How much does a Web Site Cost

The age old question, how much does a website cost? That question can be answered with another question, how much does a car cost? One rule of thumb is to work out how much extra revenue a web site will bring in, then decide how much you should spend.

All web sites are different, making it impossible to set a standard price. There are a number of ways a web developer will determine the cost of a site. Some of the most common methods involved for different types of web site pricing are listed below.

Brochure Site

A "brochure" site serves as an on-line brochure that gives general information about your company products and services. A brochure site does not have complex database programming, e-commerce, or lots of interactivity. It basically serves as an on-line advertisement that features graphic design. A site like this is usually there so you have an online presence and keep up with competitors.s

Brochure sites can easily be expanded on in the future as your company grows but they get you in the door. I often say you can extend you house but with a website you can keep extending but you never run out of land These web sites can start for as little as $2,000.

Corporate Web Site

If your company needs a private intranet for employee communication and document sharing, or an extranet to share information and track suppliers or customers.  Corporate or commercial sites go beyond the basic on-line brochure, they have more complex features a greater level of interactivity and database integration.
Corporate web sites usually start around $5,000 and can go as high as $100,000 depending on the complexity.

Standard Corporate Web Design Pricing:
Outsourced Offshore: $500 - $15,000
Designer: $3000 - $20,000
Web Design Firm: $5000 - $50,000

E-Commerce Site

E-commerce websites can range from very simple to very complex. A lot depends on you backend e.g.. how much information you want to keep on file about customer details and how much you are going to sell. You may simply be selling handmade clothes or you may want a site like eBay. These web sites usually start from around $5,000 and can go as high as $250,000 depending complexity.

A basic guide for about 10 hours of work is:
Student: $100 - $200 ($10-$20/hour)
Freelancer: $200 - $1000 ($20-$100/hour)
Expert Consultant: $500 - $2000 ($50-$200/hour)
Company: $700 - $2500 ($70-$250/hour)

Custom Built Interactive Database Site

Sites like this would be fall into the realm of facebook, a complete one off site where your company has a specific need for a site with back end and database interactivity that no one else has built. Sites like this consist of data driven content and dynamically generated pages, the amount of pages is now not as relevant as the amount of programming involved. Sites like this start around $15,000 and can go as high as $250,000 depending on the complexity. That said, The Wall Street Journal in 2008 spent 29M on a revamp of their site.

You do have to remember that web sites don’t build themselves and most of what you see on the Internet is only seen by the viewer most of what goes on is behind the scenes, where only you as the site owner have access too.

Cheers,

Mike.

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At Fnesse we have developed an online strategy to do just this, get on board and we'll set sail.