There are a lot of different web people who talk about the true cost of a website. Here is the way most developers look at it. Most design company’s have an hourly rate, and we know how long a type of website might take us. Similar to having a builder bid on your custom home. We need to look at your website like a home. How many rooms or pages will it have? How many garages or resource areas will it have? Will there be pdf downloads, contact forms, photo sliders, photo galleries? There are a lot of variables that add in to what a website cost.
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Where did this 500 dollar number come from? Everyone goes right to a 500 dollar website. I think in the early days of the internet back when a lot of us were high school students building websites as a side thing that this is where the number came from. The 500 dollar website doesn’t exist today. Someone might start a website for you, but it won’t be a finished product. The other problem is that the person would need to do 5 to 7 websites in a month to make a living. Otherwise next year they will go looking for a job, you know one that comes with benefits and a steady paycheck. That next year, your site will stop working and it will be hard for you to get back in touch with the original web person.

Here is a real example of some of the costs that add up on every website. The developer probably needs to have a license to Photoshop (50/month). A good developer will have access to a stock photo website (200/month). Then you want them to have reliable hosting, so they build the website there and migrate it to your site when it’s done. A decent hosting account is probably close to 150.00/yr. What about keeping track of all those passwords? Well that password manangement program costs 15/yr. They should also have a good remote website backup in place, so lets just say 100.00/yr *I’m using one now that runs 99.00/month for my clients.

There are a handful of other software programs to buy as well. It all adds up really quickly. The new web designer won’t catch on to all their expenses until they they get a good bookeeper. The first 1 to 3 years is when you see them disappear. You always hear people talk about how their web person stops answering them and is simply gone…They weren’t charging enough to make it a business. You want a web person/company that will grow as your company grows.

We still haven’t touched what a developers project time is worth. You only have soo many hours in a day, so choosing which projects will get your attention becomes the target. Your hourly rate isn’t figured out until you’ve built a few websites. Most developers that write code expect to be paid for all that college debt they have out there. I know many developers who have more years in school than doctors.

Your true website cost needs to be a unique bid. A web person should spend the time to meet with you, hear all of the complexities and they go crunch the numbers and figure out how many hours will be needed for this project. Run fast from those companies that list packages. You know like 1-5 pages is 1000, something like that. The amount of pages is just a small factor. Once the code is done for the page design, I can cut and paste some content and mess with the styling. The cost is dependant on the complexity of the code. Like does one page have a more info form, and if someone fills out this form it will take them to a hidden page where they can download a sneak peek at your next ebook.

I want to throw numbers out there just for the sake of it. Prices are going to change based on your market. A good started website should run around 1500-2500. If someone wants to pay less than that, there is Wix, Weebly, Squarespace and other DIY sites. I don’t knock the free sites, they fill a need.

Now if your a medium size business, and this is your first big redesign and you want a professional website where you know it will just get handled by the pro. Expect to pay that 5k to 10k range. Don’t just use the one person freelancing either. This is where you higher the small web shop and they have a team to help project manage the whole process.

The larger custom sites that need a small team, and need a lot of custom coded items happening like API’s and different interfaces, client login areas, membership areas, large e-commerce. These usually fall into the 25k and up pricing. This is because a small team of web people will spend 300-400 hours developing and troubleshooting these sites. Larger sites like this usually take 3-6 months to plan and build well. Once you divide that 25k up over 6 months and between 6 employees, you will see the web company isn’t just sitting there raking in the money.