Small business Web sites blog

Budget/cost (choosing a Web designer)

You could spend anything from nothing to thousands of pounds on a Web site, so it’s a good idea to set a budget early.

I’ll discuss free and cheap Web sites in another blog post and why they are not a good idea. As this post is part of a series on choosing a Web designer, I won’t discuss that here. I’ll give you an idea about what kind of Web site you can get for your budget (or how much you should expect to pay for various types of Web sites).

Initial Web site design cost

Simple brochure Web sites (under £600)

This is probably the starting point for many small business Web sites. A Web site that provides information about your business and the services/products it offers. Usually between 5 and 10 pages, expect to pay from around £400 to £600 for a clean simple style. If you want something more complicated then expect to pay more, but certainly no more than £1000.

Interactive Web sites (£600 to £1800)

If you want something that allows customers to be more engaged then expect to pay a little more. The kind of interactive features you might include are:

• Blogs,
• Custom build options (e.g. choosing colours or designs for a product),
• Detailed quote request forms,
• Links with social media sites like facebook or twitter,
• Maps showing your location or other places of interest,

These kind of Web sites usually have between 10 and 20 pages. Expect to pay around £600 to £1800 for a Web site like this and maybe more depending on how complex the design is and how many interactive features you have.

Online selling (ecommerce) (over £1000)

If you want to sell products online then expect to pay at least £1000 for a secure well managed Web site. You might also have to pay a monthly fee (see below).

Ongoing costs

It’s also worth finding out what future costs there will be. Some companies charge a very small fee to create your site and make their money by charging large monthly fees. There are several standard things that you might need to pay for:

• content management systems
• domain names
• online shopping carts
• Web site hosting

Watch out for any other charges, and ask your designer how much they charge for making changes or updates to your site. Some designers might also offer you a monthly package including a number of hours work or other services. Before signing up for a monthly package make sure it includes things that you will actually use.

Content management systems

This is a feature that lets you update your own Web site using a simple Web interface. There are open source (free) systems that you can use, but these are often complicated and many Web designers use commercial systems that have monthly or annual costs.

Expect to pay up to £20 a month or £200 per year.

Online shopping carts

There are usually two types of costs involved with selling from your Web site.

The first is for the shopping cart software, this may not have an ongoing cost, but you could pay up to £20 per month or £200 per year.

The second cost is for processing payments, just like the fees you pay when taking credit card payment in person or over the phone. Some systems (e.g. WorldPay) charge you a fee and then pass the transaction to your usual credit card processor (who will also charge you), while other systems (e.g. PayPal or Google Checkout) process the payment themselves only charging you a single fee.

Domain names

A domain name is your Web site’s  address on the Internet. These are usually bought for between 1 and 10 years.

Expect to pay between £5 and £20 per year.

Web site hosting

Hosting is space on a powerful server (or even a whole server to yourself) that is connected by very fast connections to the Internet and managed in a secure facility.

Expect to pay between £5 and £40 per month or between £50 and £500 per year. Bigger Web sites require more powerful servers, you should probably pay between 10% and 20% of the cost of your Web site per year for hosting.

When setting your budget don’t forget to include these ongoing costs or you could end up paying much more than you intended.

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Tags: Choosing a Web designer, Small business Web sites

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 10:25 am and is filed under Small business Web sites.