How much for a decent website

debbie42

Badger_Lady wrote: »

In that case, if it's literally going to be pretty flat webpages, you should be looking at more like £200.

Again, it depends on content etc. If it's a templated one with photos supplied by the client, then £200 is maybe do-able, just about, at a pinch.

If you want a slick, customised, professional site, which meets with accessibility standards etc. then £200 would (IMO) probably be too cheap.

ed89

As with anything in life, you get what you pay for. £2k for a 5 or 6 page website is not alot to have a site professionally designed and developed by a professional company that will work well for your business.

Sure you can pay £300 but the quality is not going to be the same. Anyone who is running a design agency charging those figures and taking on two or three new clients a month (if lucky) is not going to be in this game for very long. You are best going to a proper company who will do you a good job, is committed to the industry, has seen through the recession and has a team (even if small) of staff that can be relied on.

If your budget is really that low and you need a quick job then you might find someone doing freelance / working from home that will do it for that price, but once the site is complete don't expect them to be at your beck and call, because they will be very reluctant to!

Ask yourself this - would you pay £500 for an advert in the paper for one day, as opposed to spending that on something that can continually be changed / updated, work for you 24 hours a day, encourage new business day after day? If the answer is yes, then £2k is not alot to spend on a website.

Here's a page I advise you should look at;

http://www.embracetheweb.org/

Badger_Lady

debbie42 wrote: »

Again, it depends on content etc. If it's a templated one with photos supplied by the client, then £200 is maybe do-able, just about, at a pinch.

If you want a slick, customised, professional site, which meets with accessibility standards etc. then £200 would (IMO) probably be too cheap.

I'd do it, as a web designer with 9 years experience and specialisation in information architecture / usability (including accessibility). But then it would be a little weekend project for me, not my livelihood.

It's easy for unscrupulous companies to blind their customers with science... if this guy was looking to run his business online I'd argue that he needs experts looking at all the different elements to create the perfect design. However, if he's just sticking a webpage up because he hasn't got one yet, don't tell me it's worth spending an extra £1800 on.

debbie42

Badger_Lady wrote: »

However, if he's just sticking a webpage up because he hasn't got one yet, don't tell me it's worth spending an extra £1800 on.

No, I tend to agree, but, like I said, it depends on what the OP wants. Does he want a pro-photographer to visit his factory for a day, taking shots for the site, etc.

bazzlad

As a Web Designer and Developer for 10 years, I can answer this question in one word:
No.

For a flat design, no CMS, (assuming content provided too) - a professional (not top, arty, farty London Agency, but equally, not a kid who's made 4 sites in his life) design and build should cost you around the £800 (that's what I'd charge anyway).

Hosting and domain (is where a lot of dodgy companies sting you) should cost no more than £30 a year (and you can half that [or better] if you do it yourself).

I've got to point out though, the poster who said £200 is having a giraffe. Any half decent designer will get (around) that for creating a logo or business card - and let's be honest, there's a lot more work involved in a web site.

Let's break it down here:
Step One - Consultation - Finding out the client's expectations, sourcing all content, artwork etc.
Step Two - Design - Usually two or three variants.
Step Three - Feedback - Sent it to the client, get their feedback.
Step Four - Adjustments - Adjust design as per client's wishes.
Step Five - Code website (Ensuring W3C valid xHTML, CSS2, and JQuery [if needed]).
Step Six - Check, edit and debug websites for the following browsers:
IE6 - Will need to make adjustments for PNGs, either using Jquery PNGfix, or an IE6 specific (via conditional comments) stylesheet, and fix IE6 incorrect box model and any other bugs (3 pixel jog).
IE7 - MAY need specific stylesheet, but probably not.
IE8, IE9, FF2, FF3, Chrome, Safari.
Step Seven - Code any Server Sided Scripting Language (php/asp?) as needed. Fix any URL issues using .htaccess.
Step Eight - Feedback - Send completed, valid, cross browser compatible website to client.
Step Nine - Adjustments - As per client feedback.
Step Ten (Optional, buy domain, hosting, and upload site).
Step Eleven - Bill client, put feet up.

£200 You sure about that mate?

The long and short, someone charging £2k is charging too much. Someone charging £200 is charging too little.

ed89

£30 a year for hosting! Is that on a shoestring server in India? Or on a high quality, low resourced (shared server, but not with hundreds and hundreds of other sites on it) rack in the UK?

Again I ask; what kind of service would you expect to receive for £30 a year, £2.50 a month, to maintain your website and email setup. If you are providing services for £2.50 a month I must have missed a trick, that or you have thousands of customers.

bazzlad

ed89 wrote: »

£30 a year for hosting! Is that on a shoestring server in India? Or on a high quality, low resourced (shared server, but not with hundreds and hundreds of other sites on it) rack in the UK?

Again I ask; what kind of service would you expect to receive for £30 a year, £2.50 a month, to maintain your website and email setup. If you are providing services for £2.50 a month I must have missed a trick, that or you have thousands of customers.

Good Spec Rack in the US.

You are talking about someone who's requested a flat 8 page html website, which will probably hit < 1000 uniques a month - if you think they need a dedicated server, I'd be questioning your IT knowledge.

If it was a high end, full e-commerce, 30,000 + uniques a month site, that's when you start having to splash the cash, else shared rack hosting would do the job absolutely fine, as would a half decent self hosted Debian LAMP Server set up with a static IP.

On top of that, I've got to ask:

"MAINTAIN the Website and Email Setup?"

Pray tell me, aftering setting it up, what do you have to maintain? You need to blow on the interweb tubes hourly to ensure they don't blow up? If after the initial setup you need to revisit the site due to the hosting or emails YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG IN THE FIRST PLACE.

debbie42

bazzlad wrote: »

if you think they need a dedicated server, I'd be questioning your IT knowledge.

To be fair, the post suggested a shared server.

bazzlad

debbie42 wrote: »

To be fair, the post suggested a shared server.

To be fair Debbie the quote that suggested a shared server was an insult:

£30 a year for hosting! Is that on a shoestring server in India? Or on a high quality, low resourced (shared server, but not with hundreds and hundreds of other sites on it) rack in the UK?

The point being made was that for that price you could have a crappy shared server, or a shoestring server in India.

The post was stating that £30 a year for hosting was too cheap to be taken seriously - my point was if he/she was recommending that you needed to spend more for a small website, he/she was wrong. Hosting is where most companies will sting you, and to be blunt, it's not right.

I moved a client from spending £300 a year on their hosting, to £30 a year, and they've been happy as Larry. (and that was with 17,987 uniques in the first 3 months).


:money:

debbie42

bazzlad wrote: »

To be fair Debbie the quote that suggested a shared server was an insult:

I'm not disputing the figures: it was more that I interpreted your post as implying they were suggesting a dedicated server was needed?

I'd be interested in less than £15 p.a. for a reasonable server for a low hit website. I'm quite happy to do it myself. I currently use two hosts: JustHost, which is US based, and costs (from memory) around £3 a month(?), and PenguinUK, which costs me around £20 p.a. for each domain, but that is for a multi-buy package. Any other suggestions or recommendations would be welcomed.