How Much Does A Website Cost?
Without question the first and most often asked question by people beginning the process of getting a website is “How much does a website cost?” Well lets see if we can shed a little light on the topic.
The cost of most small business websites is between $350 and $5,000. The price has such a wide range; because, small business websites come in all types, sizes, and styles. The best analogy is a vehicle. Different vehicles are better for different uses, and within those uses there are wide ranges of quality, features, and price.
The simplest, most inexpensive sites involve lean and clean layouts without custom graphical elements. All of the style of the layout is created by blocks of color and the text content itself. These sites are a good minimum starting point if your budget is low, but you are ready to start establishing an online presence. For $350 do not expect a unique custom designed site.
Adding textures, custom graphical headers, and creating unique designs all increase the price of the site. A 4-10 page website with a moderate amount of graphic elements for headers, backgrounds, and style often approach and exceed the $800 mark. Creating this artwork, optimizing it for the web, and integrating it into the site all take time, and as with many things time is money.
Large amounts of content 20+ pages, content management systems, animated flash pieces, and scripting can rapidly raise the price of the site into the thousands of dollars. While some of these features seem straight-forward they also require significant amounts of time and know-how to perform as expected. This is a hard pill to swallow for many small businesses because their website seems to be a very intangible resource. There is nothing you can put your hands on physically; however, the exposure and sales leads that a good website generates can definitely be felt in terms of increased sales and interest.
Often website estimates are determined by evaluating the time it will take to complete the project and then multiplying that times a desired hourly rate. Depending on the experience, skill, and profile level of the web designer this rate can vary from $30-100/hour. Like many other things, often you get what you pay for. If someone offers to do your whole website for $150 they either are very desperate for business (and you should wonder why) or a hobbyist who fancies himself a professional.
When comparing website bids or estimates always make sure you are comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges. If you don’t understand what an estimate feature does or is, ask the developer. Do not be shy about asking questions. If a web designer/developer feels that answering a few simple questions is inconvenient, you may want to consider what future customer service will be like.
Hopefully this guide segment gave you a ballpark idea of what websites cost when delivered by a professional. If you’re interested in Fly South providing website design or development services for you, please send me a message using the form at the bottom of this page.
