How Much Does a Website Cost?
- Author: Nicky
- Filed under: New Websites
Jun 18,2008
… and how long is a piece of string?
Websites are like houses, they’re all different! Most web development companies will custom build your website just for you – they’re the consultant, project manager, architect, designer, builder and marketeer too!
In Cairns, Australia, websites are known for being much cheaper than they are throughout the rest of Australia. Nobody really knows why, but Cairns businesses certainly get a great deal over their down south competitors.
Here’s a quick guideline to what you would be paying for in our area.
New Websites
Microbusinesses: $2000
These are tradesmen or single-operator businesses. Mostly they need a simple website to show their scope of skills and their prices.
Service-based industries: $2500 – $3500
Lawyers, media/PR, accountants, web developers… anyone who provides a service fits in here. These industries are hoping their website will provide a strong credibility tool with a good portfolio facility and detail about services provided.
Ecommerce websites: $5000+
Any website which sells something requires credit card security, lots of great photography and good product spiels.
Website Changes
Most web design firms work on an hourly fee for services, and if they give you a fixed price there’s a good chance they’ve considered the time it will take them and multiplied it by the hourly fee.
A good web designer will charge between $80 – $130 per hour.
If the cost is any less than this, I would have a thorough look into their portfolio and check the developer isn’t cutting any corners in essential places.
When asking for a price, consider that most developers will have a minimum charge, some as low as 15 minutes. All jobs, even the smallest ones take at least 15 minutes. Here’s a list of the things a developer does when you request changes to your website:
- Reads your email, or chats to you on the phone (5m)
- Does the job (time depends on the job)
- Checks the changes in Firefox, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 & Safari (5m)
- Uploads the changes (5m)
- Checks the changes went up ok (2m)
- Notifys you the changes are online (5m)
- Bills you for the changes (10m)
So even without taking the actual time for the job into account, that’s 32 minutes work. Many of these costs are often absorbed though, parts like billing or receiving the job.
Annual Fees
Unless you’re in a marketing program or have something special you won’t have any ongoing fees associated with your website design.
However, you will have some web hosting fees. You should allow for between $250 -$500 annually to cover your website hosting and domain name registrations.
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5 Responses for "How Much Does a Website Cost?"
Cairns web design is cheaper because no web designer in Cairns can match the quality outputted by a web designer nationally or internationally.
Take for example the quality of one of the world’s best known web designers: Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain, and compare his quality of work to any of the local web designers.
I personally blame the lack of appropriate courses at TAFEs and universities, and the non-innovative environment of the Cairns Web Design scene.
In short, you get what you pay for.
So you’re comparing Cairns to an internationally renowned Web Designer?
What kind of innovation would you propose in order to get Cairns on the map in terms of web design?
Service based industries should start at $3,500 and can move up to $7,500 depending on the level of features.
Especially when employing a CMS, decent levels of javascript and lots of page template designs (not talking about off the shelf templates, just data structures).
Even the bedroom ‘professionals’ have to put up their prices due to the higher cost of living and doing business.
If it’s the quality of the ingredients that make the best dishes, I believe the quality of a website relies heavily on the branding.
Very few web designers can boast that they only work with the clients they choose AND that they have complete control over.
Far North Queensland small businesses too often underestimate the power and effectiveness of a good brand. So when they approach a web designer with an average quality, dated logo and amateur photography it makes it more difficult to produce a stunning website.
I too love the portfolio of 31Three (mentioned above as Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain), the selected designs are clear, simple and structured. The also all have one thing in common — good quality branding.
Perhaps Far North Queensland businesses need to spend more money on their brand and not their website to achieve the best result possible.
I would have to agree with you there Belinda. With a lot of business coming through overseas tourism you would think a lot would be invested in marketing that has worldwide exposure!
Fortunately more companies are seeing the benefit of this and that can only be good for the marketing industry as a whole in FNQ.
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