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Have you ever wondered how much a website would cost you? you are not alone, this answer is very elusive, its very hard to come up with a budget for your website, and its also twice as difficult for any web developer to give you an answer on the fly, yet like any other purchase it’s the most important question, so how do we arrive at a cost for a website?
Web design cost vary between US$ 500 – US$ 15,000 (Kshs 40K – 1M), why? because of the different requirements and needs for different website. example, google vs facebook vs yahoo vs Nationmedia vs this blog.. the cost will vary from thousands to millions of dollars!
The following are the items to consider when coming up with a budget for your website.
- The domain and Hosting Cost- This is the annual recurring cost for your domain name and hosting account, this can cost anything between US$20 for shared server to US$300 for a dedicated server this is an annual recurring cost.
- Content Development – Content is king, so you need good content, most people develop this for themselves but if you want to hire a professional, consider you might pay US$10 per every article 300 words long.
- Photography – The next item that is usually important on the list is visuals, and while some companies already have an existing brand and images, you might have to buy images at US$ 1 per image online or hire a professional photographer for between US$200 – US$500 depending on location and other factors
- The Design – this is the cheapest part of most web design work, because many people can design a look and feel, or buy a template, depending on your needs, this can cost between US$20 – US$1000, the high the price is Agencies who are keen on brand development and hence produce high quality work.
- The Development – This is where the rubber meets the road and what sets you apart, while allot of people can design not many can develop for the web, the cost of development is based on the number of functions you will need, and you will have to think of this as buying a good car, want turbo and crome rims? To get a good cost on this list the functions i.e newsletter, registration, photogallery, contact forms, shopping cart etc, the more the function the high the price, get a quote from atleast 3 web design companies and compare, the cost here will vary from between US$500 – US$ 10,000.
I hope using the above tips, you will be able to come up with a good estimate of how much you are likely to spend developing your company website, Development can be expensive and its suggested that you pay for a good framework that you can grow with time, you do not have to start with all the functions that you need especially if you can’t afford them, but make sure that what you have is scalable and can grow with time.
