How much does a Website cost?

It’s not really polite to answer a question with a question, but: how long is a piece of string? The size and complexity of your website will determine the cost, which can range from very cheap (eg: R5000) to extremely expensive (eg: R500000). So we can't really answer the question of 'how much' until we've gone through at least a couple of the steps below... Given that, let's look into what makes up the cost of a website.

Note: I mention actual hour ranges in the subsequent paragraphs based on a “standard” website. This standard website will generally contain content, one object management module (eg: a product catalogue) and a news manager. Websites with more complex systems (eg: ecommerce sites) will generally cost more. Similarly, basic sites which only contain static content will cost significantly less.

Business Analysis

For most websites, business analysis consists of meetings and discussions which don’t take very long. You should expect about 2 to 4 hours of meetings to come up with an analysis that results in a standard website. Obviously, larger and more complex companies will require more analysis.

Information Architecture

The planning phase can take significantly longer. The more detailed and clearer the plan, the better. Sites built from a solid plan can be built quickly, and with minimum of corrections and errors. The proposals and specifications that come out of this phase ensure that everyone involved understands exactly what will be produced, and avoid misunderstandings. We normally take 8 to 12 hours to plan a standard website. Again, obviously, more complex sites will take longer.

Design

There are several phases to a design. First, the designer produces wireframes of every significant page on the site. These are colourless, style-less layout plans for each page, identifying exactly how all the various elements of the page should be laid out. This ensures that each page can deliver information in the most effective way. Once the wireframes are finished and approved, the designer applies a design to the wireframes, adding colours, fonts and other general styles. A standard website will take between 24 and 40 hours for a design.

Code

There are three basic aspects to the coding of a site. First off, there is database design. The developer needs to build a database to hold all the information required of the site. Second, the developer needs to build a management system to allow you, the client, to manage the content of your site. We usually build one management module for each distinct type of information on the site (eg: there will be one module to manage the general content of the site, and a different module to manage a product list. A third module will be used to handle news articles in a blog-like fashion). Once all the information management tools have been built, the developer can start to code the HTML templates, and build the actual site by populating the templates with information from the database. Developing a standard site will normally take us between 40 and 60 hours.

Content Creation

The initial cost of content creation will be to create enough content to launch the site. Remember, though, that content creation is a continuous process, and will incur continuous costs. Unlike the other costs of a site, which generally reflect the complexity of the site, the cost of content creation is basically all about quantity. For example, if your site is built to only handle static content, once the manager is built, the difference, from a coding point of view, between 5 pages or 500 is insignificant. From a content creation point of view, however, the difference is 495 pages. Depending on the availability of information, content creation can take between ½ and 1 hour per page.

Costs for a Standard Website

That’s a Lot of Money!

Yes it is, but this is what it should cost. A website, if done properly, is a complex piece of software, and a very effective tool for your business. But a website that has skimped on any of the important aspects will not just be less effective. It will be completely ineffective, and a complete waste of money. When it comes to websites, saving money will cost you more than spending it.

But there are ways to get websites for a smaller budget, and I’ll start to look at those next time.