Most agencys will base it on man hours it will take. And yes everybody is correct. There are so many different types of sites, technologies, needs etc.
At most web agencies the billable rate is around 200 bucks an hour. This is for well qualified proven work.
Example 1
So lets say you are a company like Teva and want a website that may only have 10 templates... such as a home, subpage, shopping cart page, product wall page, Product page, generic page, etc etc.
Well it will usually take a designer first off to concept a general look at feel. Usually most agencies will pitch 2-3 designs. Pitch work is usually discounted or free as we are trying to win business. But 3 design will be 40 man hours probably.
so 40x200... you are already 8000 into a project. But this sorta is built into an agencies pitch cost. Client usually doesnt pay for this.
Anyway, the client likes what you did and likes your agency and likes your price and planning and awards you the work.
usually a client like this will have a budget between 50k and 250k depending on the amount of content and special things they want.
A basic well designed site that has custom backend functionality from an agency will be 50k or so.
Now add in complexity, more custom solution, flash video and product mini sites, then maybe 360 flash spins of the shoes, etc etc... you can now see how that number will get up to 250k fast.
To design out all the site, a designer will work for 1 to 2 weeks and through approvals. Right there.... 16000-20k
Then if the client wants mini sites or flash vidoes or whatever, those need to be designed. So each one of those will take 20 hours to design and another 20-40 hours to build.
Then you will need development time, usually 1 to 2 months depending on the amount of work, video, type of work etc. CSS, HTML, PHP.... Backend.
So by now an agency will have had around 5 to 6 people working on the project with a few people here and there. Project managers, Account Managers, Creative Directors, Designers, Flash, CSS, PHP, Backend developers, and maybe some video production or photo shoots. Lots of work!
Take that many people times man hours, and you now see why the cost of a site through an agency starts at 50k.
I currently am doing 2 high profile company sites. 1 is custom backend, great design, and some simple flash animations.... 150k.
The other is a very large site with 4+ different areas of content (products, athlete area, mini sites etc) and multiple products that will each have their own mini video and experience. This site is a 700k site with a 30k monthly maintenance budget. All based on how many hours this will take to do.
Example 2
Now for freelance example doing a simple basic teva.com shopping cart solution with custom design and probably a out of the box backend.
hiring a couple freelancers is usually cheaper to do the same type site because the rate usually is half and lots of the baggage is cut out. But the catch is you will have to manage the project. So that 50k site will now be 20-30k with 2 to 3 freelancers and take them a couple months. Design 40 -60 hours = 4000 - 6000 bucks. Development front and backend = 120-160 hours. 16000-20000.
So why don't people just use freelancers all the time?
Well when Teva comes to an agency, they pay for results and the assurance you will get it done and manage the project. That Teva marketing manager needs to make sure it gets done, managed and on time and the right way or else they are fired from their boss. Going with an agency will be more money but you are buying a much better chance at successfully completing your project, letting the agency handle all the planning and work and not getting yourself fired.
Example 3
The basic site with a freelancer.
So most likely you will fall into this category. And most likely you will want a basic site of just pics and static content.
Maybe you will want a nice designed homepage and a basic subpage that is templated and can be used on all subpages, maybe with a header picture changed out or something.
So lets start to break the basic website down into cost.
Lets say you offer somebody, even a designer and 1 developer to do a site for 500 bucks.
A designer will spend probably 3 days coming up with a design, then another 2 or 3 days to build out all the subpages and make your changes.
So right there a designer has worked 40 hours.
Then lets say that designer or another developer now builds your site.
A basic site actually will take = or less time than the design as there is no backend and mainly just css etc. So that will probably take a developer 3 to 4 days total.
So now that person or 2 people, depending, has spent minimum of 65-70 hours on a basic 6 page, custom designed site.
So 65 hours divided by 500 bucks is 7 dollars an hour. This is minimum wage / in college wages. thats 1400 a month or a whopping salary of 17000 a year. And that's if you have steady work.
So 500 bucks can buy you a simple site if you find a college student that MIGHt be sorta good and probably will do a crappy job.
Now, Most average young freelance designers will charge 25-35 an hour. This is probably what you will be paying for something that is ok.
30ishx65hours = 1800-2000 bucks. So yes you can get an ok site designed and built out for 2k. This is probably your sweet spot. It will be simple, nice and does the job.
Now, if you want the best designer in the world to do a site for you and a very good developer to do the coding, their rate will be 75-100 bucks an hour.
usually you will pay 3-5k for design and 2-4k for development of a very basic 5 page static site if you want something nice. 5-9k total depending on how many pages, if you keep changing your mind and making them redo etc.
Now add backend functionality, shopping cart, CMS, etc and you pretty much will triple your budget.
So I guess the simple answer is... You pay for how much time it takes the person to build it. You pay more if you want better design and better chance of it coming out right.
Formula:
Hours (amount of work depending on how much of the project you need THEM to own, desired functionality and complexity) X Experience Cost (Skill Level and Reliability) = Cost
Yes the more stuff you want, animations you want x the quality you want it to be, will dictate your cost.
QUOTE:IamNotDead posted:
It all depends on the complexity of the site. It can cost $100 or it can cost $30,000.
$100: 1 page basic info site
$30,000: Database driven hundreds of pages website. Bank websites and portals.
This is way too low of ball park. this is more IN COLLEGE level and crappy design figures if you live in Arkansas.
Anyway, sorry for the long winded answer, but hopefull you start to see why its expensive (even though 2k might seem expensive for you, its barely above minimum wage for us)
You pay for what you get and you pay more if your site is complex.
