This is part one of a multi-part blog examining how much a website SHOULD cost and the reasons for those costs.
THE VAGUE ANSWER
The one question we’ve found that is asked the most often in the world of website development is: what does a website cost? The simplest answer we can give is: it depends.
What does a website really cost?
Now, I know that’s not the answer anyone would want to hear, but it’s the most realistic. A website could cost anywhere from $5 on a website like Fiverr to hundreds of thousands of dollars for extremely complicated web apps.
THE SLIGHTLY LESS VAGUE ANSWER
If you’re reading this, you’re probably part of a small business interested in what a website would cost for a small business. Small business websites typically range from around $500 for a simple landing page website to $20,000 for a completely custom-built website with a custom web app integrated in.
THE REAL ANSWER
To determine what a website is going to cost you, you must first determine what you want your website to do for you. If you’re a home-service-based company, you might want a simple website that gets right to the point of who you are, what you do, and how to get ahold of you.
Something like a simple one-page website built on a platform like WordPress that has a brief “about us” section and a list of services and costs as well as a portfolio of projects you’ve completed would sit around $1500 from a reputable development firm. This may seem like a fairly large number for how simple it sounds; however, what really matters is what’s under the hood of a website.
Much like vehicles of today, websites have been developed to run faster and more efficient, but they have also become much more complicated to work on than they used to be. Currently, anyone can develop a website on a site like Wix or WordPress with a couple plugins and a nice looking theme, but the typical “do-it-yourself” website builder websites, or plugins, come with the negative effect of slowing down your website’s loading times and performance.
A typical website build requires four different things from a small business: Time, Money, Design Skills, and Technical Skills. Typically, you can easily determine what of these four items you do not have right off the bat. For most small businesses, time is the least abundant of these items. If you don’t have design skills or coding skills, AND you don’t have time, it’s going to be very difficult to learn how to get even a Wix site up and running.
Luckily, web development agencies typically have an abundance of Technical (coding) skills and Design skills, and of course, they always have time for clients!
WRAPPING UP (FOR NOW)
In our next part of this series on Small Business website costs, we will be looking more in depth as to what you need to know to be able to create anything ranging from a simple Wix site to a full blown custom web app!