7 Factors That Affect Web Design Pricing
Who can say how much?
In any type of business, clients always want some sort of ballpark estimate on how much a website design will cost. It is an understandable sentiment, but not one that is very appeasable. Building a Website is much like building a house, throwing a party, or customizing details on your car. There are many factors that manipulate the way they will turn out, what they will look like, and how long they will last. Like many other things, this becomes a relationship between quality and quantity, the balance of which the client alone chooses. With a Website, there are a multitude of factors also. The cost of a Website will largely depend on the design, technology, versatility, ease of use, CMS, number of pages, and supported languages. All of these are important, and a combination of them will be used.
Design
Design is very important when building a Website. Designing and branding is very important for the company that the Website represents. A design needs to be aesthetic, cohesive, and user-friendly. Most cookie cutter Website templates don’t have anything that comes anywhere close to measuring up. Design is important. The differing amounts will significantly affect the price of a Website.
Technology
The amount and era of technology in a Website is major price decider. When creating a friendly user interface, a developer must consider his audience. He needs to build the site with the highest quality HTML, CSS, and jQuery, without eliminating the site’s use on older browsers. They also need to consider the audience when deciding between things like WordPress and Drupal. Website pricing depends a great deal on the amount and level of technology needed.
Versatility
Another factor that makes or breaks a site, and that effects the pricing, is its versatility. Home computers used to be the only place to browse the Internet. Now we have high-resolution desktops, low-resolution desktops, laptops, phones, and tablets of all different sizes. To succeed, a business needs to be able to meet all fronts. The cost of a Website goes up significantly when it gets formatted for every device. Although, the versatility of website isn’t always what device it is on. Much of a Website’s versatility comes from how responsive it is on a desktop. Having a Website that can respond when the user manually adjusts it is a major plus. This requires a great deal of customization, and sometimes a lot of redesigning. Starting off with Foundation or Bootstrap is an option which will keeps costs lower because they have a pre-existing responsive structure.
Ease of Use
Ease of use is something that everyone expects, but rarely understands. Building a Website to fit a specific audience isn’t a cakewalk. Building a site that will please multiple audiences is even harder. The harder it is to build, the more it’s going to cost.
CMS
CMS is very important, especially for the “hunt-and-peck” type of computer users. The owner of a Website doesn’t know the inner-workings of HTML code and CSS. If he did, he wouldn’t hire a Web developer. Content management systems are highly important to people who update a Website regularly. This, of course, isn’t a need for the people who don’t. That added detail, and the quality of it, will alter the cost of a Website.
Number of Pages
The quality of a Website is of the utmost importance, but the quantity matters too. Quite simply, the more you have, the more it will cost. When Web pages are similar and only change slightly it’s easier, but a larger number of pages always generates a larger price.
Supported Languages
Not every site needs multiple language support, but the ones that do will definitely be paying extra for it.
