Developing a website is a big project to take on. There are a lot of things that need to be done before launching your site. Covering all up won’t be cheap, but in this article we will explore methods to get the best quality of work for your money. Let’s dissect the web development fees you will be facing step by step, who to hire, what website frameworks to use, etcetera. If you want to build your website but need to stick to a budget, keep reading, this article about website development cost breakdown is for you.
How much does it cost to develop a website?
There are three things to take into account before answering that question: the type of web design you want, the amount of people you are going to work with and the location of the web developer you hire.
Now let’s talk about development platforms. If you use a basic platform the cost can be low and if you prefer a high end platform it will be expensive, but you know what they say: you get the web design that you pay for.
With that in mind, it is safe to say developing a website for a small business can cost from $50 to $10,000.
Website development cost breakdown
This is the average cost of building a site by the type of website:
- Landing page – $3000
- Portfolio website – $4000
- Blog website – $4800
- News website – $6400
- Small business website – $6400
- Directory website – $12,000
- eCommerce website – $40,000
- Web portal – $48,000
- Educational website – $40,000
- SaaS website – $48,000
- Entertainment website – $64,000
- Marketplace website – $50,000
- Social media website – $80,000
Web development fees by the amount of people in the team
This is the average cost of building a site by the amount of people you are going to be working with:
When hiring a web development team, be sure to only get the minimum people required to do the job properly. If something comes up and your main web developers think it is best to hire another professional to add to the team, that’s a better thing to do along the way, when the project starts taking form.
There is the option to hire a web development or marketing agency. With an agency you will have all your needs covered and there won’t be a need for you to be part of the process of building the web design. The downside to this is that agencies are more expensive. But their teams tend to be solid, don’t have doubts about that. For digital marketing purposes, agencies are a great choice.
The average cost of hiring a web development team is $500,000 per year.
Web development fees by the web developer’s location
This is the average cost of building a site by the web developer’s location:
If you outsource the web development team that will work with you, you can check the prices depending on the region the team or marketing agency is located. The nice thing about working online is that you can hire anyone from around the world. The following are the current rates per hour by country, based on that you can choose who to work with. Remember that a higher price means a job well done and more value for your money.
- Australia – $80 – $120
- USA – $100 – $150
- The UK – $90 – $130
- Western Europe – $70 – $100
- Ukraine $40 – $80
- India $10 – $30
How will features impact the website cost?
During the process of creating a website, there are many features that you will have to take into account in order to come up with a total cost. Some are a must and others are up to you to decide.
- The complexity of the website
- UX/UI design
- Website Development platform
- The amount of coding needed
- Number of third party integrations
- Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Maintenance
- Social media management
When we get into details about those features you will see why some of these website building features are essential.
How does an User Experience design impact the final development cost?
If you want a website that will perform correctly when your customers navigate through it you need to think about UX/UI also known as User Experience. Web developers need to create dummies in a website builder while running tests in order to know hot visitors make use of the pages and features, they need to make sure everything is working as intended. There are website building frameworks your web designer can use to make this process easier, but these open source frameworks tend to be limited. If you need something custom that needs to be coded, that will cost you extra.
How does a website building timeline impact the final development cost?
If your website project is huge, it is most likely that your team will prefer to receive payment each month and use a website builder for the project. Remember that the web development process involves researching, coding, front-end development, back-end development, content management and website maintenance. It’s expected to take a while to complete. You should be honest with your team and reach an agreement of how much time the project will take to complete. Then you can get an estimate on how much the whole project is going to cost.
Web development fees you may not be aware about
There are costs that you may not have to pay right away, so maybe you are overlooking them. This costs may up your final price from $15,000 to $30,000.
Maintenance website costs
The website maintenance part of web development deals with
- Website hosting.
- Domain.
- SSL.
- 3rd party integrations.
- Infrastructure.
- Cloud storage.
- Dedicated servers.
The most important point here is Website Hosting. Without hosting your website will simply not be on the internet. It doesn’t matter if it’s the best website in the world and the best website builder was used to develop it, no one would be able to visit it. Same goes for the domain. Your visitors need an URL to get to your website. That’s why it’s called an address.
Digital Marketing website costs
The marketing part of web development deals with:
- Content Link building
- Technical Search Engine Optimization
- Digital Marketing Activity Purpose
- Content
- Copywriting
- Social media presence
Maybe the most important part for a marketing agency is the content of the websites. It needs to be SEO optimized so it can rank on Google Search and your potential visitors can find you. Content has to be engaging and provide information useful to the visitors. If this is note the case, people will just close your website and look for another that is able to cover their needs. If you need to hire a dedicated content writer for your site it can cost you around $40 per hour.
How to choose a web developer?
To choose a reliable web development for small businesses you need to understand your project from a practical standpoint. What will help you is hearing many pitches before picking a web designer team. Understand the kind of services you need. By selecting services you can narrow down your search for the right web developer.
One important thing to keep in mind is the total cost of your project. This is when you need to decide if you are going to save money or rather get the best value for your buck. We think that by making a list of the services needed and reaching a middle ground with the web designer, it is possible for you to do both.
But, what is the best model of payment to work on with your web designer?
Hourly rate
If you are working with a freelancer, he will most likely want to work at an hourly rate. This is because freelancers prefer to have access to their earnings quickly as they don’t have health insurance, and other benefits that come with working with an agency. With this model of payment you will have more involvement in your project as the freelance web developer will have to report to you daily or weekly to inform you about how the project is going. This kind of professional relationship will go smoothly if you work goal to goal. First you can make a contract for the back end development and features and then for the front end development. This model of payment is ideal for small businesses.
Flat rate
If you decide to go with a web development agency, here are the average flat rates you will see:
- Setup – $160
- Design and building – $5000
- Content creation – $500
- Website Maintenance – $500
- Total average cost of a website – $6760
Keep in mind this average cost only covers the first year of maintenance and customer support, you will have to pay extra if you need a web developer that monitors the website looking for bugs and updating its features. If you are serious about your business website, you will more likely maintain a long term relationship with the ideal web developer for more than a few years.
How to get started
Before hiring a web development professional team there are some things to really consider. It is a big decision and a professional relationship that can go on for years, so don’t take it lightly.
Start small
Starting out small will reduce your potential losses in the case the website doesn’t have the revenue or visitors that you expect. Small businesses will also prevent losing more money later on if there is an over commit to the project. But don’t start way too small. It’s tempting to think you can develop your own website by using free or cheap web development platforms. This practice of course will cost you very little money but the result will be an amateur looking website, visitors won’t take your business seriously this way. What we mean by start small is don’t throw money at the project, but hire a web developer who does good work at a not expensive rate. If things go in the right direction you can invest more, but from the time being you will be more relaxed about the project knowing you won’t lose money if something goes wrong.
Be realistic
Don’t expect a high end website right off the bat. You may have seen corporate or big brands websites and thought for yourself a website like that is what your business needs. But maybe you are raising your expectations of what a website should be a little high. You need to spend your money wisely to get the best results, finding reliable web development is important.
Ask the right questions
Be clear with your web developer about the work that needs to be done in the website development. Also fix a flat or hourly rate. Don’t leave anything in the dark because that may bring problems in the future. If you have any questions about the web development process of your website you should ask them right away. This is because you need to have a clear budget and also because you need to know everything is going as you requested it, with no room for ambiguity.
With all this information, you should be ready to start your web development project for your business website right away. Remember to start small and to choose a web developer that is good and will give you the most value for your money. When your website is up and functioning you’ll see all this process is very rewarding. Also, with a nicely crafted website, you will be on top of your competitors in no time. It’s a real game changer!
