Question regarding the costs involved in web design

Fanny Cradock

I'm just doing a little research into the costs involved in getting a website (with forums) designed and any other costs involved.

I really don't have a clue how much a bespoke web page would cost to build (how long is a piece of string?), but I would appreciate it greatly if anyone could suggest the going rate per hour (60ph has been quoted) and give an approximate build time for what I would imagine to will be a fairly basic design - at least in terms of appearance. Also, any information on additional costs would be appreciated.

Thanks

forbairt

Depending on who you go with .. and what you're getting ... anywhere from 1 day to 1 month

costs will vary as well ...

If you approach a design agency .. they have a lot of overheads and are possibley giving you a lot more but they'll also be charging a lot more ...

If you approach a student on here you'll potentially be getting something pretty dodegy ... but could be surprised by their work as well ..

At the end of the day you do tend to get what you pay for ...

Again depending on what type of forum you go for ... the software could be free or it could be relatively expensive ... I think vBulletin costs €139.00 and gives you updates for a year ... vBulletin can also cost 70 something ... per year ...

To actually go set that up you're probably looking at around 2 - 3 hours of a developers / webmasters (or whatever we're called these days) time ..

They'll have to get your domain ... get you hosting ... get everything set up and configured correctly ... and that will basically give you something like boards ... without the menu at the top ...

To get a custom template could take anything from a day to a week of time .. I've never dealt with any agencies so I can't say ... maybe they'll just give you a fixed quote on it ... (vBulletin has a lot of tweaking I believe if you want to template it .. I've only briefly looked before )

You could go the route of getting a free template from the likes of http://www.oswd.org/ ...

so all in all .. costs are going to vary greatly .. I'd say anywhere from 500 -> 5000 depending on who you approach ...

A per hour rate will vary as well ... from 20 -> 100 and maybe you'll even find cheaper ...

If you've any other questions feel free to ask but as you said ... its like asking how long is a piece of string

Additional costs = domain name ... from 10 - 100 eur depending ... hosting from around 30 - 100 eur depending on what you're after ...

if you're looking to process credit cards that'll be more ...

SSL cert (the thing that secures data transmissions between the users browser and your website) .. it'll cost 50 - 300 depending ...

And so on .. can't think of any other prices at the moment ...

janmc

Based on a Joomla template, you could get a customised site with forums for around 500-1000 squids. I know a guy who does them for that - although personally I charge more

It really depends who you approach. Offices will charge more because they've higher overheads, but someone doing a nixer could probably give you a very good rate.

(By the way, Joomla is a web content management system - you can get someone to design your site and set it up for you, and then you run it with pretty minimal tech knowledge. It's free (open source) so the price you get from a web designer will be the cost of customizing it to what you need and either the design of a template or the implementation of a template)

Joomla

DonkeyStyle \o/

Yeah it depends on what you're after.
If you want the most basic of the basic, you could do it for buttons... install a free CMS and a free BB... install some freely available themes.
You could do it all yourself for ~€60 if you're reasonably technical and are willing to spend a few hours tinkering around, learning how to get around your CMS... at that stage you could hire someone to create a logo, a custom template for the CMS you're using and a custom skin for your forum.
I was playing around with the Installatron on one of my Blacknight accounts a few days ago and was shocked at how head-slappingly simple this stuff has gotten.
It's quite depressing actually.

You'd really want to go with the professionals if you're doing a business site where image matters... but if your site is going to be a non-profit community for the appreciation of rare collectable muppet figures, you could set it up for staggeringly little money if you've got the time and the patience... then put money into it later if it becomes successful.

cianclarke

For a CMS (content management system) install like Joomla with forums, a calendar, a large scale community site I'd be charging around the 700 mark - for just a forum with a template, maybe a page or two with the forum (even a custom template) I'd be charging ~500. These would be very cheap prices though, if you were to approach a larger company I'm not sure what you'd be paying.

Also, expect to pay around €60 / year for hosting, and €10 a year for a .com domain - or €45 for a .ie.

Cian

The Corinthian

I would also recommend that you look at what SLA you get with any site - essentially ongoing maintenance. Once you get a Web site and sign off on it, that tends to be it, so you'll want to be certain that this is what you wanted and that it all works correctly because changing or fixing it at a later stage will cost you more money. This tends to be the most commonly overlooked aspect of any development, in my experience.

Look at working a period of grace after delivery where discovered bugs will be fixed for free and/or unit testing of the site by both you and the development house.

If you feel you will probably have ongoing changes on the site it may be worth your while to either sign a maintenance contract or buy draw down days (you essentially purchase a number of days up-front for development over a certain period at a discount of the normal rate).

Ultimately, a site is not magically complete or perfect even at delivery as obscure bugs can surface months or even years later and changes will inevitably be needed. As such it's important that you factor this into any costings.

Fanny Cradock

OK, thanks for the replies guys.

I think there is much to think about and much research to be done over the next few weeks.

As a side note, although one that underpins the whole project, would anyone have any advice for a new website starting up? Obviously it would be difficult to give specific advice without knowing the finer details of the target audience (similar 'general' audience to boards at the moment I'd imagine), but any general tips for getting the site recognised would be greatly appreciated.

I'd hate to see potential go down the pisser.

heggie

a lot of starter websites think once a website is up, with a bit of adsense it'll take off, don't forget about the importance of 'offline' marketing too!

Laslo

My rate per hour varies from 50 to 100 Euro per hour, depending on the job. XHTML/CSS I will normally do for 50 per hour. More specialist projects, say Ruby on Rails, I will charge more. It depends on the complexity.

ChicoMendez

Laslo wrote:

My rate per hour varies from 50 to 100 Euro per hour, depending on the job. XHTML/CSS I will normally do for 50 per hour. More specialist projects, say Ruby on Rails, I will charge more. It depends on the complexity.

why would you charge different prices per hour ? is an hour of your time not worth the same no matter it you are looking as css or php etc ?
just wondering ?

The Corinthian

ChicoMendez wrote:

why would you charge different prices per hour ? is an hour of your time not worth the same no matter it you are looking as css or php etc ?
just wondering ?

How do you define worth? Why get paid €50 p.hr. and not just €5 or €500?

Ultimately the rate anybody is paid is based upon supply and demand, which in turn is based upon how complex and how much skill and experience you have in that thing. That's why brain surgeons get paid more than bin men, and why J2EE developers get paid more than HTML monkeys.

Laslo

ChicoMendez wrote:

why would you charge different prices per hour ? is an hour of your time not worth the same no matter it you are looking as css or php etc ?
just wondering ?

Not really. It's hard to compete for business if I'm charging 100 Euro per hour just to mark-up a few templates - so I drop my prices to be competitive.