How Much Does a Website Cost? Three Answers

One of my most popular posts at this blog is "How Long Does It Take to Make a Website?" The other big question people thinking about getting a usable website ask is, "How much does it cost to make a website?"

This weekend I spoke with two new clients about their website needs. Both asked those two questions. Most do.

But "How much does a website cost?" is one of those questions like "How much does education cost?" or "How much do clothes cost?" Not one of those questions like "How much does milk cost?"

At the very least, you have to be able to say, "How much does this particular website that I have in mind cost?"

I've been negotiating with designers this weekend, too, for a couple of websites I'm writing and doing the project management for. Both designers readily told me their hourly rates, and I'll tell you my hourly rate cheerfully enough, too, but without knowing just what needs doing, it's very difficult to predict how many hours a project will take.

I sent one of the designers this rudimentary diagram:

Also a site outline, and detailed specifications about images, links, color preferences, and what parts of the work I'd be doing and what he'd need to do. As you can see, no artistic talent is required for this step.

Doing this increases your chances of getting a clear estimate. It takes me about two hours to do this type of planning, and of course that's two hours you would have had to pay for anyway, whether you do it yourself, delegate it to a staff member, or have a professional do it. It also allows you to compare designers' quotes more usefully, since you can be sure that they are all talking about the same thing.

In this case, I didn't end up with a quote, though. Instead, I got one of the most common answers to the question, "How much does it cost to build a website?" That is, "What's your budget?"

If you can specify the price you're willing to pay, then the people building your website can tell you what you can get for what you have in mind.

Another client asked me on Friday, "Would it be fair to say that we'd get different results if we put more time into it?"

Yes, that would certainly be fair to say.

But skillful designers can often come up with clever ways to fit what you want into your budget, or at least ways to get a similar effect.

Often, though, people asking this question have no idea what a website might cost. They've never had a website, and don't know how to find out what they ought to pay for one. Or they've had a useless website and suspect that they've been overcharged, regardless of what they paid for it. They may have looked around the web a little and discovered that prices range from "free" to "Call us and discuss it." So what should they expect to pay? Ten dollars? Forty bajillion dollars? How can they even determine whether they can afford a website or not?

For such people, the basic answer is this: a simple business website that's good enough to do its job is going to cost you somewhere between $2,000 and $5,000, by the time you include everything.

Not having a website, or having a poor-quality website, is going to cost you lots more than that in sales.

And that's why my answer to the price question tends to be, "What's the yearly value of one additional customer who comes to you from your website?" A little calculation usually tells us that the value of one additional customer to the size of business I typically work with is going to be $2,000 to $5,000.

If, in your business, the value of one customer is $30,000, then that's what you should budget for your website. If it's $23, then you might want to ask yourself, "What would I like the yearly value of one customer to be?"

A good website will bring in far more than one new customer.

So there you have it: three possible answers to the question, "What does it cost to build a website?"

My advice to you is to calculate the value of getting one new customer this year and set that as your budget. Figure out -- perhaps with the help of someone like me -- exactly what you want in the way of a website. Then talk to web firms or designers saying not, "How much does a website cost?" but "This is what we want. This is our budget. What can you do for us?"

You'll find that a much more useful question.

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