigation. Often sitemaps and wireframes are created to confirm we are on the right track.
Options for different areas of functionality are discussed and the best options to meet needs and budget are decided.
from hours to days
Web Design (graphic design component)
The design or ‘look and feel’ of the website as well as components that make up the site are designed in a graphics program first and mockups are provided for your approval.
Color choices, font choices and styling can be glossed over or agonised over depending on the complexity of the design.
It should be noted that some web designers make use of pre-purchased templates or themes to minimise time spent in working on a custom website design. This approach is usually required to reduce costs to fit tight budgets. The end result may not be of the same quality as a site that has had thought and craftsmanship put into the design. In the examples that come later I am talking excusively about custom website design NOT templates or themes.
from days to weeks
Web Development
Web development includes converting a graphic design or mock-up to HTML (web pages). This provides the structure for the pages and layouts for different parts of the site.
Any programming or script writing is done to provide functionality such as ecommerce or interactivity.
from days to weeks
Content
The more pages the higher the cost. More importantly the number of different templates the web designer has to build to lay out the content effectively affects the time to build.
from hours to days
Content Management
Does the website include an area where website content can be added and edited by the client? How much customising of the CMS is required? Website administration systems vary enormously in ease of use and price.
from hours to weeks
Web Hosting
Web Hosting varies in cost according to the amount of space and bandwidth needed, reliability, and level of security required.
$100-$500 per/yr
Examples of Typical Websites
1. Basic Small Business Website - without CMS (range of $900 - $2500)
Planning
A brief meeting to discuss design requirements and business goals.
1-2 hours
Web Design
This is the area where any price variation will occur. Is it a simple design or complex?
from 1 to 5 days
Web Development
Converting the design to HTML. With a basic website there is litle variation in formatting of the pages. Usually a "home" template and an "other pages" template.
from 1 to 3 days
Content
Usually 6-15 pages. Some variation will occur if there is a lot of image work to do (retouching etc).
4 hours to 2 days
Content Management
Not Applicable
Web Hosting
A basic web hosting package will usually suffice.
$100-$250 per/yr
2. Basic Small Business Website - with CMS (range of $1500 - $3500)
Planning
A brief meeting to discuss design requirements and business goals.
1-2 hours
Web Design
This is the area where any price variation will occur. Is it a simple design or complex?
from 1 to 5 days
Web Development
Converting the design to HTML. With a basic website there is litle variation in formatting of the pages. Usually a "home" template and an "other pages" template.
from 1 to 3 days
Content
Usually 8-20 pages. Some variation will occur if there is a lot of image work to do (retouching etc) or complex formatting of any pages.
4 hours to 2 days
Content Management
There are many different content management systems available and the better ones can all be customised to give an easy to use experience for the client. What does make a big difference in cost is when you compare a system that is customised for the client to one that is a basic installation.
4 hours to 3 days
Web Hosting
A basic web hosting package will usually suffice.
$100-$250 per/yr
3. Small Business Website - with CMS(range of $3500 - $6500)
Planning
More detailed planning to organise how content is best displayed including layouts, placement of mini ads and calls to action.
Sitemaps are drawn based on discussions. Wireframes are drawn to show page layouts.
4-8 hours
Web Design
The graphic design requirements are quite varied amongst clients and decisions on look and feel of the design affect costings in all aspects of the process.
Larger sites mean more graphic elements and page layouts to design.
from 3 to 5 days
Web Development
More complexity and customisation is usually done on larger websites. There is more time spent on coding navigation and page layouts than a basic site. Integration of the CMS takes more time. Another layer of complexity is added when there are password protected parts of the site.
from 3 to 5 days
Content
A lot of variation can occur here in getting the content onto the site. It depends on how much 'cleaning up' or reformatting of the text/data needs to be done. The complexity of the formatting makes a difference too and for larger sites we usually want to see the content first before we commit to pricing.
You also need to know as a client if the web designer is going to enter all or some of your content or will you be doing parts of it yourself. Often we will enter a representation of the data and our client will enter some themselves.
4 hours to 2 days
Content Management
All web designers have their favourite tools for building websites and have a strong bias for one system over another. Each system has advantages and it helps to know what they are. Keep in mind, an experience web developer can build a great website with whatever system they favour.
As the size and complexity of a website increases so does the need for customisation of the content management system. This attention to detail and ease of use for the client and their users takes time. The amount of time put in here will greatly affect the quality of the final product in terms of ease of use and professionalism of the content generated.
4 hours to 5 days
Web Hosting
Might need a web hosting package with a bit more space for email and website.
$150-$295 per/yr
4. E-Commerce (range of $3500 - $7500)
Planning
Organise how content is best displayed including layouts, placement of mini ads and calls to action.
Often large amounts of data for product display needs to entered into the system. How this data is migrated and who is responsible needs to be determined.
Logistics for the site such as shipping methods and payment gateways need planning.
2-8 hours
Web Design
Is it a simple design or complex? Does it stray from the existing model for ecommerce websites that people are familiar with?
from 1 to 5 days
Web Development
Even a standard ecommerce site has quite a few pages involoved that need to be formatted in addition to the rest of the website.Depending on the method used, there can be large amounts of time required for configuring and or customising the checkout process.
from 5 to 10 days
Content
Usually 6-15 pages. Some variation will occur if there is a lot of image work to do (retouching etc).
4 hours to 2 days
Content Management
There is a huge variation in features offered by ecommerce systems. Your requirements need to be known so the developer uses the right tools for the job. At a minimum - products, orders, shipping costs, payment methods and stock levels should all be administered through the CMS.
4 hours to 5 days
Web Hosting
A more robust web hosting package with SSL certificate is required
$250-$350 per/yr
Comments
Obviously it costs a pretty penny but I think to get a better service we have pay bigger so no need to think much about it but concentrate on the quality of the features of the site. Thanks for the demo.