Web Design Prices

pclancy

Im looking to get a decent website done to advertise a company's products and services and a have a bit of an online store as well if possible if we have the back endin place to run it. On a fairly tight budget but they dont mind paying for good quality work. Going to get plenty of quotes but have no idea of how much i should expect to pay. Any ideas?

Ph3n0m

If possible have a look at your competitions websites (if any) or ask someone else in the same business as you how much they paid for their website.

They may have a tight budget, but dont forget unless the site is forever going to remain static, you will have to put some cash aside for updates, or get a CMS (content management system) put in so that you can update the site yourself.

In relation to an online store, you will also have to look at merchant accounts, paypal, worldpay, http://www.realex.ie/, etc as possible payment solutions etc.

You will get everyone bidding on this type of work - from professionals to "cowboys" and their prices will vary. But at the end of the day it is what you/your company requires that is necessary.

As for expected prices - you best bet is to contact several different companies/individuals and ask them for estimates based on your specific requirements - or even a comparisson to another website that would be roughly the same size that you require



*NOTE PEOPLE*
Dont start a bidding war for this project - if the original poster wants bids, then contact him directly or via PM

mneylon

This comes up quite often

Basically you pay for what you get.
If you find some $random student to do it for €300 don't be surprised if they aren't around in 6 months/12 months / insert $random period here

At the other extreme you will find companies trying to charge you silly money for what should be standard at this stage.

Your best bet is probably to pick up the yellow pages and email about 15 companies with details of what you are looking for.
The more detail you can provide in your request the more likely you are to get sane quotes.

mada999

also if you find some web design company charging a fortune for what a student can do then avoid them too :-)

scargill

my 2c worth....

make sure you have a very good spec of what you are trying to achieve with the website. I know its stating the bleedin' obvious but costs can escalate if you don't have decent grasp of the scope of the website.

Also make sure you get to see plenty of sample sites from whoever quotes for the work - technically there are loads of people that can do the work - but you want something that looks professional when it finished and not some chancer's half-arsed attempt at 'design'.

some will quote you an overall fixed price (as long as spec is v.good) - some a daily rate.

DJB

Hi,

I've done these types of sites numerous times in the past and here is a breakdown of what it "usually" costs for me and my team to do it! By the way... I'm not bidding on this job... just giving an idea to pclancy (don't want to get banned from another forum for being misunderstood :mad:)

Design (Site look and feel with your corporate identity) - 800
Shopping Cart Licence (licence to use software) - 300
Configuration and Set Up (integration with realex.ie, testing, etc.) - 1600
Data Importing (set up of categories and first 25-50 products) - 600
Search Engines (optimisation and promotion) - 500
Web Hosting (website and ms sql database) - 250

Total: 4,050 agh, lets say 4k for being a boards user!

Oh, software includes a content management system for updating the products, pricing, pictures, etc. as you would expect! Make sure you have that means, otherwise it will cost you a fortune in the long run to have your web developer do it but it should come as standard!

It would take about 2-4 weeks to get you up and running. Cost from our side would be 4k. You have to take into account solicitor fees for getting your terms and conditions right, realex.ie fees (you can use worldpay or paypal or protx or loads of others if you wish - realex are irish and have great customer service), which are not too expensive (a few hundred for setup and about 50 per month for 50 transactions - you get a discount if you mention me! )

Ok, once again... i'm not trying to quote for this job... just giving an idea of what to expect! You are going to get quotes like this from loads of ppl and companies like others have mentioned. So, what you need to do with that is see what you will be getting for your money. Make sure you get some reference sites of previous work. I'd advise staying away from getting a student to do it. Make sure you have some sort of support. No problem using a contractor or individual to do it as long as they have the resources for all areas of set up (design, development, marketing, copy, etc.) and they can provide the support. Get your quotes in, compare like with like and work out what you will receive for your money.

In last Sundays Business Post there is an artical about exactly this. They got a quote for a store from 3 types of companies and they came in at €1k, €5k and €7.5k. Personally, I would stay away from the 1k and depending on budget go for the 5k or 7.5k. I'd expect that an ecommerce site for 1k is not going to add any value to your business - probably damage it with the image it "may" portray! :cool:

Anyway, have a look at www.freelanceireland.ie and on it you can browse lots of different companies and individuals that do this type of work. You can post up your requirements and ppl will send through quotes or browse through the members - you'll find links to their own site and previous work. When you find a few that you like and you think may quote within your budget, get in contact with them. Location isn't everything either... I did 4 sites for a company in Cork (i'm based in navan) without meeting anyone from the company. You may get a cheaper price from someone outside the pale! Main thing is that you can tell a lot about a company from their portfolio!

Ok, there's my 2cent... actually 22cent... sorry for going on so long.

Best of luck... let us know what you decide to go for and drop a link to the final site!

Rgds,

Dave

tomED

blacknight wrote:

This comes up quite often
Your best bet is probably to pick up the yellow pages and email about 15 companies with details of what you are looking for.

Don't use the golden pages - we're not in it this year!

Do a search for "web designers ireland", "web developers ireland", "web design ireland" etc in google - have a look at their client list to see if you like their previous wok etc.

If they don't have a client list, use google again to find their client sites by entering "link:www.companysdomainname.com" in google.

This will obviuosly show all sites linking to their website, but you can be fairly confident the most of the results are sites they have designed. Look out for designed by etc... to be sure!

pclancy

Excellent replies folks, appreciate the info. Its the one part of IT that i know nothing about and just trying to get a feel for prices. didn't even know realx existed! sound for the no-bidding warning ph!

wrafter

pclancy - when you make your decision can you tell us, rather than who you chose: how you decided upon them (why they satisfied your requirements when seeking a web design company); and of interest too: how you discovered them/found them.

I speak as a designer in a design company, and would like to see how potential clients go about their search and research. Thanks.

Ardent

Are there any merchant account providers who waive a yearly fee in exchange for a slight increase in commission on transactions. I'm thinking of setting up a website but I don't forsee large volumes of sales to start with - if at all!

tomED

Ardent wrote:

Are there any merchant account providers who waive a yearly fee in exchange for a slight increase in commission on transactions. I'm thinking of setting up a website but I don't forsee large volumes of sales to start with - if at all!

I recommend using either www.paypal.com or www.2checkout.com until you are making a significatn amount of money

Tom

mneylon

2CO maybe coming under some pressure, so I'd go with PayPal to be on the safe side.
They've also dropped their rates for intra-EU transactions

Webmonkey

tomED wrote:

Don't use the golden pages - we're not in it this year!

Do a search for "web designers ireland", "web developers ireland", "web design ireland" etc in google - have a look at their client list to see if you like their previous wok etc.

If they don't have a client list, use google again to find their client sites by entering "link:www.companysdomainname.com" in google.

This will obviuosly show all sites linking to their website, but you can be fairly confident the most of the results are sites they have designed. Look out for designed by etc... to be sure!

You come up first 10 on google. Nice place to be

Ardent

blacknight wrote:

2CO maybe coming under some pressure, so I'd go with PayPal to be on the safe side.
They've also dropped their rates for intra-EU transactions

What's going on with 2CO? (I got scammed by one of their associated vendors a while back and they did sweet FA to help).

mneylon

They're coming under pressure from Mastercard/Visa etc by the looks of things.

axer

Firstly get your site run on OsCommerce. Don't mind the stock design it can be totally modified but best of all - ITS COMPLETELY FREE!!!!! - no licence etc. It is just as powerfull as most ecommerce engines out there (if not more powerful than most).

* part of the text removed - guess you didnt read my earlier post*

DJB - I wouldnt just stay away from a 1k quote just because of price- I did full ecommerce websites for 1k a few times and there were just as good as any other, granted this was when i was starting out, you just need to check all references, past work etc. I have seen cowboy websites done charging 3k+ - main point is that don't let price guide you with regards to quality.