Website Design that shows the world your message and ideas - clearly, professionally and using the latest technology
Understanding Web Design Pricing
Many clients ask us why different prices for website design exist. Some websites cost hundreds of dollars. Some cost thousands of dollars. What is it that makes a website more or less expensive? And how do I know what price is a good price?
- The difference in website functions
Some companies just need a site to display basic information about their company. Perhaps they will have a few pages describing their company and products and a place to update the website with news about their company. But some companies require much more complicated systems. Making the site more interactive, adding in features such as blogs, product catalogs, message boards, specialized contact forms, multimedia functions, etc. requires extra time and effort to create. Because of this, it increases the design time. Increased design time means increased cost.
- The difference in visual design
Some companies just want to display their products and don’t care much about the appearance of their website. But some companies need their website to represent their company culture or to reflect the professionalism of their company. Higher quality visual design is appealing to the customer and may help to cause them to pay attention to your website and your business, but it takes extra time to create. Complicated visual elements also mean more time, which is reflected in the cost.
- The size of the website
A website with hundreds of pages will take more time and effort to create than a website with only a few pages. Also, the type of pages can make a difference. A product catalog takes less time to create multiple pages in than does create dozens of unique articles with special pictures or graphics. Again, more pages to create means more time, which translates into a higher cost
What about Content Management Systems?
A Content Management System, or CMS, is a software system that allows people without specialized training in web design to update a website. Many people have used a CMS without even realizing it, when creating a personal or company blog. CMS platforms can range from simple systems with only a few functions to extremely complicated systems that can handle almost any function you would want online.
Because a CMS grants anyone that you designate the ability to update the website, in some ways it makes the creation of the site easier and faster. You don't have to spend time gathering content to pass on to your web designer who then has to turn it into web code and put it online. On the other hand, the setup of the CMS in the first place often takes longer than static web pages.
CMS platforms offer the benefit of not needing to pay an outside web designer every time you need simple content changes to your site. The tradeoff is potentially longer design times to get the site created and also there will most likely be a need for security and maintenance updates in the future. Because of the complexity of the computer coding in a CMS, web programmers must constantly be working to make sure their CMS systems are secure and don't have any errors in them.
Choosing a designer
Clients make their own decisions. Many clients choose us. They trust us and they trust their own ability to make good business decisions. Clear Concepts is open about our costs and what we include in our service. We want our customers to trust us and to want to do business with us.
We welcome potential clients to ask us questions about our costs and services and also to compare what we provide against our competition. We believe our costs are reasonable and that what we are able to offer is of high value for the price.
Contact us today for a quote on your web design project!