Web Design Cost Breakdown

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Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 30 seconds

web design iconAll web design customers want and need to know true web development costs. Creating a website is not an option for businesses, and since all businesses need an online presence the number of online design/development firms is growing exponentially. The question for consumers is how much does a website cost and how much should I pay for a site?

Here we can use an analogy from racing: “Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?”

It should come as no surprise that you get what you pay for, and a site that your friend’s college kid did for $1000 will not be the same caliber as a website designed by a professional ad agency for a large corporate client.

In general sites that have more pages, more functionality, interaction, dynamic components, multi user access, content management system and targeted landing pages will cost more than a simple 10 page brochure website.

Company $10-$50 million:
Advertising & promotion Client annual Web site campaign budget: $50,000-$110,000
E-commerce Shopping Cart: $45,000-$80,000
Search Engine Optimization: $40,000-$100,000/yr
Splash/landing/home pages (per page): $3,000-$6,000
Banners, Buttons, Flash animations: $2,000-$3,000

Company $1-$10 million
Advertising & promotion Client annual Web site campaign budget: $30,000-$60,000
E-commerce Shopping Cart: $30,000-$60,000
Search Engine Optimization: $15,000-$50,000/yr
Splash/landing/home pages (per page): $2,000-$4,000
Banners, Buttons, Flash animations: $1,000-$3,000

Company Under $1 million
Advertising & promotion Client annual Web site campaign budget: $15,000-$35,000
E-commerce Shopping Cart: $15,000-$40,000
Search Engine Optimization: $8,000-$25,000/yr
Splash/landing/home pages pages (per page): $1,000-$3,000
Banners, Buttons, Flash animations: $500-$2,000

This is a large spread, and you must be wondering why small companies generally get websites done cheaper. The main reason is friction, cronyism and job security.

Friction: large corporations have a long sell process that involves making multiple presentations to multiple individuals and internal groups and it an take a long time to get specs to begin a job. Also there are more hurdles and regulations to getting work signed off and making sites live. I know that at Disney.com the web design process is glacialy slow, with multiple layers of bureaucracy for each change and new feature.

Job Security: Larger companies have less room to risk on smaller, unproven design firms. It is much more likely a larger corporation will select a well known agency even if they are 50% more expensive than a smaller designer, just because of the agency’s track record. Also a corporation naturally understands multiple layers of management and may feel more comfortable working with this kind of vendor.

Cronyism: It is easier to hide costs in a large company. If the person in charge of hiring a web design firm has a friend or associate who works at a big design firm like Avenue A/Razorfish you want to give them the business even if it costs your firm more, because it could pay off for this person in the future. This selection decision may not be in the best interest of the corporation, only the selection committee.

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17 Responses to “Web Design Cost Breakdown”

  1. w Says:

    Check out web design company site ooyes.net

    may be you see something interesting.

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  4. Ival Says:

    Very true! Nice breakdown of how much websites should cost. A lot of these clicents usually didnt know how much the true value of a website is.

    Thanks,

  5. Boyea Sitze Says:

    Web design software with open submit or bookmark specific content relating to items sold on amazon inside the future may possibly be closed the register. Good websites are expensive, just ask Jeff Bezos.

  6. Andrew stibre Says:

    this is really nice and professional breakdown of website design costs. I love it. Thanks and keep up the good work and Nice design tips!

  7. Eichholz Says:

    Set aside time everyday to update your website, and add related photos.

  8. Wynona Kroenke Says:

    I like the detailed information that you have this web design blog. Keep up the superb work you do showing us the cost of creating websites. Have you ever considered using squidoo as a publishing platform?

  9. Mike Little Says:

    I really love how it is easy it is to see the different costs of a website.

  10. Chesterbrook Says:

    Auto-Post your design cost breakdown so we can examine all the parts of creating a new e-commerce website.

  11. Kaden Hamilton Says:

    Great post about the cost of designing a website! Very informative to know what we should be paying. I think we overpaid :(

    -Kaden

  12. john Says:

    Getting my to comment is often tough, but that site listed in the examples was too expensive. Users should expect to pay around 150 per page.

  13. Ryan Says:

    Interesting breakdown of site budgets. Do you think this is an industry standard, or just rough estimate?
    Ryan recently posted..Anderson Japanese GardensMy Profile

  14. CVOS Says:

    @ryan I think this is a good rough outline for new websites.

  15. Karlyn Chavers Says:

    <3 making new websites and optimizing them, thanks for the tips.

  16. Kizzy Says:

    I was very pleased to find this SEO instruction site. I wanted to tell you that it helped me negotiate the cost for a new website. With regards, Kizzy.

  17. colton Says:

    These web design fees look too cheap, we are at least 25% higher.