How much do you charge for web design?

"How much do you charge for web design?" A question that is usually one of the first that you will want to know the answer to if you're looking to have a website or web application built with me.

So then, how much?

The answer that I give you will of course be dependent on a number of variables and if you’re shopping around for quotes, you’re also likely to see quite a lot of variation in prices. But why is this? Why should one web designer or developer be charging £500 for a website while another is charging £5,000? How are these quotes calculated and why would you ever want to pay £thousands when you can apparently have the same thing for £hundreds?

While there are no hard and fast answers to these questions, there are plenty of indicators that you should be taking into account. And even at this early stage, it should already be fairly clear that a balance needs to be found between;

the price you’re being quoted
the quality of the work
the experience of the designer/developer
the potential return on investment
the availability and knowledgeability of staff
the features and functionality provided

Web design & development is a service, not a product…

All web design & development companies are providing a service, not a product. And for that reason all pricing is based on time. As soon as one makes that distinction, it should quickly become apparent that in terms of raw price, it’s often best to look at the designer’s hourly rate when reviewing and balancing quotes.

If you balance the hourly rate with the amount of experience the web designer/developer has and the quality of their work, it may become easier to see which is going to provide the best service for the best price. Generally the more experience the designer has, the better the work and the higher the price. The exception to the rule is when you get quotes from the web designers who built their first websites in 1995 and are still using 1995 techniques and technologies! For the most part they’re easy to spot though! It’s worth noting that I spend hours every week reading, learning and generally keeping abreast of new technologies - in this fast moving industry it’s terribly easy to get complacent and wake up one day to find that you’ve become the dinosaur!

What do you get for your money?

Should you be going for the lowest quote or highest quote? If you cast the lowest quotes adrift and start looking at the slightly higher priced quotes, what are you actually paying for? Just a nicer design? What are the concrete advantages of paying more? Of course I wouldn’t expect you just to pay more because I’ve told you “yes, but I’m more experienced than him/her”. The answer is that you should be going for the one that will provide you the greatest Return on Investment.

While this article isn’t supposed to delve into the questions of what makes a good website, I must make it absolutely clear that when I talk about things such as effective communication through design, standards compliance, accessibility, usability and search engine performance, these subjects really do matter in terms of the ability of your site to create sales for your company. These aren’t just features that “would be nice to have” - contracting someone with the skills and experience in such subjects actually makes financial sense. And that’s before we’ve even got onto the subject of integrated Content Management Systems, bespoke programming, ecommerce etc. all of which full service digital media consultants such as myself can provide as an integrated solution.

Where do my prices fit in?

All of my work is bespoke, so I quote for projects on a case-by-case basis. My hourly rate is £40/hr (if you’re an agency employing me as a freelancer this rate is lower though, as of course I’m not handling the account management side of things). If you’re shopping around you’re likely to find designers/developers charging from anywhere between £10/hr (amateur developers/designers) right up to £100/hr or more (full service city digital marketing agencies). So if you were to use my services, you’d getting the very best in terms of quality and experience, at mid-market prices.

And if it sounds like I’ve waffled on in this article a bit, then there is of course a simple and widely used cliche that concisely condenses this blog post into just six words: You Get What You Pay For.