The cost of creating a bespoke website design depends on the method chosen. Depending on whether you want to create the design yourself using a Website Builder or whether you use a freelance designer or an agency, the price will obviously not be the same.
It is always interesting to be able to compare the different offers before launching your tailor-made web design project. In this article, you will find an estimate of the cost of each of the options available to you as well as many tips to help you make your final decision.
The average cost of a bespoke website design – Summary
It’s simple, there are essentially three solutions to create a tailor-made website design: use a website builder, hire a freelance, use a web agency. Needless to say, the cost varies a lot depending on the option chosen. Before detailing each of them.
Option # 1 – Create your own website design using a Website Builder
Sites like WordPress, Wix, SquareSpace, Weebly, and Shopify have ushered us into a new era of website design, allowing anyone to build and manage their own site for less. Template Monster also offers a wide range of expert designed and developed website templates. The first choice is to define which of these sites you are going to use. Different sites appeal to different styles and industries; Shopify is exclusively for e-commerce, WordPress has a large community of third-party designers for more customization options, etc.
These sites target people with little or no design knowledge, so their use is based on ease of use, often with drag and drop functionality. Design inexperience shouldn’t deter you from using any of these sites, but if you need advanced design techniques, you should consider your personal investment in research and learning. The cost of models and add-ons vary widely. You have completely free basic models. One of the most common misconceptions is that these sites are all-inclusive, but in reality you often spend more to buy new components, themes, or add-ons. These sites often hide their best “design parts” behind a paid plan or simply charge more than standard components. Some sites like WordPress allow third party add-ons which can then charge you for whatever they want.
To calculate an accurate web design price, research the costs of the components, add-ons, templates, or themes you need. (This is where the description of necessary functions comes in handy.) Sometimes what you need is too expensive or not even available, so plan it so that you don’t have any nasty surprises. Note that, even if the possibilities of customization are extremely high with this type of site, we cannot speak here of a 100% tailor-made website.
Website builders are ideal for …
In general, this option works best for businesses that are just starting out or with fairly basic demands. Basic landing pages, online stores, portfolio – nothing on its own that cannot support a long-term business. While this is a good place to start for someone on an extremely tight budget, it is very common for a business to abandon this kind of site within the first couple of years.
Option # 2 – Hire a freelance web designer
The most common method for website design is hiring a freelancer / freelancer. This balances costs and the quality of the end product is often very good. It is also a happy medium between doing everything yourself and doing nothing yourself.
Hiring a freelancer is more of a collaboration than an outsourcing. You or a member of your team should act as a liaison and explain the vision for your business. Plus, you and your business need to know exactly what you want first, with realistic expectations and informed design decisions. If you leave all of the design decisions to your freelance writer, chances are it will turn out differently than you expected. But rest assured, a professional designer will create something that is both functional and beautiful. Depending on the type of feature you want, you might also need to find a developer. Developers take care of the technical aspects of building a site, while the designers manage what aspects you can see and interact with. Development is an additional cost that comes with hiring a freelance designer. The prices of a developer vary on average between 75 and 300 $ / hour.
Sometimes you can hire a designer who is also a developer to have a complete package. When it comes to pricing a freelance web designer, the costs vary depending on the workload and skill level of the designer. The more pages you need, the longer the work that needs to be done and therefore the higher the cost. If you need a lot of pages with the same structure and appearance, one way to keep that price down is to hire a designer to create page “templates” that you fill in yourself with content. For example, if you run an online store, you can hire a designer to create a unique product page template, which you can then use for each product. One thing to keep in mind is that, if you need heavier-than-normal ‘maintenance’ you may want to consider hiring an in-house designer. Freelancers work well for most sites, but a minority of sites will require constant updates.
Freelancers are ideal for …
Hiring a freelance web designer is the smarter choice for most businesses. A large majority of businesses have online needs that match the capabilities of freelancers; the only exceptions are companies with unique features or extremely complex needs. Hiring freelancers is also a smart move for companies that are large enough to have regular design work, but too small to hire an in-house designer. In many ways, the freelance writer takes him through a transitional stage before reaching more lofty goals.
Option # 3 – Entrust the creation of the design of your website to a web agency
Working with an agency is probably your best option for your website design (although the quality of different agencies varies). Hiring an agency to design your site provides full processing of your request, often at the expense of web design costs, sometimes as high as 6 figures. In addition to the talents that agencies have, the money you are going to spend is also used to have a whole team working for you instead of just one employee. That means you have individual specialists – a graphic designer, UX designer, content writer, SEO engineer, developer, etc. This format tends to produce more comprehensive results than an individual handling everything on their own. You will end up with a complete package. The other main advantage of agencies is that,
You can always monitor the progress of the work and give your opinion, but you won’t be disturbed by the daily work or the small technical issues that they may encounter. However, if you choose the wrong agency, these “advantages” can work against you. You need to make sure you choose the one that matches the style you are looking for. Remember that in some cases over labor can turn into a “too many cooks in the kitchen” scenario. And if you prefer a hands-on approach, being left out of the loop could be frustrating. If you want to work with a design agency, you must first describe your specific expectations to determine if the cost is justified. Most sites do not require ultra-intensive work, but if, for example, you need a custom content management system (CMS) to handle all your usability requirements, that’s a lot of work. The price will then necessarily be higher.
Web agencies are ideal for …
Agencies are the best option for businesses with complex needs on their site. Sites using complex technology or having a large number of pages necessarily require more attention from agencies. If your project meets more of normal web design requirements, a freelance designer or web design company should be able to cover it, at a lower cost.
The Digital Hub 