A lot of factors go into the creation of your new website. So, while we have basic pricing on our site, it is important to go deeper. To help you get a true idea of the costs, not just in terms of dollars but also in time and effort for both of us. It also helps to look over what others are charging for some services to get a better idea of the going market rate.
The basics of a website build
There are a lot of parts that go into a website build. Some of them are optional and others are included in every website that we build. This article will discuss the costs from both our prospective and the average cost from other providers.
Domain Name
Every website must have a domain name. The domain name provides the way for others to reach your website. You can think of the domain name as your house address. The root cost of a domain name varies between providers and the part of the domain called the TLD. This part is the .com or .org etc found on domain names.
At the time of this writing, a .com domain name will cost around ~$10.00 per year from NameCheap. We do not include the domain name as part of our service, that way you always own your own domain name and can always keep it safe.
Hosting
If the domain name is the address, the hosting is the house in which your website lives. You must have a place for your site to live. There are all types of hosting providers, but the basic types are shared hosting and managed hosting. Our service is considered a managed service.
Shared hosting: as little as $3 a month, with upwards of $50 and beyond
Managed hosting: as low as $20 a month, as high as $100’s
Managed hosting is included in our pricing for many of our packages.
Design Services
The core of a website is the design, but this one is the hardest to provide a price range on. The reason for this is simple. Some companies price the design as just the combination of looks that make up the website, while others include custom development.
The average range is anywhere from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand. Of course this is one that you generally get what you pay for with the cheapest price not giving you near the results in most cases.
Themes and Plugins
This section is also a little tricky. Depending on the company, a site design could be based on a stock theme with minimal changes, while others may build the entire theme from scratch. The same can be said for plugins. As with most things, there are many ways to accomplish the same task.
Some websites will require more plugins because they need additional functionality. Sites that incorporate an online store and needs calculated shipping may need access to plugins and services that cost extra and need to be custom quoted. Which is why we list our prices as ‘starting at’. Until we meet with you and learn the most we can about your project, the cost answer is ‘it depends’.
Costs: free to hundreds, depending on the site needs
Text content
Our basic price is based on you writing all your own content. To help you along this path we provide you with content writing guides. Some companies provide the same type of guides to help you build your content. Others either do not help you at all or write all the text for you. Some will refer you to a third-party copy writer. To ensure you have the best experience we can help with editing and writing the content, we have an extra service that you can add to your package. We can also refer you out to a copy writer who can do the job for you.
Cost: free to hundreds.
Logo, graphics and photos
Another section that very much depends on your preparedness. If you already have lot of high-quality photos and a good-looking company logo. If you are missing some photos and want to use stock photos, there are free and paid options. You could also hire a photography studio to assist you with getting high quality photos.
Cost: free if you have them or take them yourself, a few dollars to a few hundred for stock photos and hundreds and beyond for a photo shoot.
The same is true of your logo. If you already have your logo in a clean vector format, then you are ready to go. However, if the logo is out of date, or you do not have the correct format then you will need to get it. A competent designer can get you the proper vector files or design the new logo for you in short order. There are also services like Fiverr, where you can roll the dice and hopefully get what you need.
Cost: free if you already have the files, $5 to hundreds for a designer
The last item is possibly the most important of all.
Time: Yours and Ours
A new website requires a time commitment. We commit to making you a new website in a timely fashion. Our average website build takes between 2 and 6 weeks. There is such a large time gap because some websites, like course sites or eCommerce, require more time while a basic site can be done in a short amount of time.
Another big factor to the time is how quickly you give us feedback and changes where they are needed. If we are delayed from getting feedback, your project will be delayed. And feedback is not the only thing you need to do.
As we discussed the content above, depending on the route you choose to take, there will be a time commitment to writing, gathering, and preparing all content. And this time is not included in the 2-6 weeks. This happens before we start the build process. You must be committed to seeing the project through and devote the time needed to achieve the best possible results.
Conclusion
As you can see there are many factors that change the costs of a web design project. With our package style and monthly payments, many things are added into a single payment. But a monthly payment is not right for every business. If you are looking for a low budget, one-time cost website then we are probably not the best solution.
Want to learn more about our pricing and get started? Visit our web design page and let’s discuss your project today.
