How much should a website cost?
By Ric Dragon, for Hudson Valley Business Journal, 16 October 2006.
There is a fable about a man traveling by foot to Newburgh. The man comes to a crossroads where he sees a well-seasoned man sitting by the road. “How long does it take to get to Newburgh?” he asks the old man. No answer.
Again, the man asks, but a bit louder this time, “how long does it take to get to Newburgh?” The old man again doesn’t answer. After several additional attempts at getting the question through to the old man, the traveler starts to stomp off in agitation. At that point, the old man calls after him, “about 4 hours”.
“Why didn’t you answer me before, old man?” the traveler asked in exasperation.
And the old man answered, “I needed to see how fast you were walking”.
The professional web developer is often in the same position as the old man. Each time a business owner calls about a website the question is almost always asked, sometimes earlier in the call, sometimes later, but it inevitably comes, “how much does it cost”.
One developer in our shop used to have a stock answer, “$100 per square foot” – but the humor in the fact that websites could be measured in square feet wasn’t always as witty as it seemed.
First Question: What kind of website is this going to be?
There are two main types of websites that are of concern to the average business-person: marketing and operational. A marketing website is an extension of your business card, communicating the value that you bring to your customers. It frequently facilitates a connection between you and your customers. An operational website is a website that is a part of your business operation. That could be eCommerce, a call center application, a data-driven directory…. The list goes on. New online business models are emerging every day.
For small marketing websites – those sites that you’ve just got to have as an extension to your business card – look for template website solutions like those provided by Google, Network Solutions, and other companies. (Try an online search for “website templates”).
If your needs go beyond that, here are three helpful approaches to determining the cost for your project
Have the planning phase done separately.
Start small. Identify a modest budget for planning. A qualified web developer will be able to work with you (for a fee, of course) to identify who the users of the site will be, what their needs are, and create some basic prototyping to get you started. Once you’ve really nailed down what the gist of the site is to be, that developer (or another if in the process you’ve learned that you don’t work well together) can take that documentation, and help you create a budget for the development of the site. This approach is ideal for functional websites (websites that in some form or another are operational, and help to transact business).
Can I have one just like this?
This second approach to determining your budget starts with spending some time on the web, finding websites that are close matches to the one that you envision for your own organization. With a short-list in hand, you can go to web developers, and ask them to provide ball-park costs for developing a similar website. The largest variable here is in graphic design (which really can be a whole other conversation), but for the actual site development, a fairly accurate costing should be a reasonable request.
Starting at the End
The third approach is to start with your budget in mind. This often is a “chicken-or-the-egg” game, if you don’t have any idea of what you should be spending. Think of it, though, as good planning. If this website can increase sales 50% over the next 12 months, what would the value be? What would you be willing to spend? What would that value be over a three year period? And what can you afford to invest? At the conclusion of the planning, it’s the magic numbers that you bring to your chosen developers, with the challenge, “if my budget is this amount, what is your solution to provide me the success I’m seeking?” In this way, comparing different developers can be a lot more informative.
But how long will it take you to get there? It’s a different story today. The old fellow on the roadside might recommend Mapquest or Google.
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