Comments on: How Much Should I Pay For a Website?

By: Kashif

Kashif — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:59:44 +0000

Thanks for the info, I am starting to get into the business of developing websites commercially and this has been a good read to give me a basic idea of what I should be charging.

By: dekker

dekker — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:07:21 +0000

We build completely custom websites for under $3,000.00. Of course, this depends on functionality. If you want an online store and a completely custom content-management system, you’re looking at more like $9,000.00.

By: A.H.Shirwa

A.H.Shirwa — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 19:12:04 +0000

Thank you very much for sharing with us this info. Now I have an idea how much it will cost me to have a Websites.

A.H.Shirwa

By: Build Shed

Build Shed — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 05:12:36 +0000

I really enjoyed the resources shared at this site. Thank you.

By: combi boiler

combi boiler — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:20:06 +0000

I am not going to lie, you have perplexed me here – How Much Should I Pay For a Website?. I recognise that you intended well and you evidently understand what you are writing about, but I cant say that I get where you are approaching from. Keep the articles being published. As the terminator said I will be back.

By: kaggwa joseph

kaggwa joseph — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 18:58:50 +0000

i need to have a web site but i don’t know more about it ,please can tell how much i can pay for it?
its of like an organisation o street children in Uganda.

By: Pankaj kumar

Pankaj kumar — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:11:15 +0000

sir can you tell me how much it will cost for building own website?

By: Elena Karpenko

Elena Karpenko — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:46:35 +0000

Generally, a good article, but I definitely disagree with a lot of points, which are below:
1. “Once your website has been given to you, you cannot easily modify it yourself. This means your website is stuck as is unless you learn HTML, or continue to re-hire your designers for changes and revisions.” – as someone noted above, some sites come with a content management system, so unless the client wants a design change, there is absolutely no extra charge for them to update the site, and they can do it themselves…
2. “and you will generally not be as well ranked with the search engines” – templates do not come search engine optimized, that’s just a fact. So unless someone goes in, optimizes the template and submits the site to the search engines the template will not be ranked at all. On the other hand, custom sites sometimes come with free on-site search engine optimization and submission (I almost always include that for my clients in their design package for free). Search engine optimization is a vast topic and it take a loooong time for ANY site to start ranking well, here’s an article that explains how SEO works: http://blog.enrimdesign.com/2010/02/24/i-have-a-website-now-what-marketing-techniques-to-help-you-build-traffic/
3. “They are generally the same quality as custom website designs. Despite what designers will try to convince you of, most templates were made by professional designers in the first place, so the quality will be similar.” – yeah, we will try and convince you otherwise, because we’ve actually WORKED with those sites. Yeah, they look pretty, but when you get down and dirty with them, man, do they fall apart. Most of the templates out there are built absolutely horribly.
4. “They are far easier to modify. If you don’t know HTML coding, or have access to expensive photo editing software, it is far easier to modify a template website. Templates usually come with easy to use website modification tools, which allow you to change and add text, images, and more on your website. This means you can update more frequently, adapt to your market, and become more “liked” by the search engines.” – Not sure what kinds of templates you are talking about, unless it is a wordpress template or something similar, generally template sites don’t come with a cms… It is actually FAR more difficult to modify a template. Please, if you do know some templates that are easy to modify, please, leave a link. Also, I really don’t know where the author of this article found search engine friendly templates, it would be great if we saw a link for those templates…
5. “They are easy to expand. It can be a large and expensive task to add a page on a Custom Website Design. However, adding pages, products, categories, etc., is very easy with Website Templates.” – again, how are they easier to modify? How is it easier to add a page to a template rather than a custom site? In my experience it is a lot more difficult to change something that’s already built – that goes for both – custom sites and templates. I must be misunderstanding something. I would really appreciate a link to a template that does all of those things that the author claims.

Again, thanks for the article! Some good points… some not so much, unless I am missing something.

By: JDG

JDG — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:36:32 +0000

Oh my god! the drawbacks on the custom design are completely like out of the mouth of someone who typed this in 1998. Most custom websites these days are offered with cms solutions and unless you have a design change, you dont need to pay per update. The best thing a business can do is get a custom website design, that is, if they’re serious about their businesses. Just make sure you’re getting a reputable company with reasonable pricing on packaged updates and maintenance. And if you can pay a bit more just ask for a cms to have control of your content. OMG!

By: Roddy28

Roddy28 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:52:46 +0000

Good,solid logic here. helps to set out what the best option is for each indiividual, depending on their budget and technical abilities.