How Much Should a Web Site Cost?

Determining how much a web site should cost is one of the most frequently asked but rarely answered questions in the web design world. Even now, with millions of web sites online, there exists no magic formula for calculating either the cost of a new web site or the cost of a redesign.

For this article, Many web developers, web designers and team of more professionals creating a website have worked to examine some of the most important functionality and factors when considering website cost. These include website development cost and web design cost for different components as well as a current website features cost.

Historical Perspective: How Much Should a Web Site Cost?

Like other goods and services, the cost associated with designing, developing and building a web site has changed over time. The following chart provides a timeline of historical dates compared to web site cost.

The basis for the chart was a small business (under 25 employees) located in a small city that wanted a professional web site having 15 pages, Web hosting and email, a domain name, and a aesthetic quality level of around 7/10.

Time Period	Expected Cost
1995 – 1997	$7,500 to $12,000
1998 – 2000	$6,000 to $10,000
2000 – 2004	$2,500 to $4,500
2004 – 2009	$2,000 to $7,500

As website costs have become increasingly disparate, with freelancers charging as little as $500 and web agencies charging tens of thousands of dollars for a website. The WebpageFX team developed a website cost calculator to help website visitors attempt to put a price tag to their website project.

Web Site Components and Costs

With a historical perspective in place, it is important to examine each of the components that go into determining how much a web site should cost. On average, the following figures can be applied to estimating the cost of a web site:

Web site Maintenance Cost:

$500 to $1250 a year (depending on number of updates required)

To completely answer the question "How much should a web site cost" it is also useful to review specific Web design and web site development projects.

Informational or Small Business Web Site Cost::

• 8 to 16 Web pages
• Custom graphics
• Stock photos
• Little or no flash
• Web forms sending to email accounts

Project duration: 30 to 75 days (not assuming a consistent 8 hour a day)

Web site cost range: $2,000 to $6,000

Corporate (100 or more employees) Web Site Cost:

• 25 to 75 Web pages
• Heavy use of flash
• High quality design work on all Web pages
• Content management system
• Extra components: Intranet, calendars, web site search

Project duration: 60 to 90 days

Web site cost range: $10,000 to $25,000

Ecommerce Web Site Cost:

• 100 to 1000 products
• Shopping cart
• Payment gateway integration
• Product descriptions and images
• Sales tax and shipping calculation
• Customer and administrative control panel

Project duration: 60 to 120 days

Web site cost range: $5,000 to $15,000

Database Driven Web Site or Web Application:

• Dynamic Web pages 20 to 2,000
• Administrative control panel for web site management
• Advanced programming skill sets required
• Interactivity with web site visitor
• Enterprise database (MS SQL Server or MySQL)

Project duration: 90 to 180 days

Web site cost range: $6,000 to $35,000

Based from United States of cost,

In philippines:

The cost per page is 1000 pesos per page where full HTML is required but where both PHP and html depends on the web developtment costing. It Determines the ability of the web developer when it takes a project.

Other filipino web developer free lancer where just taking hard time to create new project for the clients. The project will cost affordable in an budget cost of the company. If have php and mysql database, i would say range up to Php20, 000 to Php 150, 000 where as biggest cost in ecommerce site.

Reference:

http://www.webpagefx.com/How-much-should-web-site-cost.html

http://www.atilus.com/webpost/what_does_a_website_cost/?what-does-a-website-cost/

Here's are website calculator: http://www.designquote.net/html/dq_estimate_wizard.cfm