A website has become an integral part of the growth of any business. You can better understand it by knowing the fact: around 1.18 billion websites exist in the world. It is because every business needs a website for credibility, brand value, organic traffic, leads, and digital marketing.
You also know that not all websites become popular. Well, it is because they are developed differently or don’t focus on some factors. An impressive, robust, & customized website can be expensive. So, development cost matters a lot for a successful website.
But, do you think an expensive website can guarantee the success of the business? You know the answer. Then, how to economize the development to have an impeccable website within budget? Well, design plays a crucial role to determine the final cost.
This write-up will make you aware of crucial factors responsible for the website development cost. I have divided the development process into three phases.
Front-end Development
When someone visits a website, what does he find first, it's the design of the website. If it's not attractive, he leaves the website immediately. So, when you hire a website developer, make sure you tell him to build simple yet attractive designs. Around 42% of people leave the website due to poor functionality and non-attractive design.
When you hire a website development company, it shows a prototype of your website. It is just to show how your website will look. If you need some changes after seeing the prototype, you can inform about the same. The actual work starts on your website after deciding on features, functions, and technology.
Front-end developers deal with the designing part. The estimated cost of website designing is $15,000-$30,000. But the price can be low or high according to the complexity level of the features. Website redesign cost also lies somewhere between $10,000-$30,000.
Some front-end frameworks are used by the developers as per the need of designs. The most popular front-end frameworks are as follows.
- React
- Express
- Angular
- Vue
- Node
Back-end Development
Back-end developers are the core developers of your website. Without them, you only have a static HTML site. These developers are in demand because they work on programming language, data structure, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, APIs, and problem-solving. This part of the development requires precision, experience, knowledge of different back-end frameworks and tools.
That is why the cost of back-end development is higher than front-end development. Well, the cost depends on several factors, but I can tell an estimated back-end development cost. It lies somewhere $20,000-$55,000. The hourly rate of back-end developers is around $100-$350 in the USA.
You can see in the picture above hourly-based, different development costs. The most expensive region in the USA, Canada, and Western Europe. The low development price is charged by India, Indonesia, Eastern Europe, and Ukraine.
Deployment
The website deployment process also includes some crucial steps and contributes to the final cost of a website. Well, it seems easy, but it is a complicated process, and that is why most development companies consider it in the development cost. Whoever is going to deploy the website needs to set up a DNS record, a live testing site, email accounts, back up, and go live.
If the website already exists, you will not have to worry about the DNS record and the process can complete in a short time. So, from planning, development, testing, to deployment the developers have to be careful with every step.
It was a concise detail about all three phases of development. Now, the below write-up will let you know about the factors affecting the website design cost comprehensively.
Factors Affecting the Website Design Cost
When a website is designed, many things are considered. It is because not all people have the same business and want the same features. So the developers have to understand their requirements and pick the technologies as per the need. They also have to follow the trends to make the website more interactive and responsive.
Whether it is website design or website redesign cost, here are some of the crucial factors that affect the cost. Read about each one below.
- Customization:
What is your business objective? You must know about it perfectly because then you can know what features and functions you want on the website. Consequently, different features and functions are built by the developers that meet your business objectives. Customized website development is preferred by most businesses because of variations in their services.
- Responsive Design:
You must have noticed, some websites look different on desktop and mobile, or any gadgets. But a good website should adapt to the environment in which it opened. It means the design of the website should look proper regardless of the platform and function impeccably.
- Search Engine Optimization:
SEO-friendly websites increase the chances of organic traffic and attract the target audience. If you want an SEO-friendly website, the cost can increase because the developers have to implement SEO tactics to make the design impressive. Around 75% SEO charge to maintain SEO in your website adds up to your cost. Well, an SEO-friendly website is vital to survive in the tough competition because around 53.3% of organic traffic comes from organic search.
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Content Management System:
Without a content management system, you can’t have control over your website. It is because you have to change, update, and delete images, texts, and other things on the website as per need time to time. It is possible when your website has a content management system. The cost of content management depends on the number of features the website has. A small business has to pay around $10 every month for CMS.
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Designing Time:
‘How much does it take to complete my website?’ It's a general question of most clients. But the more the complexity level, the more time will require to complete the website. It is because the developers have to put extra effort and need more time to build logic. Sometimes, the extended design time increases the cost of the website. I have divided the websites as per designing time. Have a look.
- Drag & Drop Type Design- 5-10 hours
- Theme Customization- 1-2 days
- Customized Development- 15-30 days
- Enterprise development- 1-3 months
- Technologies:
Basically, HTML and CSS are used for front-end development. Developers use HTML to structure the web pages and organize the content. Likewise, CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) is used to make designs attractive with impressive color choice, layout, font style, and size. Besides, these two languages, many front-end frameworks like AngularJS, VueJS, React, EmberJS, iQuery, and others have become necessary for website designing.
Front-end developers can build unique and powerful interfaces with the help of frameworks. Moreover, they have to write less code for attractive and feature-rich designs. Responsive designs are possible due to the frameworks. You can know the benefits, limitations, comparisons between popular frameworks Angular.JS vs React.JS vs Vue.JS vs Node JS. It will help you understand that which framework is the best for your website design.
Attractive web designs make your website engaging. And powerful user interface makes your website feature-rich. Since website design plays a crucial role to increase traffic, you should not ignore its importance. Be clear about what you want in the website, how it will work, and what are the features because then you can decide on the right cost.
"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." -- Steve Jobs