Q: What does it cost to build a great business website?
A: It depends!
Anyone who has ever shopped for a website for their business has learned that no two web developers are exactly alike — and no two website design and build projects cost the same. Each agency varies its budget based on its perceived market value, competition, and market, not to mention the calculation by the web agency regarding what your company can afford to pay.
Costs will also vary greatly depending on the scope of work, size, and purpose of the website you need, which is greatly influenced by your industry, the size and revenue of your company, and the technology requirements for your type of website.
Some major categories of websites that we at Answer Media have planned and built in the last couple of years representing the most common types of website projects are listed here.
Small Business or “Brochureware” Website Development
A basic informational website — sometimes called “brochureware” — is usually not complicated to build, and can be designed using pre-existing themes that, when adapted with your brand colors, your content and images, and your voice, provide a unique and fully-functional new website for small businesses, consultants, retailers, restaurants, and bloggers. These sites typically feature a single contact form, and primarily serve the purpose of validating your company’s image. We’ve seen budgets from competitors in the industry with costs for such projects in the $3,000 – $12,000 range, depending on whether the design is a custom one. Answer Media is almost always at the lower end of the project quote range, when compared to other Vermont web developers and especially to national website hosting companies.
Next-level Business Website Development
Larger companies and those with a lot of information and knowledge to ipat to their customers and the public typically need a somewhat more complicated website than small businesses. Websites with more than 25 pages, which utilize a content management system (CMS) with multiple page design layouts fall into this category. Usually they require custom or complex functionality set up by developers or involve integration with third-party database products, CRM systems, email management systems. They often require advanced security and sometimes face corporate or industrial compliance. Moderately complex sites range from $10,000 to $20,000, and more complex sites with more than 20 subsections, or hundreds of pages, and require unique programming for features or integration can range from $20,000 – $40,000 or higher, if you work with an advanced programming consultant or your software vendors require their fees. hundred pages, custom design layouts and imagery, a content management system, unique functionality, and supplementary features (such as personalized development, blog integration, multimedia creation, and more).
Answer Media has experience planning and building hundreds of websites in a wide array of industries, including technology, health care, education, nonprofits and chambers of commerce. We’ always approach our projects using industry standard technologies, and we keep our costs at roughly half those of of our competition.
Ecommerce Website Development
If you area a retailer or product manufacturer, and you need a website where customers can non only browse your products but also purchase them directly online, you need a website that is shopping-cart enabled, incorporates a payment gateway, products; integration of a payment gateway, and is highly optimized for product search. An Ecommerce site can range in cost form the most simple one-product sites at approximately $5,000 to sites with hundreds of products and thousands of SKUs at $25,000 or higher. Enterprise-level retailers can expect to pay more than $35,000 for their sites. For E-commerce, we at Answer Media partner with specialist e-commerce developers to customize and optimize sites on Ecommerce networks like Shopify, incorporate WooCommerce or other WordPress-compatible ecommerce systems, or design a custom site that utilizes PayPal, Stripe, or other payment processing tools.
Shopping for websites can be confusing. We try to make it simple at Answer Media by answering your questions about your website, finding the most flexible and affordable approach for your business, and educating and supporting you along the way.