One of the most popular questions that gets asked is how much will a new site cost me and this really depends on a number of factors.
As a bespoke web agency we are not fans of standard “package” pricing and giving every client the same box price as then every site we work on would become very similar and we couldn’t dedicate extra time when needed.
We also, however, appreciate that clients want to know a rough idea on pricing before continuing and that the quote will be feasible before wasting too much time on either side, so hopefully this post gives a small insight.
As a baseline, for any small scale brochure site the minimum cost is usually around the £1200 mark. There are then several factors that go into determining the right cost, which we shall run through below:
1. Amount / Type of Pages
The obvious starting point is number of pages required. This will just give an idea of the size of the site and potentially how many page designs might be required, the cost won’t necessarily be a price per page as it might be 50 pages that use the same layout for instance, or it could be 50 pages all with unique designs or features required so those prices would greatly vary. We would therefore need to gauge what sort of pages you require, e.g. a page per service, case study / project pages, news, FAQs, testimonials, shop, about, team, contact etc?
On average a 5 – 10 page site often just needs 1 -2 designs (homepage and internal design), then the rest of the site would flow from those designs. A 10 – 20 page site might require around 3 designs (homepage, general content page, services or projects page for instance). A 20 – 50 page site might then require around 4/5 designs (homepage, general content page, services, projects, news for instance). Unique page layouts all take extra time to design and build and can increase the cost by around £800 per design.
Larger scale sites would also require more thought into navigation, and categorising of pages, wireframes and sitemaps are often required too, which can add an extra few hundred to the final cost.
2. Type / Size of Company
The type of industry and size of a company will also play a factor into pricing. For instance a one man band tradesman might just be looking for a very simple site to showcase his work. Whereas a large, marketing company, for instance, would need something much more engaging that stands out from the crowd and can appeal to larger corporate clients, so would need a lot more thought gone into the design. A company with more staff would also have more heads that need to approve the design and gather opinions from.
This factor could see the price increase by a few thousand pounds potentially.
3. Example Websites
During the briefing stage we would always ask the client if there are any example websites they like the look of or competitor sites that offer a similar approach to what they’re looking for. We would obviously use our own judgement and research our end anyway, but it’s good to get an idea in case the client does have anything specific in mind.
An example site can then give a great indication how much work would be involved in achieving those kind of results. For instance: if the example site has decent animation, if there’s high quality images, has thought gone into branding – colours, font styles, has engaging content and call to actions, these signs would all indicate a more high value site and so to achieve something similar it could add a few extra hundred or a few more thousand to the cost.
4. Specific Features / Functionality
Are there any specific features required for the site, e.g. custom animations, a booking system, multi-step form, shop, gallery area, custom blog, membership area, logo design, landing pages etc. Any specific requests, outside of it being a standard brochure site would need to be covered.
The cost of these will obviously vary, some ballpark costs are listed below:
- Custom animations – from £200 to £1200 depending on complexity
- Booking systems – this would usually be a third party tool and can be around £500 to integrate and style up to the site. Or could be no additional cost if it’s just an API or link to the system. If a custom booking system is required then this would need a separate full brief and could be a few thousand starting point.
- Multi-step forms – these can be around £500 to design and build
- Shop / E-commerce site – these start from around £2,000 for a simple shop website
- Gallery – around £100 depending on specifics
- Custom blog – this could vary on number of categories / design required, anything from £100 – £2,000
- Membership site – much like the booking system, a specific brief would be required for this and it could start from around £2,000 also
- Logo design – this maybe simply updating the current one, creating a simple text logo or creating a brand new logo with 3 / 4 design options – cost for this ranges from £100 – £500
- Landing pages – these usually require around 1 days design work and 1 – 2 days build work, so around £900 per unique design
4. Any Existing Website / Brand / Content
If you already have a website in place with all relevant content and images ready to go but the site is just needing a revamp then this can help in one aspect that it will reduce the time spent chasing the client and knowing what elements to use in the design phase. However, it can also be additional work in terms of accounting for any existing SEO value, 301 redirects might need adding, existing tags need to be kept intact, could be issues with your current host / domain etc.
Also, if you have a logo and brand already in place, this can help to give us a basis to work from rather than a completely blank canvas. But then your brand maybe in need of modernising and may in fact cause more time trying to make a nice, modern website with outdated branding.
So quite often these pros and cons weigh each other out and the cost / saving becomes irrelevant if it’s an existing site / brand or not.
Content, however, is great if you already have something, as this will save time during the design phase to ensure the design fits around your text. Images are also a great benefit to have before starting, as this will save time searching stock libraries for suitable alternatives, which range from £10 – £30 each to purchase.
SUMMARY
As you can see, asking how much a website is can be a little like asking how long a piece of string is, but hopefully the above information gives you an insight into why and a rough gauge for you if your looking to work with us, feel free to contact us here to find out more…
