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Web Design Pricing Guide
By Steven | New Website
If you’re considering getting a new website and want to learn more about web design pricing, or how much a website should cost, then you’re in the right place.
You could send the same web design proposal to 4 different website companies and you will get back four different quotes. Often with a very wide range of prices and timelines.
As you might have noticed, web design pricing can be tricky. You may be asking yourself “how much will my new website cost?”. Instead you should ask the question, “what should my expectations be for the budget I have?”
Generally speaking, web design pricing can range from free, to $100,000+. Therefore the best solution doesn’t just depend on price. Rather how you, your goals and your budget align together.
With this in mind, this article will give you a sense of exactly what you can expect from a new website at several price ranges. We also offer suggestions and solutions that might be right for you based on your budget.
To understand what price you should expect to pay for your website, your goals, budget, and personal involvement will all need to be factored in together.
YOU – First, how involved do you want to be during this process? If you have little, to no budget you will be the designer, developer, project manager, content writer, and marketer. As your budget increases, ultimately this will reduce the amount of time and energy you need to devote to your new website.
GOALS – Next, what kind of a website do you want? Do you want a website that looks “good enough”? Better than your competitors? Or the leader in your industry? Each of these goals is different and your budget will need to adjust accordingly.
BUDGET – Finally, your budget will be affected by your goals for your new website and how much involvement you plan on having during the project. In other words, the higher quality you want your website to be and less involvement in the deliverables, the higher your budget will have to be.
If you want a new website but have little to no money to invest in it, that’s no problem! There are plenty of free options out there. Most of these solutions however are free website builders which offer a limited range of templates to choose from.
In addition to website builders another option is to install a free WordPress theme on a self-hosted server. In this case you’ll still need to pay for hosting, which isn’t free and this option will require a lot more technical knowledge to implement. Provided that you have the time and the patience this is a viable option.
TEAM: Yourself
PLATFORM: Online Website Builder
DESIGN: Pre-Made Template
SPECIFICATIONS:
• Pages – 1
• Page Templates – No
• Revisions – None
• SEO – None
• Social Media Integration – None
• SSL – None
PROS:
• Affordable
CONS:
• Generic template design
• “Free” Branding on site
• Lack of customization
• Lock of S.E.O
• Unprofessional look
• Slow setup
Who is this right for?
• First time blogger
• Personal website
• Small club or group
Resources
Here are some of the better free website builders available:
• www.wix.com
• www.webs.com
• www.weebly.com
If you have up to $2,500, then you will likely be hiring a local freelance web designer to help you modify a premium theme.
When working at this price-point you are paying for a ‘semi-custom’ design. In most cases designers at this price-range are selling ‘template’ websites. By that token, if you are only paying $2k-$3k for a website it is almost certainly not a custom website.
TEAM: Local solo designer
PLATFORM: WordPress, Wix, Joomla
DESIGN: These designers often use templates
SPECIFICATIONS:
• Pages – 5-10
• Revisions – 1-2
• SEO – None
• Responsive Design – Maybe
• Social Media Integration – Limited
PROS:
• Local person to communicate with
• Decent quality work
CONS:
• The quality may not be good enough for most small businesses
• Still a slow set up with only one person working on the whole project
• Usually overbooked and rarely delivers on time
In summary, who is this right for?
Useful for an individual marketing their personal services who is on a budgetBy and large, good for a very small business starting out who needs a web presence.
Resources
Yelp or Craigslist are probably the best places to find a freelance web designer. Obviously the quality varies greatly depending on who you hire:
• www.yelp.com
• www.craigslist.com
Once you reach the $5k-$10k range you have way more options. First, you will be working with a legitimate design firm. Second, you will be getting a truly custom design. Third, you won’t have just a developer working on your project. Instead, you will be working with a dedicated project manager. Additionally your project manager will help to organize and manage the entire design and development process, making your life a whole lot easier.
Unfortunately, some companies at this price range will STILL try to sell you a ‘semi-custom’ template without informing you. So always make sure to do your due diligence before hiring a firm!
At this price point you are getting a ‘real’ website for a ‘real’ business.
TEAM: Project Manager, Designer, Developer
Platform: WordPress, Wix, Joomla, Drupal
Design: Custom Design
Specifications:
• Pages – 10-50
• Revisions 3-5
• SEO – On page
• Responsive Design – Yes
• Social Media Integration – Yes
PROS:
• Professional Quality
• Significantly better design
• Hands on project managment
• Notably higher quality development
CONS:
• More costly
In summary, who is this right for?
Small or medium-sized businesses looking to refresh their website design. Though, quality still varies depending who you hire.
There are many factors that affect website design pricing in the $10-$25k. First you should consider the type of agency you work with. Next, the scope of your project and the functional requirements of your project. For example a $20k project might be a small 4-5 page micro-site from a large agency for a pharmaceutical company or it could be a 100 page brochure-type website for a local design firm. At this price-point you are paying for the reputation of the firm and are more concerned with quality of the work and the assurance of a project being successfully brought to completion.
TEAM: Agency, Project Manager, Designer, Developer, Copywriter
PLATFORM: WordPress, Wix, Joomla, Drupal, Shopify, Magento, CMS
DESIGN: Custom
SPECIFICATIONS:
• Pages – 50+
• Revisions – 5-10
• SEO – Yes
• Responsive Design – Yes
• Social Media Integration – Yes
• Custom front-end functions
• Back-end database management
PROS:
• Professional Design
• Professional Development
• Project Managment
• Dedicated Support
• Custom Functionality
• Content Writer
CONS:
• Higher Cost
Who is this right for?
Medium sized businesses with a 100+ pages website.
The $25k+ range for companies who are seeking to fulfill a very specific need. It may be for a high functioning e-Commerce website. Or perhaps a membership site with robust back-end functionality. In other cases, you might need a very large website with thousands of pages, or a flashy high-functioning website with a unique front-end interface. In any of these cases, you will mostly be engaging with larger design firms.
TEAM: Agency, Project Manager, Designer, Developer, Copywriter
PLATFORM: Custom Application development. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Yelp are not websites, they are web applications. At this price range you are getting a web application with much more sophisticated custom function than a ‘regular’ website.
DESIGN: Custom
SPECIFICATIONS:
• Pages – 100+
• Revisions – 7-12
• SEO – Yes
• Responsive Design – Yes
• Social Media Integration – Yes
• Custom front-end functions
• Extensive back-end database management
PROS:
• Professional Design
• Professional Development
• Project Managment
• Dedicated Support
• Custom Functionality
• Content Writer
CONS:
• Large Agency Pricing
• Work handled by juniorstaff
• Expensive overages and delays
Who is this right for?
Large businesses with several thousand employees and high-security needs.
If you thought web design pricing was all over the map for ‘standard websites,’ that’s nothing compared to an E-Commerce website.
You’re dealing with many additional factors such as payment processing, security, fulfillment, inventory, and inputting many different products skews an E-Commerce website is typically far more complex and expensive than a regular site.
However, if you’re looking for an affordable option to having an E-Commerce website, sites such as Shopify offer a turnkey solution for opening a store online.
Otherwise, when working with a reputable design and development firm, be prepared to pay $10,000-$50,000 and above for an E-Commerce website.
As you can see web design pricing is a little all over the place. It’s hard to have an apples to apple comparison because the quality of what you get is so different from one option to the next.
With that in mind, consider your goals for the project and the value of your time. Next put together a budget that works for you and that you can afford. And remember to do your homework be for you hire a web designer.