The car metaphor
The first question most people ask when it comes to purchasing a website is “how much does it cost?” a not entirely unreasonable question but one for which the answer can be quite complicated. The traditional response is “well how much does a car cost” and while it does make sense in a way, the reality is you do not go to a dealer that can provide everything from a Dacia Sandero (£5,995) to a Lamborghini Veneno Roadster (£2,800,000), you work out what you want, have a budget in mind and go to a dealer that fits both your specification and your budget.
To get a clearer idea of how much your website is going to cost, it helps to have an idea of why you want a website and what you want to it do, for example you might want a 4 page website to tell people about your services, or an online shop to sell your products, you might also have your own photos and all of your content written all of which help your web designer give you a more accurate price.
Hidden Costs
Websites need not be expensive, but cutting corners can result in hidden costs whether that be a surprise bill for stock images that were downloaded from Google when plenty of free images are available or losing customers because they cannot access your website a free website can often end up costing you more than one you paid for.
Working out a price
Once you know what you want, you are on the right path to working our what things are going to cost, however there are many things you might not have thought of.
The list below contains some of the things that may add to the cost of your website:
- Domain Registration | ~ £10 per year*
- Hosting | ~ from £10 per month*
- Maintenance | Optional (You can do this yourself) but recommended ~ £50 per month
- Build Costs | We average between £300 & £3000
- Software Licenses | If you need special software, this can add a recurring annual cost
- Stock Images | Range from Free to £30 per image
- Photographer | £500 per day
- Copy-writing | If you need someone else to write your copy you can add £50 per hour.
Not every website will need all of the above, but the items marked with a * are unavoidable.
All of which should be clearly explained up front so you know exactly what you are getting into. In order to try and keep things as clear as possible I use a formula to calculate prices so. You can try it for yourself here.