How Much Should You Pay a Web Design Company?

“How much is this going to cost?” It’s a basic question we ask on a regular basis. While it’s easy to price a tangible object – like a car, TV or computer – it’s a lot more difficult to put a dollar figure on something intangible (like a new website). After all, we can’t touch or feel a new website – so then how do we price it?

Web design prices vary on a project-to-project and company-to-company basis. You could ask ten different web design companies for a quote and receive ten different answers. Despite the difference in price, most web design companies take similar factors into consideration when quoting a new web design project:

• the features and functionality of the website
• the web design company’s level of expertise
• how demanding you are as a client

Let’s take a closer look at all three major factors to help you decide how much to pay a web design company.

The features and functionality of the website.

“I just need a simple website,” is something we hear all the time at Bowen Media. And it makes us cringe. Why? Because at the end of the day, there’s really no such thing as a “simple” project. Looks can be deceiving in web design. Certain elements seem easy to implement but are actually quite complicated – and vice versa. Of course, we consolidate and simplify even the largest of projects into optimized user experiences at fair estimates – but few web design projects are “simple” in terms of labor.

Quoting a web design project is about more than just time. It’s also about acquiring the knowledge, skill, and precision to add custom functionality, powerful components, and user-friendly features. As a rule of thumb, expect to pay more for a back-end portal, forum, ecommerce, email opt-in, membership, and third party integration like a CRM. As a token of advice, never assume your needs are “simple” or cheaper than the designer’s standard rate.

The web design company’s level of expertise.

There is one major thing to consider when deciding how much to pay a web design company:value. You get what you pay for in web design – and selecting the cheapest option could potentially cost you more in the long run. Imagine purchasing a used vehicle that needs replacement parts every month.

Sure, you can purchase a website for a fraction of the cost – but low costs in web design almost always guarantee less knowledge, poorer skill sets, and an inferior finished product. Cost is important – but not nearly as important as justifying the cost with value. Get the job done right from the start and you can keep your website running smoothly for thousands of miles to come.

How demanding you are as a client.

The traits of an easy web design client are easy to identify: open to new ideas, prompt with feedback, willing to allow plenty of creative freedom, and perfectly able to provide a succinct, accurate brief. But do you know what’s even easier for a web design company to spot? A demanding client.

The rules for pricing a web design project based on the ease of the relationship are simple: request tiny revisions at every stage of the project, and expect to pay more. Extra rounds of revisions are like overtime – and a web design company also reserves the right to charge overtime pay.

Most web design companies establish the scope of the relationship from the beginning – a set number of content revision rounds, for example. The final cost of a web design project depends largely on your ability to keep within the scope of the original working agreement. You can be an easy client or a demanding one. Choose your destiny.

So, what should you spend?

There is a long answer to this common web design question and a short one:

• Short answer: Expect to pay at least several thousand dollars for a new website – based on the major factors we just talked about.
• Long answer: Determine the value of a web design company in comparison to the cost. When you think of your website as an employee – a qualified professional who works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to promote your business – a new website is a bargain at any cost. Can your business really afford a missed opportunity to build a new website with a long-term value exponentially greater than its price tag?