How Much Does a Website Really Cost?

Asking "How much is a website?", is like asking, "How much is a car?, or "How much is a house?'. It really depends on what you want.

Now a website shouldn't cost you as much as a car or a house, but there are so many variables to actually give a general estimate.

i recently purchased a new car. And for the hundredth time, I felt like I  was getting swindled through the whole process. During which, I wish I had someone on my side to tell me if I was paying to much and if i could push for more. So, in the spirit of helping, I am going to try my very best to give you an unbiased point of view of how much a website really costs.

One of the factors that makes pricing a website tricky is that really websites themselves don’t really cost anything, at all. For us at Pixel Sweatshop, as with a lot of other developers out there, we utilize free open-source platforms to develop sites for our clients. So, actually, there are really no hard costs involved. What you’re actually paying for, is the time and expertise of your website developer.

When you hire someone to develop a website, you are hiring them to engage in a fairly formal, detailed  and sometimes lengthy process. A process that involves all kinds of documentation, meetings, research and strategic planning, in addition to the more tangible deliverables like wireframes, design mock-ups, revisions...and of course the final website in question.

Also, with the growing access from varying technologies like, smart phones, tablets, tv's and netbooks, developers sometimes have to learn new technologies during a project. (There isn't a school that teaches cutting edge technology because by the time they wrote the text book, it would be outdated.)

In terms of hours, small to medium projects typically clock in somewhere between the 40-100 hour mark. And, of course, developers need to charge for that time (They have families too). Add to that, the fact that they need to recoup their own hard costs and you get to a $10,000 website pretty quickly.

That said, not everyone needs a $10,000 website. In fact, I’m going to venture that most of you reading this don’t. So, what do you do? And what should a website cost you?

Of course it depends on what your website is going to do, and getting clear on all of this before you go out asking for quotes is a great way to get a more accurate quote out of your website developer to be.

The "Small" Budget ($500-$1000)

A lot of clients that are at this budget range. And rightfully so. If you are just starting your business, you may have a small budget. Everyone has to start somewhere. Unfortunately, a fully-customized website will cost more than this. If your budget is in this area, there are options. Some hosting companies provide some basic do-it-yourself templates that require a bit of computer knowledge, but you can still get the job done.

That being said, you can probably find someone that can give you website in this range. it will probably be basic HTML and CSS (A very basic brochure-style website, without the ability to edit ior add content yourself)), but it will work and you may be very happy.

What I have learned is that there is always someone that can do it ("It" meaning pretty much anything in life) for less; But "less" is not always "better".

*Insert shameless plug. We have started to offer our OS products. Websites built from the ground up to meet the needs of particular target groups. We learned that most websites we built had most of the same basic needs, then were customized from there. So, we decided to build a base website and only charge for additions. Saving you thousands of dollars.

Now, back to the unbiased point of view...

The "Slightly Bigger" Budget ($3000+)

(yeah I know…that still seems like a good chunk of change.)

Let me just be honest here. If you want a professionally-developed website, this is probably where you will have to start. Even the smallest, simplest of websites require a LOT of time in every stage of development. So, let’s just throw it out there — expect this to be your budget. And no, this is not expensive in the web design world. Always get at least a few quotes from other companies to compare. Even use them against each other.

And what does a small, simple website look like? It's actually more than you think. It will probably be built on a robust Content Management System (Joomla, WordPress or Drupal); You will be able to easily edit yourself; And it will integrate a number of features that will enhance your user's experience (Blogs, video, photo galleries, etc).

The "Medium" Budget ($5000+)

In addition to a custom design and more functionality, here’s where you get to start adding things like eCommerce and integrated payment systems into your repertoire.  You really start to add some user functionality that is really going to get your website working for you.

The "Large" Budget ($15,000+)

If you want to start your own social networking site, you could do it with a budget this size. This will be the baseline for most enterprise solutions. You start to get into a lot of custom coding and features in this price range. 

Conclusion  

To be honest, most small-medium business or organizations will be around the $3000-$5000 mark. You will get a site that will really work for you and won't be needing to come back for more in a couple of months. Before you go hunting for a quote, take a few minutes to jot down a wish list. And, just like shopping for a car or a house, don't just go with he first quote you get. Make them work for it and play them against each other. Squeeze them and see what you can get.

Other Points of View

We scoured the web in search of other points of view on this subject so you can see what others are charging.

http://www.webpagefx.com/How-much-should-web-site-cost.html

http://www.howmuchdoesawebsitecost.com/

http://www.bloomtools.com/blog628/How-much-does-a-website-cost?.html

http://www.atilus.com/webpost/what_does_a_website_cost/?what-does-a-webs...