STEP 2
Budgeting for Design and Maintenance
When planning a Web site or a site upgrade, your company should consider the two phases of Web development: design and maintenance.
Design Costs
Our Web design firm will estimate the cost and duration of your Web site development based on the scope and complexity of your project. Scope is based on the estimated number of pages you’ll need. Complexity is based on the features the site will incorporate (e.g. original graphics, a shopping cart, or a searchable database). Obviously, a simple brochure site will cost considerably less and take less time to implement than a complex E-commerce site.
Designing a Web site can be a very expensive process, particularly when database and E-commerce services are included (sophisticated E-commerce sites can easily exceed $50,000).
Many Web design firms recommend the following guidelines to develop your estimated budget:
- $100 - $300 per page
- $25 - $100 per image/graphic (budget more for logo design)
- Add $2,000 - $5,000+ for E-commerce/database functionality, increasing significantly with the number of products/SKUs
Maintenance Costs
The cost to maintain your Web site will depend on two things:
Complexity: the level of skill required to maintain your site. A brochure site may require only simple HTML to make additions or updates to your site. On the other hand, adding or changing a product listing for an E-commerce site may involve database programming and CGI scripting, as well as HTML code. Our firm will charge higher fees for more difficult or complicated services.
Update frequency: how often you modify existing pages or add new pages. If your company needs a brochure site that will change only rarely (for instance, when you add a new sales person or launch a new product), your maintenance costs will be significantly lower than if you need an online store that may offer 10 new products each week.
The complexity of the site will determine the hourly fees for maintaining your site, and the frequency of updates will determine how many hours our Web firm will spend updating the site.