The question we get all the time is, how much does a website cost? To the ordinary person who probably knows very little about website development, this seems like a fairly simple question to answer. In reality, this is almost an impossible question to answer. Let’s put it to you this way, can you:
Essentially all of these questions are nearly impossible to answer because you need specifications. Using our house example, you would need to specify how many square feet, how many stories, how many bedrooms, location of the house, etc. A website is the same way. Normally when someone comes in and asks us how much does a website costs, we give them a ridiculous range such as $500-$100,000. We do this because we simply have no idea what you want and how difficult it will be to implement you’re ideas and specifications. A few things to keep in mind when looking for a website quote are:
- The cheapest price is not necessarily what you want.
- The most expensive quote doesn’t mean it’s the best quality.
- Know how many pages and elements you want on the site.
- Know what type of functionalities you want on the site such as ecommerce or data mining tools.
- Have an idea of what type of design you want.
Know What You Want
The biggest issue we have when giving quotes, is the clients not really knowing exactly what they want. When looking for a website development quote, you should know exactly what you want. Just like you, we have to make a budget to determine how many man hours and extra tools we have to use to complete your project. As a web design company, we have to pay programmers, web designers, and marketing professionals to create imagines, functionalities, and marketing plans to make your website a competitive product. You should know the number and what kind of images you would like on your site, because it is always going to cost extra for us to create content for your website.
Functionality is also very important, knowing how the site is going to work will save you time and money. Finally, finding a few sites that you like as an example for your website design will save you and the designer from lots of arguments and headaches. I can’t tell you how much time has been wasted by undefined specifications. Moral of the story, know what you want.
Price
When getting price quotes from different companies, be weary of the extremes. It’s usually a pretty good rule of thumb not to go with the cheapest quote. Remember, you get what you pay for, so if you pay a guy $150 to make your website you’re probably going to get a $150 looking website. Now there are great independent web developers out there who do fantastic work for a good price but they’re a dime in a dozen. Another good thing to keep in mind is to be weary of the most expensive quote that you receive. There are tons of clients, such as the United States government that believe that the most expensive quote is the best option. This simply is not true, for example the new Obama Healthcare website costs a cool $515 million and doesn’t work properly. There are plenty of companies that are far more innovative and agile that could have done the job for a 1/10
th of the price. When looking at price quotes, look at their past work and find the company that can create what you envision the best.
Conclusion
Pricing a website can be tricky business, but finding a developer whose work matches your vision can makes your selection process noticeably simpler. As well, having a prior understanding of what you would like the site to be can save you both time and money and make the building process much easier. Buying a website is just buying anything else, when you go in prepared you will get what you need and at the right price.
