Website Build Cost

[Hedgehog Toys]

OK guys,

Assuming in the near future i decide to go down the road of having a custom built site done from scratch. I am looking for a guide price for the site to be built along with the cart etc.

I would like the site to be like this one www.littlebundles.co.uk

Rough budget costs would enable me to set aside funds to cover the site buildover the next couple of months.

Thanks

[DuaneJackson]

As a rough guide, I'd say 3,500 to 4,500.

[Coding Monkey]

As a rough guide, I'd say 3,500 to 4,500.

Probably a good average for the sit development, but don't negate the importance of a copywriter or SEO specialist.

Whenever someone comes to me with a low budget that can't be moved, I'll give them advice on finding another web designer and give them a general price, and a limit of what they should be suspicious of if a quote comes back below that limit. I don't believe you would get a custom job for less than £3k from a good web designer and developer. Remember, a web designer is how the site looks, a developer is for the shopping cart etc. You don't generally find that you one a all-in-one fella who is great at both, so it's a two man job.

[DavidHorn]

Okay - god, I hope this post doesn't turn into a bidding war! I'd say that 3,500 should be towards the top end of estimates.

Again (and see any of a dozen posts in the past 2 weeks on this subject), there will be plenty of people who will do it for less.

David

[Hedgehog Toys]

Ok.

So now the other side of the coin.......if i wanted to build the site from scratch myself. What would be easier to use , Frontpage, Dreamweaver????

[DuaneJackson]

I've got no interest in taking on the work, so it's not a bid - just a guide to what we would and have charged.

All of Toms comments are very valid too.

If price is your main concern (over quality, professionalism, reliablilty, dependency, experience, etc) then you can definetley get it done for less than £1,000.

If you want to build it yourself then learn how to use Dreamweaver and how to program in either ASP.Net (C#), Classis ASP or PHP. I wont comment on the wisdom of taking the DIY route though : )

[Hedgehog Toys]

I have a reasonable knowledge of Dreamweaver but it would probably take me a good while to become more confident with it and i would definately need assistance with the shopping cart side of things....i guess i want more than the limitations of the template built site.

[Richard Conyard]

Woo hoo,
Another person that equates knowledge of dreamweaver with knowledge of:
a) how to build websites
b) how to program websites

Eventually I guess I'll learn to be tactful like Duane.

[DuaneJackson]

It can be a very good investment if you find the right developer and they also take care of making sure the site has an optimised structure and that the back end takes a lot of the leg work out of your back office admin.

We recently completed a site for a client and every time I talk to him he says how pleased he is that he decided to spend the cash - his sales have gone up but his admin work has gone down. A very happy chappy.

Edited for spelling

[autolycus]

As a rough guide, I'd say 3,500 to 4,500.

Sounds about right to me.

No doubt you'll find someone offering to do it for £500 or less. If you do, and if you're tempted by such a low quote, my advice would be to have a think about whether you'd be so keen on the cheapest quote if you were looking for someone to create the signage and window-dressing for a traditional high street shop....

Just my 2p's worth. Your mileage may vary.
:wink:

[Coding Monkey]

We recently completed a site for a client and every time I talk to him he says how pleased he is that he decided to spend the cash - his sales have gone up but his admin work has gone down. A very happy chappy.


Exactly. It's not all about what the developers does, it's also about what you could be doing with the time it takes you to learn how to do it. Set yourself a role in the company. If it's to make money, learning how to build a website that will be far from that a professional standard that qualified experts could create is not achieving that aim. I can write, but I always use a copywriter, and it pays for itself over 10x within a few weeks. A website will not pay for itself 10x within a few weeks, unless someone is selling it, and that is normally the job of the owner.

[DuaneJackson]

A website will not pay for itself 10x within a few weeks, unless someone is selling it, and that is normally the job of the owner.

Well done, now we're going to get all the sales/marketing people giving us grief! :roll:

[Coding Monkey]

Well done, now we're going to get all the sales/marketing people giving us grief! :roll:

...or if you hire an online marketing specialist. Better?

It's a fair point, though. If no one visits, you can't expect it to sell anything. If you've got a low budget, I doubt you're going to hire someone to take care of all your marketing for you.

[mattk]

having a custom built site done from scratch. I am looking for a guide price for the site to be built along with the cart etc.
Hedgehog - I don't want to put words into your mouth, but I doubt you actually want a custom site built from scratch.

There are many platforms on which to base your site, software like OSCommerce seems to be popular, although a good run-down of shopping cart software can be found here (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1631). Using a pre-built shopping cart will mean you compromise some customisation ability, but it will substantially reduce the time and cost it takes compared to building a site completely from scratch.

[Coding Monkey]

Also, everyone who has replied so far works in web development of some sort. See if anyone on the forums actually had their entire site designed and developed for them and get an idea of cost and success they had as a result.

[Richard Conyard]

Silverpuresilver might be someone to approach about this.

[autolycus]

Also, everyone who has replied so far works in web development of some sort.

I thought you had to be in web development to be a member of this forum. :wink:

[Coding Monkey]

Copywriter, PR or web design. All else are looked down upon for not being "normal".

[dubblevision]

To start with, yes im another web company - good to see theres not many of us around in this place (",)

To start with, i actaully thought the first price of £3500 - £4500 was quite high. A recent project we completed last year is www.drinkscellar.co.uk

We designed and then hand coded the website. I think your website seems slightly more complex but not by much.

Anyway, any questions you might have about the design and development process, please do ask.

[clairemackaness]

Hedgehog, I'd pop up a post asking non web designer people to tell you how much they spent on their sites to get an idea of cost.

As an example I did mine myself using frontpage and I think it's very professional. The one thing though I cant do is optimise it so it's found! Thats worth paying for in itself. Although......saying that I had my first enquiry today from a company who found me on Google so I must be doing something right!

[Claire B]

Hedgehog, this site here http://www.tinytalk.co.uk cost about £2 - £2,500, according to the webdesigners. I think it's a nice site.