A well-built, high-performance custom website is not an expense, it’s not a cost, and it’s not an investment. It’s a profit center. You’ll make far more money from your website than we ever will.
Ah jeez. Not this stuff again.
If you ask five designers for estimates on the same project, you’ll get five prices that vary wildly. We know this can be disturbing. We’ve seen amazing websites built for less than $1,000, and crappy ones that cost over $1 million. You’d be tempted to think designers just make these prices up. Let’s see how this happens.
01. Scope
The degree of difficulty. The goals, size, and complexity of the project. How much horsepower is needed to solve the problem. A website for Lockheed Martin will cost more than one for Donna Does Nails. The bigger the scope, the bigger the check.
02. Experience
Experienced designers cost more. And experience rarely means programming skills. It means a broad understanding of the web and how people use it. Reducing complex systems into simple interfaces that work on dinky screens is a skill that improves with practice.
03. Value
The more positive impact the website has on your organization — and the more you profit by it — the more the work should cost. A well-built, high-performance custom website is not an expense, it’s not an investment. It’s a profit center. You’ll make far more money from your website than we ever will.
04. Availability
Supply and demand are always factors. How busy is the designer currently? How far out are they booked? How badly do they need the work? How much do they want this?
05. Coolness
Yes, being hip is a real factor. But coolness is in the eye of the designer. Some designers like building avant-garde art gallery sites, others prefer pawn shops and diners.
John Ruskin
There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that man’s lawful prey. It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little.
06. Bureaucracy
The size and structure of your organization have a direct impact on project management. Coordinating schedules and communication takes longer with twenty people than five. Committees and partners can suck the life out of projects — and usually do.
07. Timeline
We need it ASAP. Please don’t tell a designer that. It means nothing any more. Everybody wants it yesterday. Oddly, the single biggest obstacle to an on-time launch is the failure of the client to deliver content on schedule. Go figure.
08. Expenses
The digital design business doesn’t really have a “cost of goods sold” like a retail store does. However, we do need computers, servers, software, mobile devices, support, connections, subscriptions, and endless education. Not to mention doctors, lawyers, rent, food, insurance, beer, therapy, and salaries.
09. Compatibility
Let’s face it, you pretty much know within 10 minutes whether or not you’re going to work well with somebody. Designers are people too — They do their best work for clients they like. That doesn’t mean we cut our fees if you smile at us, but it doesn’t hurt either.
10. Asshole tax
Sorry, but this is a real thing. Sort of the inverse of the “Compatibility” variable. It’s a surcharge for being a rude or obnoxious client. We don’t charge this fee, because we don’t work with mean people.
Foot Note
Client resources
Any decent design solution takes your resources into account, and one considerable cost we haven’t touched on yet is website management. Who in your organization is going to be maintaining and updating your website on a daily basis? Unless otherwise agreed upon, we don’t manage websites, we just build them.
So we need to know how you work as a group:
- How many people will actively edit or maintain the website?
- How much time can they commit to it?
- What are their skill sets?
For example: If a client says, “We want a newsletter sign-up form,” our next question is, “Who’s going to write the newsletter and manage the email list?” If we don’t get a clear answer, or the designated person lacks the skill set, the newsletter will probably fail.
If we build a system that you can’t sustain, we’re not doing our job. We haven’t solved a problem; we’ve created one. Good designers don’t deliver systems that they know can’t be effectively managed.
