Comments on: How Much Should a Web Design Cost?

By: Rhys Welsh

Rhys Welsh — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:42:33 +0000

Really good article, It has helped me with the whole ‘selling’ aspect of freelancing… Theres alot of points an phrases that will help me persuade a potential client.

In my opinion it comes down to the web site quality and what you can provide for your quote.

Several years ago I also thought that £2,000 for a website was very expensive, but at that point I was only producing simple html pages ! Now knowing the amount of time,effort and experience required I think your prices are very reasonable.

From a clients point of view unless you are very involved in the web design industry, you simply would not know how much is involved and unlikley to part with large amounts of money.

I now see it as you have to educate your client, before you will get any money handed over.

By: Rich

Rich — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 05:22:42 +0000

If you’re making money from your blog/site and a $3000 design gives you a sales uplift worth $3000 (say an extra $300/month) that you wouldn’t otherwise have got then it has just paid for itself. You can measure the ROI easily enough by comparing “pre design” blog expected sales with the new actuals. So it depends on your blog. If you’re a public figure/company then even if you don’t make money from that particular site, $3k is a good investment to maintain your brand image. If you’re blogging about Jimbo your pet hamster it’s probably a bit much to spend.

By: undressingHER

undressingHER — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:17:32 +0000

While most of you are 500x better at web design than I am, I couldn’t even imagine paying that type of money for a blog. I’ve found that just browsing around other blogs that you guys have created can give me ideas for my own layouts and a simple forum search on wordpress.org will help me with any and all coding issues that may arise. I haven’t seen a blog on the internet that I think is worth $3,000. I’ve had to sit there for 3 hours just trying to make one script work and all that stuff, so I know it’s time consuming, but $100 per hour? Geesh, fire fighters need a raise.

By: Michael Molino

Michael Molino — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:26:33 +0000

Great article! Very well written and very insightful to a fledgling designer. One of my biggest weaknesses right now is giving my clients pricing information. I always feel like I’m somehow robbing them despite the fact that they tell me my prices seem reasonable. It’s nice to have that confirmed by someone with extensive experience and know how.

Thanks! I am officially a fan now!

By: Some Inbound Marketing Ideas For Web Designers | CREONOMY Collaboration software for designers, web design management

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:59:46 +0000

[...] Explain your costs. Most people don’t understand why a website should cost so much or don’t have a proper budget (by the way, 99% of time, whatever the price is, it’s gonna be “too much” anyway). Try educating your audience telling them why you want to eat too. [...]

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Sun, 29 Aug 2010 04:02:53 +0000

[...] How Much Should a Web Design Cost – An interesting article about design, quality and cost. [...]

By: Rich

Rich — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:12:06 +0000

What a great article and comments section, I think it’s just helped me earn an extra $80k this year alone so thank you to Chris and to all for what’s been written.

I’m thrilled to hear there are so many designers prepared to do sites for $500 because they can keep all the cr*p clients busy and out of my way and I can focus my time on the ones who’ll pay me $20k and up. They won’t be in business in 12 months time anyway, and if they are they’ll still be eating ramen for dinner each night because they never learned what gross margin or COGS meant. A class in economics, not CSS, might be the best investment for some people.

Incidentally there seem to be some people who equate offshore developers with poor quality: that’s not necessarily the case, at least it doesn’t need to be. I’ve worked in a top London consultancy where day rates are £600-1800 and I’ve worked for an offshore provider in South America where rates are as low as $33/hr. The people quality potential is not much different- the bid structure, P&L and project management on the other hand is a different league. If the company are working their devs to death with no people development or training, just project after project to try and make the business model of $33/hr margins work then poor quality output is to be expected. If you set a reasonable deadline and factor in the right number of hours to produce the level of quality your client expects, and don’t begrudge sending your staff on a 2 week training course here and there, foster a learing culture, etc then you don’t have quality problems. You can only afford to do the latter when you’re charging higher rates.

To equate this all to freelancing: as already mentioned a few times in the comments, the price you charge should NOT just be what it cost you whilst you sat at your desk to produce just that site. That is not good business sense for you or your clients.

By: David

David — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:55:47 +0000

Cheers for that! I even read most of the comments

By: Anthony

Anthony — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 01:09:09 +0000

Just wanted to chime in and say thanks for a great post! I’ve been really struggling with this topic at the moment as I’m a noob to freelance web development. This article (unlike many others I’ve read) is extremely enlightening and honest, particularly about actual prices.

Thanks again for such a useful post…I’ll be bookmarking : )

By: TenTex

TenTex — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:43:38 +0000

Great Post! I’ve been managing my own web business for 8 years now and only focus on small business owners. Why? Because they have money and they can make the decision. What people don’t realize is that when they hire a so called Web Designer they don’t understand they are only getting the experience level of that person. Anyone with a computer can call themselves a web designer and they do! I personally view a potential client as a victim. Why? Because they have no clue what or who they are hiring to build them their website, even if it is a relative. So I guess my business has evolved into a “Victim Recovery Program” for all those folks who have horrible websites that don’t work. I’m not a designer nor a programmer. I’m a business consultant who project manages successful websites. I pull together the Front End, Backend, Navigation Architecture, SEO with the right CMS tool. But even before that I have to understand their business model!