How much should a website cost?

Website cost? You won’t like the answer … because there isn’t one!
A one-off website quote is nearly impossible. Here’s why:
1) Website design and development should be viewed as a service, not a product. Websites are not commodities like flour, oranges and grapefruit.
Websites are something that someone, often many people, have to put together. Viewing it as service-based will help you understand why a one-off price isn’t simple to give — building a website takes continued time and effort.
2) Building a website involves a complex level of planning. Detail is an integral part of web development — and this greatly affects pricing.
3) Quotes are far too subjective. Building a website can be accomplished in hundreds of different ways. Go out for a quote and I guarantee by asking just a few developers for a price, you’ll get responses all over the map. How can that be possible?
4) The definition of success for your website may vary from person to person. A designer may think a great website should look like a piece of art, a developer may prefer a site using the latest, greatest code, and a marketer will focus on SEO optimization.
The truth? The real success of your website comes down to your business goals and how you want your website to fulfill those goals.
5) The web development industry has very few standards. How one person or company goes about building a website may be completely different than another. For example, there are dozens of languages used to program a website, as well as many platforms and systems. This is made even more intricate when you factor in that each solution can be reached in 1000 different ways. This lack of uniformity certainly causes an issue when determining price.
There’s truly no good answer to the question, “How much should a website cost?”
After all these years I still can’t answer this question!
– By Marcia Coffey
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