Understanding The Cost Of Website Design.

Every website needs a domain that can be hosted online. Your choice of domain name can be anything that you feel represents your brand. A brand new domain that has not been registered can cost as little as £5-£10 a year depending on the registrar and TLD. An example of a TLD (top level domain) is whether you opt for .com, .org, or .net etc and a registrar is companies like Godaddy and Bluehost. This is something that you can do yourself but if you need the web designers to do this for you, you have to bear in mind the time it takes to purchase and implement a domain, this time may be reflected in their cost.

Another aspect that designers take in to consideration when quoting a cost for web design, is their hosting system. All websites need to be hosted on a server, this service allows you to have a web page online. Design agencies are different but the majority will pay an annual amount for a server and the cost will depend on the quality and the amount of website storage they will have. For example, if they have a server with a lot of larger websites, this may affect the speed and performance of the sites on it . Think of it like a car, if you have a car with two people in it, it will perform a lot better than a car with 6 people in it. So how much does it cost? You should expect to pay anywhere between £20 and £100 a month for your website hosting and a lot of companies will have different packages. These packages will include services like weekley backups and security software. If you have a large website that updates frequently like a real estate site, then it is in your best interest to invest in a premium hosting package.

As much as the cost price of the hosting of your site may cost the web developers say £10 a month, you have to think of the hours of work that is going into keeping your website performing and secure throughout the month and that it was you pay for. I have seen crazy quotes online where places can host your website for under £5 a month and as much as this price may seem a cheap alternative at the time, believe me, that’s exactly what it is. The majority of the time with these cheap options, when something goes wrong, which it will, you will pay a huge premium to fix it and that is how they make their money. Spend a little more initial and save yourself a fortune in the future.

WordPress is a system that lets you create pages or posts without having to learn all that complicated HTML code and is arguably the most popular piece of software for a web build. Now, Wordpress doesn’t cost an agency a huge amount upfront but what you are paying for is the experience and knowhow of installing it on your domain and installing it properly. This process has to be implemented correct from the start and failing to do so can lead you down plenty of rabbit holes going forward. But in short, The cost price of Wordpress will cost an agency around £100 a year and the cost for this and time taken for installing will always be included in a website quote.

When thinking of the ‘cost for web design’ Your theme is the overall look, feel and style of your website. This includes things like the colour scheme, layout and style elements. In essence, your website theme is a direct representation of your brand and has a direct impact on your users’ experience. Themes can be researched and purchased from places like Themeforest and probably cost on average around £60. Again, this is a cost price and you have to consider how complicated and time consuming installing a wordpress theme can be if you have never done it before. I think when you’re paying the pros, £100 is a fair amount for your theme and installation and remember, £60 of that is paying for the theme itself.

An ecommerce website is a site that allows you to sell products and receive payments online. If you require a website with these functionality then you have to expect your quote price to increase. An ecommerce site has a lot more security requirements, more storage needs and functionality aspects. A web designer has to consider this when pricing a build. Often the cost of these types of themes can double and is all round just a bigger and more complicated process.

If you’re not sure what an SSL is then you can read our SSL blog and if you don’t have one already then you’re going to need one as they are fast becoming essential. SSL’s come in different packages for us designers but on average an SSL certificate probably costs us around £60 per website annually. Like everything, the installation of the certificate is never simple and can take hours. If the SSL is implemented incorrectly, it can lead to your whole site being off air!

If you add these cost prices up and don’t even include the time taken by the agency to finish the processes then the start up cost is already up at a few hundred pounds. So, if you’re receiving quotes for a website of £500, how much time does the designer really have to focus aesthetics of your site and really making it pop as they still need to make profit and cover equipment and office costs for every build.

We offer a startup 1 page website from £799.99 but what does that get you? Well, let’s show you. We were recently approached by a law firm to rebuild a website as their current site did not reflect their brand and the usability was not up to standard, the cost of the old site would have been between £400-£500. By paying slightly more, you allow the designer to research your brand and target audience so they build a site that reflects not only you, but appeals to your consumer and that is a website that designer is proud of also.

A larger budget opens up a new level of images that can be sourced and purchased for the web pages. Images are essential for any website and high-quality photos really make a difference. An increased budget gives more wiggle room when purchasing images, the more an image costs, the higher the quality and the better it will look across all devices. But, images are not just a copy and paste job. Each image needs to be resized for each section of a page and saved for the web which takes time, time that a designer may not have when offering a cheap service. By not optimising the size of each image, you will slow down the loading speed of your site and increase your bounce rate which will lose you customers. The difference between having an image that is 4mb as opposed to the exact same image that is now saved at under 500kb can be the difference in your site taking 2 or 10 seconds to load.

Often, a cheaper site will mean the design will be basic. More experienced agencies will charge a higher amount as their work is premium. You will notice that the continuity of each aspect will be seen throughout. Fonts, colour schemes and headers will match at every stage and the navigation will be effortless. As well as the navigation, the responsiveness across all devices will be seamless too so your website will be reflected exactly how you like it no matter what device someone is viewing it. This means no pictures getting cropped or text falling off the side of someones mobile.

A £500 pound website only gives the designer a few hours to focus on the quality and design aspects as their profit line is so close to the start up expense from the get go. A higher budget gives us agencies more time to put into the project. More time means an increased attention to detail and premium quality. You also have to bear in mind where the company that you are using is based. For example, the cost of website design UK may differ from the cost of website design in other countries.

So, the next time you find yourself trying to understand the cost of website design, don’t be shortsighted and have your long term goals in mind. If something sounds too good to be true then if often is as you will find yourself disappointed with the end result and having to spend more to rectify it. Always review an agency’s portfolio of web builds and make sure that they are capable of building a site that matches the standards that you require. With a lot of factors in the web design world, what sounds cheap now will get expensive in the long run. Back your brand now and be represented as you should be, it will make you more money.