What Does Web Design Cost?
The one question that plagues anyone planning to have a website of their own – “What does it cost to design your website?”
It is quite logical too considering the fact that you have so many options out there in the wild. Ask ten different companies and they will give you 20 answers.
So where does that leave you? Join us as we unravel this puzzle, one by one, and at the end, you will have an idea what to expect, on a monetary level.
Deciding factors for the cost of the website:
1) The features
It doesn’t matter how big or small your website is. Depending on what your requirement is, and the skill of a designer, the price may change.
Designers spend a good part of their lives sharpening their skills and knowledge, and based on this, they can integrate unique features within your website. This doesn’t come cheap, so if you need sophisticated features, you will have to pay for it. It doesn’t really matter very deeply if your website has 5 pages or 50, it is the features that count.
2) The developer’s skills
It is a natural. The developer’s skills will naturally affect the cost of the website. True that you can get a developer for very cheap rates, but you might have to compromise on the work quality. Even if the designer charges a high rate, you are likely to get the desired results.
3) The type of website suitable for you
The deciding factor is also dependent on the type of business you run; the type of website to be created is the next thought. Here is how you can categorize businesses:
- Small business – A startup or a simple business will need only few pages, ideally 10-20 pages, with less number of functionalities.
- Individual businesses – If the client is a single person running a small business, then he would just need a simple website with just a few pages about his services, and a few images, videos and graphics. The number of pages would be dependent on the business run by the person.
- Medium sized business – Such businesses may need larger websites, but they can keep it at an average level with pages that don’t need complex functions; about 20-40 pages. But it wouldn’t be as small as a startup site too.
- Large business – Here, the brands focus more on their identity, and their website plays an important role in establishing it. So they would be requiring a complex website with a number of custom features, and consisting of 40-50 pages.
- E-commerce website – E-commerce shops require a bit of complicated work because they are selling products, so it is almost like having an entire shop online, but with extra safety and security precautions. That could mount costs. You would probably want to create qualitative 50+ pages.
Keep in mind that the number of the pages is not the main decision criteria when it comes to deciding the budget. In E-commerce there can be custom developments like product configurators which itself take more time to make.
4) The web designer’s hourly rate
A web designer in Germany for example charges around 90 US Dollar plus tax, depending on his experience and skill. In India, the pay scale could vary greatly but you could put it at 25 to 50 US Dollar.
5) Web designing companies based on their location & caliber
The cost of the website will be dependent on the agency and their location. In an effort to control costs, companies try to offshore much of their work to countries like India, Indonesia, China, etc.
Here are some scenarios:
a) You could hire an IT company, probably a small one if your needs are simple. The major attraction would be labour costs, at a range of 90 to 120 US Dollar.
b) On the other hand, if you need just a freelance web designer, with whom you can start a business relationship for small needs now and then, the rate could go at 70 to 90 US Dollar.
c) For complicated websites and e-commerce sites, you can hire a large web agency housing several skilled web developers, with a large wage bill. The rate would be somewhere around 100 to 150 US Dollar
d) Custom website could be different, and of course, it depends on where you are getting it made. Here is an example of a website requirement, depending on your subject:
- Planning (Workshop) – 4-6 hours
- Research (Wireframes) – 8 hours+
- Design (Photoshop, HTML/ CSS) – 46 hours+
- Build – 80- hours+
- Content Support – 10 hours+
- Test – 4 – 8 hrs
The launch of the website will also cost money, and this depends on the agency, host, cloud service etc.
Thus the price for a medium internet page with the above hours will be around 156 hours and then we need to take the hourly rate. Depending on that the page will need a budget of 5000 to 14000 US Dollar.
6) SEO Integration
A good web developer will optimize the web pages to ensure good positioning in the search engines. However, considerable research time and effort goes into this, and this costs money.
The fees for this depend on the services, website, size of business, keywords, etc. For example, for optimising 5 keywords, a company could charge you the standard rate of 100 US Dollar per month.
7) Integration of databases
Integrating databases is no small task, because depth of technical knowledge of the designer and developer will make the job easier. A well executed website is integrated with features that can anticipate problems before they arise.
It would be a good idea to develop and integrate the databases when the website is developed, and this costs money. Testing the apps (if you have to release apps too) after integration could also cost money.
Closing Thoughts
Developing a website is an investment that will pull off in the long run. The main thing that matters is getting the right agency to work this out for you. Your website will start showing profit within a short time.
Getting a ready made website would be cheaper than a custom-made one, but most people with serious business requirements, choose to go through marketing requirements, audience and company objectives before making the final decision.
Interesting Articles:
Interesting article on “ How much a website costs”
Helpful answers on quora about building a website
Picture Source: Flickr.com/ thiele/ Picko
About the author: Reema works as Thought Leader at PHPBabu.
