How much does it cost to create a website?
here is no simple answer to that, it depends on many aspects. If we speak about small company site built on commonly used CMS (Content Management Systems) like WordPress with just a couple of pages, gallery, list of services and contact form – it can vary,
some website development agencies ask just 399 euros per such site, others ask 1500 euros and more. E-commerce sites cost more – starting from 2500 euros because it’s a bit more complicated than one-pager or company website – there is products, product categories, different payment methods, delivery options and much more.
But why there is a such big difference – it’s complicated and simple at the same time:
Cheap website development price comes at a cost – web designer will spend less time for this project and will try to cut all corners that possible.
Free template – sure, minimal customization? Sure!
But long-term cost is huge:
- free templates can have security issues (some of them have builtin backdoors from the beginning – I’v seen them).
- website can look weird on tablet or mobile (and nowadays its more than 80% of visitors)
- your company branding on the website and in real life can look different and will just scare off your potential customers.
Also sadly I’v seen cases when company site was made for cheap, but then developer asked way more than that on adding small features to the site or for maintaining it.
What is a right path of website development?
- As a starting point we ask our customer about his needs and expectations. It’s crucial to understand what customer need – is it a company site, product promotional site or online shop? what is your target audience?
Based on that information a best platform suited will be chosen as well as development strategy. - Mapping site pages and functionalities – it is very important to assess the volume of web designer and web developer hours
- Now it’s time to shine for web designer – combine vision of customer ideas, designer ideas and latest technology possibilities
- When design is done and approved now it’s time for developing a website — that’s the most fun part for me, all these things like responsive design, mobile first, optimizations, or some complex API integrations make each project a unique challenge. Seeing a site come alive with interactive elements and seamless functionality across different devices is immensely rewarding
- Content creation – very important step. Not only website design sells – texts do so too!
- Last stage is project verification and final polishing. We must be 100% sure that site works as expected, looks and feels like a solid thing to we won’t be shy of our job. After that we pass this project to our beloved customer!
How much it cost to maintain a website?
As always answer is – it depends.
Hosting (it is a place where your website files will be) is around 10 euros a month. Thats more than enough for small and medium site.
Domain name (your website address – like www.innovativnetz.de) price vary, but average price is around 15 euros a year.
Website maintenance – this point is optional, you can always hire a developer only when something is broken.
Let me elaborate a bit – most of the systems are updated frequently and to apply these updates is mostly just a click on a button but sometimes it does not work as expected and something can break – this is where you need a developer to fix it or you pay monthly service fee and developer will keep everything updated and if something breaks – all will be fixed with no extra charge.
Can I make a website by myself?
Yes you can. But as always – it depends. If you want simple website and you have free time – why not to use it to learn something new (like doing sites?).
There is many options, but easiest ones: https://wix.com or https://www.squarespace.com – their AI will guide you to create very good looking website. If you plan to sell products – https://shopify.com
A level up – https://wordpress.com – it is the same as most of agencies will offer you – 40% of the sites are running on WordPress.
But everything comes at its cost – if you need a basic functionality – these options are good and will not cost you much, but when it comes to extra functionality or scalability – you will have to pay for it and sadly way more than if you would invest upfront in project created by our website agency.
It’s up to you which option you choose – but we’d love to see you as our client! Read more about our website development services