When people contact me for help with a blog or website, they have one main question.
How much is this going to cost?
It’s a logical thing to ask, really. Those of us who aren’t rich or famous have a finite amount of money, and we always want to feel like that money is being used in the smartest way possible. We are especially cautious when it comes to paying for something intangible like a website – you can’t hold it in your hand, so how much can it really be worth?
The cost of web design work varies wildly. You could ask for quotes from 10 different designers and receive 10 completely different dollar amounts, ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. How do you decide what amount you’re willing to pay?
Factors That Affect the Price of Website Design
1. The components and features you need.
Never assume that your needs are “simple” or should be cheaper than a designer’s standard rate. Some things look easy but are very complicated, while others seem like a big deal but are very easy to implement. Your site may only consist of a single page, yet that doesn’t mean it’s automatically cheaper than one with 5 or even 100 pages.
The thing is, designers don’t always price by the amount of time something takes. Your doctor can stitch a cut in 10 minutes, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t require knowledge, skill, and precision. Likewise, we have spent considerable time learning to do what we do. If anyone could do it, we wouldn’t have jobs. Adding things like forums, ecommerce, opt-ins, memberships, and other custom functionality is simply going to cost more money.
2. Your designer or developer’s skill level.
Yes, you can get a website for $150. No, it won’t be the same quality as a website that costs $1500. It’s like the difference between a bicycle and a Lexus. Both will get you where you need to go, but one is decidedly better than the other. Designers who charge more are providing you with expertise you won’t find at a bargain rate – and in most cases, the benefits will definitely outweigh the added costs. If you automatically choose the cheapest option, you risk hiring a designer who sucks. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
3. How demanding you are as a client.
Oops, I mentioned one of those things no one is supposed to talk about! But in the interest of being honest, I’ll just tell you: If you email or call me 50 times a day, expect a billion tiny revisions, cut into my time with my family, and/or request things outside the scope of our working relationship, it’s going to cost you. Over time, designers learn how to sniff out “difficult” clients pretty easily, but if one sneaks through the gates, we are going to make absolutely sure we are compensated for the extra work. Please remember that designers and developers are people and we (sometimes) have lives away from our computers.
So How Much Should I Pay?
Here are a few questions to ask yourself before deciding on a budget for website design.
For Blogs:
What is the point of my blog? If you blog to share photos and memories with your family and don’t make any money from it, I wouldn’t spend more than a few hundred dollars for a design at the most. Actually I’d probably just grab a free theme and leave it at that. If, however, you make thousands of dollars a year from your blog and need it to do specific things for your visitors, it’s time to increase the budget.
What will I gain from a professional design? Whether you want to attract better advertisers or get featured on big name websites, a professionally designed blog will always outperform a generic one. If you knew that spending $2000 now would earn you 5-6 times that in the next year alone, wouldn’t it make sense to spend the money?
Should I outsource this? Many, many bloggers ask me for a quote, then tell me they’re going to design their own sites to save money. When that happens I usually see one of four results:
- They waste hours and hours trying to figure out what to do, then the end result still looks awful.
- They waste hours and hours trying to figure out what to do, then get frustrated and hire someone anyway.
- They immediately go hire a cheaper designer, then end up hiring me to fix what the designer broke.
- They pay for another design within a year of the DIY job because it wasn’t what they wanted.
In those situations, all I see is wasted time, money, and/or effort. If you’re a blogger, focus on blogging, especially if that’s how you earn your living. There’s no shame in outsourcing the things that aren’t a good use of your time.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SPEND: Anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on the value you would get from a better design. In general, I wouldn’t spend more than $5000 on a blog design unless you have a huge audience and very specialized needs.
For Business Websites:
How important is it to have a website for my business? It’s the 21st century, and over 60% of internet users research products and services online before they make a purchase. If your company doesn’t have a website, regardless of what you do or how many employees you have, you are totally missing out. That said, having an ugly, outdated website isn’t going to help you much in the reputation department. It’s easy to tell yourself that any web presence is better than none, but you can certainly lose potential clients or customers if they perceive your brand as “cheap” or out of touch.
What does my website actually do for my business? Do people use your website to learn about what you offer? Make appointments? Purchase products? Find your phone number? Two important points about this: (1) If your website doesn’t lead to more business, that’s a problem. And it’s not because the web doesn’t work – it’s because your site doesn’t. (2) If your website does lead to more business, it’s time to ask yourself what could help improve conversion rates or make things easier for clients and customers.
What does my business really need? I’ve talked to business owners who are obsessed with things that simply don’t matter. They absolutely must have a menu that pops out a certain way, or they want to push content lower on the page just to make the logo bigger. And while they’re worrying about all those nitpicky details, they’re missing the fact that half their visitors never click beyond the homepage. If you aren’t sure what your business site needs, it’s time to consult with someone who does. Immediately.
WHAT YOU SHOULD SPEND: Website designs for businesses are more difficult to price because there are so many factors involved. I would say you should always expect at least several thousand dollars, if not much more than that. Don’t like that answer? Try thinking of your website as an employee (click that link – it’s worth it) and I think you’ll see why you’re getting a bargain no matter what you spend.
What do you think? How much should a website design cost? What factors do you use to come up with that amount?
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We all know the bigger the logo the more we can charge! 😉
You covered fantastic points on this blog post, points that I wish everyone understood. I think the primary reason everyone thinks a website is too expensive when you quote them $2,000 or more, is the fact that companies like Web.com, Wix, or other free website builders offer clients the ability to create websites for pennies on the dollar. Sure, the websites don’t, and will never (hopefully), match up to the quality and results of a custom made website, but they are there.
You have no idea how many times I’ve run into the typical - “I can do that myself, that price is outrageous” - only to find their advertisement on a free lancer website from the middle east with 10+ bids for a fraction of my quote. They eventually come back around when they see how horrible the website turned out to be.
If you think we’re expensive, wait until you see how much it’ll cost you to try and be frugal with your company page.
Agree with you 100% - every time I see the Wix commercial, I just cringe thinking about the businesses who don’t even realize what a bad idea it is. Then again, I’ve seen designers take advantage of businesses and charge them thousands of dollars for horrible generic websites and maintenance plans… So I can understand why business owners would be weary of hiring someone.
I really hope people see this post and understand that web design (good design, anyway) isn’t something just anyone can do. There is a reason it costs money. I have written a lot of posts about choosing a good designer because I hate hearing stories of people being taken advantage of, but I also enjoy things like electricity, so I need to earn enough for what I do to pay my bills. 🙂
Regarding DIY. I do a lot of DIY stuff. I’ve always disagreed with the concept that time is money. I can see the point in some instances, but personally, I have a lot more time than I do money. If the choice is spending $100 for somebody to spend 1 hour on something for me, or spending 10 hours to do it myself for free, I’m going with option B.
The trick, of course, is to know your limitations. I do all of my own car maintenance and most of my own repairs, but I’ll go to a garage for anything that involves opening up the engine block.
So what does that mean regarding website design? It means that when the time comes, I will triage what needs to be done. If I have to, I’ll get the structure in place and finish it myself. It may take me 5 times as long as you, but those won’t be wasted hours, because I wasn’t going to make the cost difference in that amount of time.
I don’t see anything wrong with DIYing a website - IF the person is happy with the end result and isn’t going without elements s/he needs to do it. I even have a post somewhere about how to get a decent website design without hiring a designer. What I find most of the time, though, is that people want a professional look but don’t want to pay for it, and some of them will spend months on something they aren’t proud of in the end. That’s where I think it’s not always the best use of time.
I hear what you’re saying, though, regarding time not always equating to money. If you’re working on your site in the time you would have spent watching TV or watching videos online, it’s not like you’re missing out on opportunities to make money. Those are situations where it might make sense to DIY, especially if the person really wants to learn.
@Edward I stumbled on this post and couldn’t help but comment because you’ve touched the subject of “Time Is Money”, which I’ve had a great deal of insight with lately.
I mean this post with no malice, but hopefully to share insight that may help you and others.
The saying “Time is Money” is better stated as “Treat Time AS Money”.
What I found as I used to behave very much as a DIY person myself, is that the very reason I wasn’t making money was because I wasn’t treating Time AS Money.
I found that the more I could outsource the things that you mentioned “You had more time than money”, the more I was able to create revenue-producing activity that filled that “excess time”. Did I make sense?
I focused my excess time into marketing, sales, and overall business development, so I could easily afford to outsource the grunt work. Let’s face it, spending hours on a website is grunt work. And there are grunts that do it waaaaay better and much faster.
Whatever they charge is a bargain. Unless, of course, as someone mentioned, if your site is a hobby and not for a revenue-producing business. If that’s the case, then a free site from Weebly would do and we wouldn’t need this conversation, yeah?
I hope this insight is helpful to some.
Cheers!
Thank you anonymous - my thoughts exactly. I’ve counseled many, many artists and business owners and once they understand that ALL time spent messing around with a website and other marketing is time not focused on the business - connecting with people, mastering the craft, searching for business opportunities, etc. This is the turnaround for a lot of people who struggle and don’t think they can afford to pay someone. Those ten hours, that you would have had to pay a designer one hour for? Priceless!!
And don’t even get me started on the Wix / Weebly thing. My clients that have tried it about went nutz and had blah results. I know it’s hard to pass up a ‘free and easy’ deal, but ‘free and easy’ is rarely either.
God I wish I had written this post myself, because I find myself having this conversation as a designer all the time. You offer a lot of great advice, both business and otherwise on this blog, and I will be following it regularly.
Same here, Amanda - I constantly have to explain to potential clients why certain things cost money. And most people would not BELIEVE some of the ways people try to get out of paying! (I’m sure you would since you’ve been there.) Glad you came by!
Hi Andrea , I am starting a new busines and would like to have a website designed. I just saw a couple of your comments and would like to get some basics from you.
Greg
Hi Greg,
Thanks for reaching out! We maintain a list of trusted designers and devs we recommend.
I hope that helps, and I wish you the best of luck with your project! 🙂
I stumbled on this post while reading your OTHER post from today….rabbit trailing as usual 🙂 Good stuff. These are challenging conversations to have with prospects/clients but then if I’m confident in my abilities and what I can offer it will be less uncomfy each time. And, I’m prepared to walk away which is key. My point of reference is as a real estate broker answering the question “I can sell my house myself, why should I pay you x% to do it?” By the end of these transactions I probably make $1.25 / hr 🙂 but they only see the lump sum paid at closing. On the web site, I learned the hard way on my first introduction to the word WordPress 2 years ago. This “person” had me all jazzed about a custom WordPress site: “lets make it yours and fancy and add all these bells and whistles, it’ll be great!” Charged me $1500, installed WP (my host has the one-click option but I didn’t know that at the time) changed the main background color and the existing header text to my company name. That’s it. Never to be reached for weeks at a time. Lessons learned! Now I’m no longer stressed while I’m learning WordPress and Genesis, this is FUN! And, I know if I need help I will be happy to PAY for some time from one of you guys that have been doing this a long time. I don’t expect freebies.
I think one of the biggest mistakes we have probably all made is to assume that some clients know what they want. This is especially true for those who want an Ecommerce site.
I need to find the ad or the commercial that told them it was super easy to just grab some dropship products, throw it on a site and then make their millions. Then when you start telling them, hey we need to discuss tax rates, shipping rates, content, and you want to sell 15,000 products. Oh sure let me just hit my upload button…one sec.
It just doesnt work like that. Sure I can use an import script but each product needs to be optimized, (lets not talk about images), and just plain old look like a professional product. And hf yes, can you do that by next week?
I know many of us are afraid of charging what we are worth. We want volume clients and dont think about quality. We all make plenty of mistakes with that mindset. Now many of us now know that we have to educate our clients upfront on the realities of their website choices and the time and effort needed to make that choice a reality.
Hi Donesia,
Somehow I missed your comment until now, but I agree with you 100%! Many of my clients have a vague idea what they “think” they want, but often they can’t articulate why they want it or how it will benefit them. There’s a lot of education involved, which adds to the cost of doing business for the designer or developer.
I usually compare it to tattoos. There are some tattoos that are super cool and look amazing, but that doesn’t mean I need to put that same tattoo on my body to appreciate it. And if I want my business to project a certain image or attract a certain group of clientele, I may not want a tattoo at all, no matter how cool it is. But if I decide to get one, the bigger and fancier it is, the more it will cost.
It simply comes down to average wages of a country, its not that western developers charge more and indian developers are generous, its simply the cost of living, economics etc means the indian developers daily surivival rate (food, rent, transport) is considerably lower than western developers, but in terms of developers charging an amount vs what they can buy with that amount, western developers are probably more generous with their time.
It’s quite racist and not true to say what a previous person said in the comments above that if you outsource it to the middle east it won’t be good, the developers in asia, middle east are just as talented as the developers in the west and they are afterall a fraction of the price.
I’ve had about 8 websites built over the last 10 years, some from UK designers charging an arm and a leg, some from UK designers at a very low prices, and some from india through outsourcing websites.
I was burnt both in the UK and INDIA… i also had great results from the UK and INDIA… the only difference was when my UK site was a home run it cost me $3500 (and was a basic ecommerce site but had beautiful design) and when my website made in india was a home run it cost me about $900 and was much more complex than the uk website.
So outsourcing is definitely a good idea as i said in my opening sentence, it comes down to average wages in the country, if in India the average developer gets paid $15 a day and in the UK its more like $100 per day, its actually global economics that’s going to make it a better decision to outsource to India.
BUT, i have noticed, the burn rate is slightly higher in INDIA, I’ve been burnt there more than the UK by people who didn’t know what they are doing, culturally they like to YES to everything, even if they can’t really do it. People in the UK also have a better EYE for design, but actual coding skills and development time are the same, indians seems to have more of passion and enthusiasm to figure things out/learn too.
So if you know EXACTLY what you want, with the exact design written on paper or photoshop, you know and understand the functionality and features required for your website and how they should be implemented, and you are able to find through good recommendations a good, high quality, cheap developer from India, then you can save thousands doing it this say and it’s recommended.
But if you’re not sure what you exactly want, if you’re not sure about how the website should function, what code it should be written in or what platform should be used and if you don’t have a good eye for design (any of the above) then i would say you’re better off going with a more pricey developer from Europe/US rather than outsourcing from India.
You make some great points, and I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts. It’s very true that outsourcing to another country isn’t an automatic bad idea… But I think you do have to be more careful because of the exact thing you mentioned - cultural differences in how people discuss their work and skills. But someone can certainly be scammed by someone in their own country or even their own neighborhood! That’s why checking references and knowing what you need is so important.
Your comment could almost be a guest post! 😉
I designed a website using Weebly for my church and plan on maintaining it over the next several years. They want to pay me for my work (travel to get photos, building and design, weekly blog entry, etc.) but I don’t know how much to ask. I want to donate it but they are not going to let me do that. What would be a reasonable price to ask at an amature level using a site builder?
Hmm, that’s a tough one. Honestly, I don’t know enough about Weebly to give a fair assessment of what the maintenance should cost. I’d say somewhere between $100-200 a month would be fair, since you’re going to be writing blog posts each week.
Andrea,
I’m really loving editing my blog, however my comments section is getting HAMMERED by spam, and I’ve switched my commenting plugins 3 times. Can you give me a couple of solid tips on reducing or eliminating spam? Also, what plugins are you using for your comments?
I’d love to learn more about what you do, and am always looking for someone who knows alot about utilizing this Genesis Framework alot better.
Thanks for your blog.
Jason Waite
Lewisville, Tx
Oh… and your right sidebar poll form is REALLY awesome! How are you doing that! Super dope.
Oh, the opt-in form? It’s just Gravity Forms with some CSS applied to match the site. I used Genesis eNews Extended for a long time and it looked the same, but it didn’t work well with sitewide SSL.
Hi Jason,
I’m a big fan of Stop Spam Comments - that’s the only plugin I’m using. Aside from that, turn off trackbacks in Settings > Discussion, then you’ll also need to turn them off in your database for older posts (trackbacks make up the majority of comment spam you’ll see). Here is a tutorial for doing that: http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-disable-trackbacks-and-pings-on-existing-wordpress-posts/
If you’re using Genesis, you also need to uncheck the boxes for trackbacks in Genesis > Theme Settings. After going through those steps, I might see 3-4 spam comments a month at most. This is the largest period of calm I’ve ever had so I’d say it’s working well!
I’ve been doing web designing and developing for about 12 years, and this material just describes the story of my life. When working through design agencies, the design go much smoother, but dare you try freelancing! As a freelancer, I deal with “difficult customers” all the time.
It’s always the same requests I get: can you make my logo bigger, can you lower the content so the logo looks bigger, my logo is too far up can you lower so it’s more visible…?!
My answer to all those is simply, No! Do you ask a mechanic to put bigger bolts in your car to make it stronger?! Just like a mechanic knows how big the bolt needs to be, I know how big the logo needs to be. I spend 12 years in industry and 4 years in college to determine the size of your logo. So the answer to changing the logo size is simply, No!
Can I please use this article on my site?
Hahaha appreciate the rant! I’ve definitely gotten some ridiculous requests over the years, so I totally get it! 🙂
You can definitely share an excerpt and a link to the original on your site - I just ask that you refrain from reposting the entire article in case it angers the Google gods.
Thank your for the article,
I was hoping you could give me a ballpark figure on how much to charge for different websites and there weekly/monthly upkeep rates. The first is a very basic website, single page, basic coding, no special components. Owner needs simple changes made each week. The second website is more complicated with multiple pages, lots of images, lots of components, needs changes made on a daily basis. Any information you could help provide would be an asset.
Hi Jordan,
A few questions - are you using WordPress? Another CMS? Static HTML? Are you using templates or creating something completely custom? What type of sites are these - business websites, ecommerce, blogs, etc.?
I have been using dreamweaver and photoshop. The sites would be for local business owners. These include restaurants in need of a web presence. Clothing stores needing inventory online. Local ATV/Snowmobile dealership also needing an online presence with financing features. I’m by no means a professional web design master. I create my own affiliate marketing websites for side money. I live in a very small town that has an untapped market. We have numerous potential clients that don’t fully comprehend the power of the internet. So I’m hoping that I could provide this service in my community.
I’d be interested in knowing the same. I designed a 5 page site in HTML for a pizza company, then moved onto a 15 page site in HTML that barely gets edited (will be moving to wordpress soon), then went to a realestate wordpress site that is tied into a blog and MLS listings and then jumped into a magento ecommerce web store on wordpress too - I have more but that’s the basics. No idea what to charge upfront or for ongoing maintenance, hosting, backups, etc…
Your rates for maintenance really should depend on what tasks you’re completing. There is a great article on this topic at http://www.wpexplorer.com/wordpress-maintenance-services/ - it provides examples for what some of the available maintenance services charge as well as what is provided at those levels.
We offer maintenance plans at $75 per month unless the site has memberships or ecommerce - in those cases, it’s $150 per month because there is always a lot more to do to maintain those sites. However, we don’t host them, so that’s a consideration as well.
Andrea - firstly thank you for such a great post. I read the whole thing whilst nodding my head in agreement. You make some solid points. I also thoroughly enjoyed reading through the comments.
I tend to find speaking about money (perhaps it’s a cultural thing) very awkward, but I’ve found it a lot easier lately. I used to send my proposals, get signatures and never discuss it again. God forbid I’d do something that would be additional cost - I wouldn’t want to explain it to my client and then ask for more!!
BUT that all changed. I realised that I should have focused completely on the value I provided and not the rate I received. With that in mind, I became confident in asking for my deserved rate, so much so that most clients of mine will do and pay whatever it is I recommend. Trust and consistency is essential in this business. AND ALWAYS OVERDELIVER 🙂
Hi Hannah,
I do think money discussions are awkward! I’ve always hated them. However, I know I do good work and I’ve learned that it’s okay for someone to say no or walk away. If they don’t recognize the value I provide, they are welcome to go elsewhere and I’ll focus on the people who do appreciate what I can do. Confidence in your pricing makes a huge difference in how the rates are perceived when you provide a quote. Appreciate you stopping by!
Andrea,
Thank you very much for your insightful article on how much we should pay for a website. I’m a owner/operator of 15 years (a courier service providing local business to business deliveries), and have recently decided, with the rapid economic growth in my city, its time for me to go beyond customers finding me via google key word searches and the local phone book.
So this week I purchased a domain name and website via squarespace, and set about creating my web page. All I really need is a simple, brochure-like, one page website. Just a paragraph about my company, a paragraph about my services, and some backsplash/logos, etc…. What I quickly realized was I hadn’t the foggiest idea how to take the vague bullet points in my head and convert them into something elegant for my web page. After squandering 6 hours and still having nothing to show for it I decided I’d best seek some professional advice. I visited a local Soup-to-Nuts type advertising/marketing company I had made a delivery to just last week.
After taking 15 minutes or so to learn what it was I was needing, I was shocked when the salesperson told me each page, start to finish, was *generally* about $1000! The look on my face was likely priceless. Despite the price we continued, but in the back of my mind I was really questioning if I couldn’t find a company to do something I perceived to be so simple, for cheaper. Despite that I made an appointment to follow up this coming Tuesday.
Now, after perusing a few websites on the matter, and coming across your article (and the comments that followed), it would seem $1000 or so for the time, effort and expertise they would bring to the process is actually quite reasonable!
Am I correct to believe, given I intend to maintain and update the website myself via the squarespace tools, that the $1000 price is still appropriate? Also, the salesperson seemed encourage me to consider a separate page for things like “contact us” and “services”. I really feel a phone number to contact me and some kind of email interface could simply be added to the bottom of the page. I just find it difficult to justify to myself an added $1000 for something like that. Am I justified in insisting on just one page, or am I being short sighted??
Any thoughts would be appreciated, and thanks again for your articles! I love that people like yourself are out there willing to give their insights to those of us in need!
Hi Larry,
Pricing is always tough, especially if you’re using a solution like SquareSpace that claims to be easy and totally DIY. $1000 for a one-page site is pretty reasonable, though I’m with you re: the pages - if you can communicate what you want to in a single page, it’s not necessary to have separate pages. However, I would suggest looking at the websites of other companies in the same niche, as I’m sure most of them do have a full-fledged website with multiple pages, a contact form, etc. - that’s fairly standard and what most visitors to the site would expect.
Keep in mind, while you mention that it should be simple, you spent six hours and weren’t able to get the result you wanted. It won’t take the company you spoke with that long, but that’s because they spent a lot of time learning the necessary skills already. A doctor can stitch a cut in a few minutes, but that doesn’t mean just anyone can do it. 🙂
Hi - a friend has asked me to build her a website using WIX as she is not very computer savvy. I have no idea what to charge her. I think it will be about 5 to 10 pages plus a shopping cart. As I am still in the process of building my own and that has taken longer as I was still learning how to use WIX, I have no idea how long it will take me. Is it best to charge an hourly rate or a set amount? I don’t want to charge too much as I am not a professional designer, but reckon I can put together something fairly nice for her. Thanks for any advice you can give.
Louise
Hi Louise,
I’m a fan of charging a set amount per project. While an hourly rate may help you in the beginning while you’re learning, eventually you’ll punish yourself because you’ll be able to complete things much faster. I’m not very familiar with Wix, but it looks like the going rates for a completely custom template are somewhere in the $750-1000 range, with installation of an existing template more like $300-400. Hopefully that helps!
I’m a young web designer with a long time experience in WordPress. I’ve helped set up sites for young blogger friends of mine, and I’ve moved on as I’ve grown.
I sell graphics to people who sell products (such as It Works! independent distributors) who use them to drum up business whilst sharing their info for $5 per photo. I sell different packages with different graphics, and I want to expand that by using my Web Design experience. The problem is, I don’t know what to charge, which led me to your site.
I understand adding in what it would cost me to make the site, but I don’t know what to charge aside from that. Especially for the type of crowd I’m known in. The “Small Businesses” are more so people starting their businesses. I just don’t know. I have the time to work on sites, and I have the knowledge to do so. I really just don’t know what to charge, even after reading your post, because my situation doesn’t 100% apply to most of the things you mentioned. Any tips or ballparks?
I think it really depends on what goes into a site that you build. If I’m reading right, it sounds like you’re installing WordPress and a theme, maybe some plugins, creating custom graphics… If that’s correct, I’d say you’d want to be somewhere in the $200-400 range (plus whatever the graphics cost). If you’re doing custom development or other work that wasn’t mentioned in your comment, that amount could vary. If you do a search for “WordPress implementer” you should get some articles that will help you define your services and decide on a pricing structure. I hope that helps!
I’m just trying to gather some facts and information on websites. I see all these figures for building a website but I am wondering what would be an average cost per year for a company to have/host/maintain a site?
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for stopping by! The cost of hosting and maintenance really depends on your traffic and the specific needs of your business. In general, you’re looking at around $10 per year for domain registration, $50 or so per year for hosting if you use shared hosting (that number can increase dramatically if you have a lot of traffic or need a more specialized solution), and under $1k per year if you’re paying someone to maintain the site and troubleshoot when needed. If someone within your company is tech savvy enough to keep the site up to date, you may not need ongoing maintenance from a third party, though often it makes sense not to have to deal with it or worry about it.
Assuming you have a small brochure site with a few pages and a contact form, there’s no reason you’d need to spend any more than that on a regular basis to keep the website going. If the site has ecommerce, a member portal, or other functionality, the costs may increase. I hope that clarifies a bit, but let me know if you have other questions about costs and I’ll do my best to help. Feel free to contact me directly if you’d like to provide some more details and I can give you a closer number. 🙂
Hello,
It’s strange when people charge high sometimes. Due to the fact that they know what the website’s outcome will be to an organization. I had an idea sometimes and got VC’s who wants to invest but the website bill I took to them killed It all. The web-designer charged me over $50,000.
Holy cow! $50k is a LOT of money, though I guess it depends on what features the site needs. I’ve never worked on a project with that kind of budget - was your idea something that would have generated a large amount of income, possibly making the cost worth it?
Here’s my problem, and please correct me if I’m off base. I’m a fiction writer, so my goal with my website is to share my writing and sell my fiction. I currently use my own domain name, with wordpress installed to make the website design easier. I’m not at all thrilled with how it looks. I know nothing about site design, and I know mine looks amateurish.
#1 The cost is prohibitive. $1k seems to be the low end for a decent website, and that’s half my monthly salary. I can’t justify the expense, because #2, I need to be able to have control over my site. And this is where I say I might be off base. Maybe I don’t know how all this works, but my guess is, if someone else designs my website, I have to keep going back to them for all but the tiniest adjustments. I want to be updating my website constantly, adding new articles, new book pages. I write fantasy, and much of the draw for readers is seeing behind the scenes. So I create pages dedicated to expanding the different settings I write in. Each of those pages would have a very different design. For all of this, I’m afraid I would constantly be going back to my web designer, and paying them more money to add to my website. Or, I would try to make those changes myself, end up breaking what my web designer set up, and have to pay them to fix it.
Ugh, I sound super ugly in this post, and I’m sorry about that. I’ve just had so many people tell me I need to hire out if I want a decent website. I’ve faced one disappointment after another in trying to find a theme that’s customizable and gives my website the look that I want for it so I can maintain it myself. Is it possible to make a one time purchase of a website design that would be user friendly enough to make all the additions and adjustments I would want down the road?
Thanks so much for your questions! I can definitely understand wanting to maintain control of your site, and the good news is that most designers and developers seek to give you just that. When I build a site for someone, my goal is to make all the content as easy to update as possible so that person won’t need to email me every time s/he wants to make a change. I generally do a video walkthrough the client can refer back to, and in the video I go through the WordPress dashboard step by step to show them what items to click and where to find what they need.
If you talk to a designer/dev who doesn’t plan to make things easy for you, that’s a red flag and I would run away screaming. You should maintain full control of your site and you shouldn’t have to pay someone when you want to change content. The caveat there is that you may want changes to the structure or design, which may require additional templates to be designed and coded, but to add new pages and change/add to the content isn’t a big deal at all.
The lifespan of a design is generally 36-48 months. Beyond that point, coding standards have usually changed (meaning the theme may break) and the look is often outdated. But there is no reason you shouldn’t be able to pay one time for a design, use it for those 3-4 years, and update content all you want. I hope that helps!
You say you do a video walk-through - what do you use to do that, exactly? Software or an app to record your mouse movements? New to developing/design… would love to find new ways to help clients.
I actually have a post about that here: https://nutsandboltsmedia.com/embedded-theme-walkthrough-video/
Thanks!
Serious Question:
I’ve just started freelance web developing/designing. Interestingly, I took an English class (digital publishing) and learned about the basics of Dreamweaver and web developing. Since then, I started using Bootstrap exclusively for a mobile-friendly design with presets that I can change through the style sheet.
I have absolutely no idea to charge for this kind of work. I understand my limits as a web developer - one semester class and a couple internships does not equal a master developer; however, I think what I do is harder than a WordPress template (I haven’t done one of those, so I can’t really say this is true… but I’m pretty sure). Yet, I use Bootstrap as a sort of “beginner’s crutch” as a way of quickly getting what I need and editing it for color, size, etc. Sounds simple, but, of course, nothing is simple in this job. I learn and relearn a new language every time I create a new site - everything in Bootstrap has to be edited for the needs of the site.
So, here’s my question/proposition. Can you look at my sites and maybe give me an estimate for how much to charge in the future? I’m sure that price will change with time… but a starting point would be great. I’ll link them below if you decide to do me the honor of helping me out here.
The first 2 links are websites I created through an internship over the time span of a couple months for children with disabilities. The last is a test website that will go live soon for a nonprofit organization - I gave that one a good bit of effort (a few full days every week for maybe 3 weeks). Getting faster! Of course, things take longer when the client changes their mind… anywho, an estimate for the last site would particularly help me since they are going to ask for an invoice and they plan to give me a love donation based on what I give them.
[snip!]
Please and thank you!
Since your clients will have to pay for any future content changes (given there is no UI for them to use like they would have with WordPress), I’d say you should be somewhere in the $600-$1000 range. One of the big advantages of using a CMS is being able to command higher rates since clients will be able to make future edits themselves; there is value for them in knowing they don’t have to pay someone every time they want to swap out a photo or add a new page.
Wow - I remember my professor mentioning CMS and stating that eventually I would want to learn about that since it’s the newest thing for businesses. Thank you for the reminder! I shall begin my research into that!
WordPress for the win! It powers about a quarter of the web for a reason. 😉
This brings up another question I did not think about - the maintenance. Once I complete the site and they pay me, how much should I charge for updates/changes later on? Should I establish with them my rates for that (no surprises for them)?
I guess my goal would be for them to plan their changes wisely… context text changes all at once for a price or design changes all at once for a different price. Or, if they prefer, a monthly price. Is that reasonable? I don’t want to be one of those ‘bad’ developers, lol - but I also don’t feel like being tied to them for the next 3 years at their beck-and-call is fair, either.
You could go one of two ways with maintenance - you can charge a monthly or annual “retainer” where they pay you to be available in case they need you, or you could charge a one-off fee when/if they request updates. Personally I’m a fan of the one-off option because that way I don’t have to think about the client/project unless I’m being paid to do so. When there is an ongoing contract, I feel obligated to keep up with what’s happening and look for any potential issues. None of that takes up much of my time, but it’s still taking up brain space.
Great advice. I would also prefer a one-off option. Any suggestions on pricing (text vs. small design changes) for that?
I’d probably go with an hourly rate (with a minimum of X amount of time) for that kind of work. That way you’re being paid adequately, whether it’s a five-minute job or a 3-hour change. This article may be helpful: http://mirandamarquit.com/how-to-set-freelance-web-design-rates/