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The tough thing about web sites is that they’re tricky to price. Each one is unique, and as I discussed in my earlier article, How Much Does a Web Site Cost?, there are a lot of different factors that influence the final cost of the site.
This makes it difficult for people who are looking for someone to build their web site. The overall cost of the project is always one of the primary considerations and rarely do web design and creative agencies provide a price list for their services. It’s not that these agencies are trying to be secretive, but rather that we’re trying to avoid misleading anyone. Because every project is different, we prefer to work with our clients in the beginning phases of the project to work out what the required features are, who will be responsible for building and maintaining those features, how all those features will work together, and how much work it’s going to be to get it all up and running.
Two Approaches to Budget
The typical approach
Since most people have no idea how much a web site costs, they’re at a loss when it comes to determining an appropriate budget for their project. Lacking this important knowledge, they approach several different agencies, hand over a few vague requirements, and collect the quotes. Then they choose the agency who seems the most reliable and whose quote is within their range of affordability.
But turning your web design project into a sort of game of Price is Right isn’t the right approach. You’re likely to get a wide range of price tags which is only going to make the process more confusing. You’ll wonder why the cheapest agency is so cheap – do they do shoddy work and provide poor service? You’ll wonder why the most expensive agency is five times as much – are they just ripping you off? Furthermore, having no idea of what your budget should be can make you reluctant to contact an agency at all. What if the most you can manage to scrape together for the project is $1,000 and they come back with a quote for $16,000? You’ll have wasted your own time and theirs and feel a little foolish.
A better idea
Here’s a better solution. Do a little bit of legwork on your own, before you contact anybody. Look at your competitor’s web sites and see what they have on offer. Look at web design galleries and showcases. Get some ideas of what’s possible, and then put together a wish list for your own site. Then crank some numbers and figure out how much you can afford, both up front and for ongoing costs. Web sites need maintenance on a regular basis and it’s best to budget for a regular monthly cost in addition to the initial costs to build the site.
When you’re done, turn over your wish list and your budget to a few different agencies and see what they come back with. With this approach, an agency can tell you up front if they can’t take your job and you won’t have wasted any time. The agencies who do put together a quote for you will all do so within your budget. Then you can choose the one who can offer the most features and expertise for a price you can afford.
Pricing Rules of Thumb
Well, that’s all well and good I can imagine you saying, but I still have no idea how much money I should be budgeting. So let’s talk about some general pricing rules of thumb. The prices I’m quoting here are inclusive of everything you’ll need, including domain name registration, hosting account, merchant account, design, development, training for you and your staff, and so on.
Simple web sites
Web designers refer to simple web sites as ‘brochure sites’ or ‘brochureware’. This means that the web site is basically an electronic brochure. You’ll find some information about the company and its staff, services and/or products. You’ll find their location, contact information, and operating hours. If you need a site like this for your business, ideally look to budget $2,000 to $5,000 up front and $100-$400 per month for maintenance. If that’s out of your range, see the section below about exceptions to the rules.
Complex web sites
If you need a more complex site with features like ecommerce, social networking features (sites like Facebook), user accounts, appointment scheduling, multimedia, etc. then ideally look to budget $12,000 to $20,000 and up for the initial design and development and then between $500 and $2,000 each month for maintenance. If that price is more than you had in mind, see the section below about exceptions to the rules.
Keep in mind for all types of sites that often a bit extra can be spent up front that will reduce the maintenance costs down the road. These extra fees up front are often quickly recovered when the site is easy for you and/or your staff to update and maintain without having to learn any coding languages.
An Exception to Every Rule
Keep in mind that the prices I quotes above are just rules of thumb, and that web site projects can often be tailored to meet a wider range of budgets than you might think. Purple Pen Productions can, and has, built simple brochure sites for as little as $200 and has provided customers with simple ecommerce sites for as little as $1200.
On the other hand, I’ve also been involved with simple brochureware sites that cost as much as $16,000 and have contributed to robust web sites with lots of features that cost over $500,000.
$200 vs $16,000
Why the big differences in price? There are a few different factors. Let’s compare a simple brochureware site that cost the client $200 to the one that cost the client $16,000. What were the differences?
The $200 site used a free open source content management system and a free theme (design) that was simply customized a bit to fit the business. The client didn’t need any fancy features and hired a single freelancer to do the entire project in a single day. The client already had experience working with a blog she had previously, so required minimal training for updating and maintaining the site. The client also had a treasure trove of photos ready to be put on the site and wrote all of her content herself.
The $16,000 site used a proprietary content management system, built just for their site. The client in this case hired a traditional creative agency who provided them with a professional copywriter, a photographer, and a small team of designers and developers to build the entire site from scratch. The agency also provided a project manager to coordinate the efforts of everyone involved and keep the project moving in the right direction. Once the site was finished, the agency provided several members of the client’s staff with a couple of hours of one-on-one training in maintaining and updating the content.
In the end, were the two projects all that different? Could someone visiting the sites tell that one cost $200 and one cost $16,000? Probably not. Could the $200 site have been improved by doubling or tripling the budget? Definitely. Could the $16,000 have been done equally well with half the budget? Possibly – using an open source content management system would have gone a long way toward reducing the final cost, but it’s hard to replace the impact of well-written copy, custom design, and professional photographs.
Share Your Budget
Take the information provided here and use it to put together a budget for your own web site project. Decide which features you think are worth paying for, which you can do yourself, and which you can do without.
And when you contact an agency or a freelancer to design your site, be sure that your budget is one of the first things you discuss. Give the person or agency you’re hiring the opportunity to tailor the project to fit both your needs and your budget. You’ll be much happier with the result.
And maybe most importantly, keep in mind that launching a web site is not like printing a brochure. Once a brochure is printed, you’re pretty much stuck with it – the printer can’t make changes to it after the fact. A web site, on the other hand, is a living, breathing thing. If you haven’t got the budget to make your dreams come true right away, figure out what you can afford now and get started on it – you can always add features and change things later.
