Any entrepreneur who wants to improve their company must consider creating a website. This is always the next step for any company to enhance its brand. A common question that possible clients ask is how much do web designers charge?
In this article, we will explain all the things that influence the cost of a website. You need to remember there isn’t an exact number of how much a designer should charge, I’m just going to give you an idea of the prices.
There are so many things that are involved in the creation of a website. Web design is a multi-faceted profession. It has a relation with other fields like UI design, UX design, and even graphic design itself.
User Interface (UI) design refers to the functionality of the website. It is, basically, how easy it is to move around it. Usability always goes before appearance.
User Experience (UX) design is how people “feel” your website and its good use, converting visitors to leads.
Finally, Graphic Design is about transmitting the correct message using images, text, colors, and other elements.
Sometimes, web designers need the help of other specialists, like copywriters, photographers, and even marketers.
Hiring all those professionals will increase how much web designers will charge. They are necessary in many cases because websites may need to create content like images, text, or logos. These are the things web designers can’t do by themselves.
So, if you want to save money, it is always a good idea to give the designers all the content your website must have. By doing this, they just have to simply design it without hiring anyone else.
Nowadays, everyone can create a website with WordPress, and it isn’t that complicated. But things go wrong when you have some designing and programming problems that online tutorials won’t help you solve.
All web designers have to fight against the phrase “my brother or cousin can do the same thing for less money” at least once in their career. Ok, that may be true, but remember you will always get what you pay for.
The skills and experience of a designer will increase the cost too. With more experience and reputation, they will charge more.
Not all the things that increase the cost of a website are external, that is, involving the designer and its team. Many factors related directly to the website will influence the final price, and some of those things are:
- Functionalities: a website that only has written content on it doesn’t need the same work as the one that allows you to publish new things or process payments. Some additional options which might add up the final cost are login and sign up pages, plus the addition of a multi-language setup.
- Personalization of the design: this refers to whether the designer will use a WordPress template, a framework or he will design a website from scratch. Of course, this will depend on how will use your website and how unique do you want it to be.
- Type of designer: basically, this means if you work with a freelance designer or a web designing agency. Later in the article, we will focus on those two options. In general, a freelancer will work for less money than the agency.
- Website magnitude: it isn’t the same thing to create a corporative website with 4 or 5 sub-pages, than one with 30 sub-pages. Also, almost always redesigning a website will be easier and cheaper than designing a new one from scratch.
- Quality of the design: as I said before, you’ll get what you pay for. A website isn’t all about how it looks. The functionality of the website and what it transmits to the audience is more important. Appearance is a secondary thing.
A Closer Look On: How Much Do Web Designers Charge
We already talked about the things that may influence the cost of your new website regarding web designer work. In the beginning, I promised you a reference for the final price.
This is what we’re going to do here. I’m going to try to give you an idea of how much a website will cost.
First of all, the price depends on who you hire to do the job. This means if you hire a freelance designer or an agency. As I said before, freelancers are usually the cheaper option.
Hiring a freelance web designer is the most common choice, and their price range is between 500$ – 5000$. When you hire a freelancer, you need to have the whole idea of what you want to do, which will prevent any surprises in the final product. Practically, they will just execute your directions for the project.
Using freelancers is the best option for small and medium companies. These businesses usually need constant design work, but they aren’t big enough to hire an agency. Freelancers almost always have the capacity to solve their problems.
Another option to work with is a web design agency. Of course, they are more expensive than freelancers, and their price range is over 3000$. This is the best option if you can pay for it.
The main advantage here is that a whole design team is working for you.
Agencies usually have SEO engineers, UI and UX experts, content writers, and developers. With that team, you will get the perfect website for your company.
This is the best option for anyone that has complex site needs. Also, agencies are used by those who want to minimize their effort when designing a website.
How much web designers charge depends on what kind of website you need. It’s not the same as designing a “basic” website, one with many functions, e-commerce, or a personalized one. Now I’m going to analyze all these items.
A basic website, like a blog, is around 700$ if it’s made with a template. The price can increase up to 1000$ or more if it’s a custom-made website. A basic website has a maximum capacity of 5 sections, and it’s there just to show some content.
Websites with many functions, such as a private area, links to other apps, or the possibility to publish lots of content, have a cost of almost 2600$. If the website needs a lot of plugins, it could cost you an additional 1000$.
E-commerce is basically a webshop where you can buy and sell different products and services.
This kind of website needs a lot of functionality from making payments with your credit card, security, different user profiles, and social media implementation. That’s why basic e-commerce site prices will start at around 2800$.
When I mentioned a personalized or bespoke website, I was talking about those requiring an original system, such as intranets, online courses, the marketplace, or even a website with its own social media. If you need something complex like that, don’t expect the price to be under 5000$.
You can create your own page using templates and doing proper research, which won’t cost you that much. It might work out for a while if you can do this, but eventually, you will need to improve it.
For that, you will need a web designer, because, in the end, it can turn out to be more expensive if you do it by yourself.
Remember, these prices should serve as a reference, not a standard. All web designers will charge the amount they think is best for their services.
Before hiring them, be sure to check their portfolio to see if their design style suits your needs. I will sound repetitive but remember the cheapest option isn’t always the best.
