We don’t do anything at Hypestar
Let me start by saying, especially for those reading who haven’t yet had the opportunity to work with us here, we don’t do anything at Hypestar. This is a kind of in-joke we have with our community. I’m often asked if we can do this, that and the other and the answer is no…well technically, it’s yes we can – but we don’t.
Your social media training partner
When I created Hypestar as the digital skills training agency, I was keen that we no longer offer the services that we would be teaching. This keeps us impartial, ethical and ensures that we only give the right advice without you needing to worry about being upsold to. So with that in mind, one of the more common questions I get when training, is this little nugget.
How much does a website cost?
So let’s assume that we all know the ‘piece of string’ analogy – I do get it and it’s often part of my own answer, but that’s not giving you the answer that you need, right? So, I set out to ask some folks who actually offer website design as a service.
But look, it is a tricky question. When researching for this article, some designers wouldn’t even answer the question – but it’s such a common query that we’re asked here at Hypestar I wanted to at least speak to a few web designers to try and answer this pickle of a question and arm you to start conversations if you’re wanting to have a website built for you.
The request went out…
Some of the conversations were conducted offline, in private messages, in person and on the phone. The responses I’ve included areas submitted, unedited.
In speaking to the designers, I asked two questions – that’s what I’ve used as the main focus for this article as I believe that they’ll give you the best starting position. I have asked permission from these folks to quote them in this article and we receive no compensation from them – this is not about promoting them specifically – but they were nice enough to spend time chatting with me, so I’ve included links to their websites as a thank you to them – click and check them out if you would like to learn more or chat to them further.
Question: How much do you charge for a website?
Despite my previous sympathy for the difficulty for a creative to answer this question, it is a question I expect them to be able and willing to answer to some degree. With caveats? Absolutely – but if someone won’t give you a guide price – this would make me nervous.
Hugely depends on the size and complexity. One page = £150, site refresh for a small brochure site = £250, small brochure site build £500, basic membership £1,500 basic eCommerce £2,500
Rosie Brent | rosiebrent.com
Awesome, Rosie gets right in there with a breakdown of what she’s offering and the associated costs, This is actually more thorough than I would have expected, but you can never have too much information! This arms you with an understanding of not only what the charge could be, but also a great opportunity to immediately elaborate on the range.
We only build high quality websites, nothing less. They are future-proof, flexible, built for speed and kept secure. Starting from £1,200+ you get a brochure site with basic functionality. From £2,400+ you get a small scale eCommerce site.
Clément Gonnet @ renoovodesign.ltd
Boom! A clear and concise answer and from the website background myself, it is great to see designers who are thinking about future-proofing (not all do). Clément lays out what his agency is able to deliver and a guide price levelled by the amount of time and effort in the design/build process.
Even this short explanation gives you a great understanding of what this designer is thinking about not only when quoting, but when building too.
£1200-£4500 is the usual price
Peter Martin @ profs.biz
Ok, so short and sweet. But all I asked was ‘how much?’ so I didn’t exactly invite “War and Peace”. I actually like the simplicity as – for me at least – it then invites the logical follow-up question “Oh, ok – so what do I get for the £1,200 and what does £4,500 get me?”.
The range is quite large, but so is the world of web design.
Summary of how much you could get charged for a website
This is not about comparing these responses, what you’re seeing is different agencies, different designers and therefore different websites. And that’s the point, right?
The takeaway is that you should absolutely shop around – ask for examples of the designers work – if you don’t like anything they’ve created they may not be the right creative to work with.
Speak with some of the folks they’ve built sites for before – what was the process like? What were the timescales? This will allow you to compare apples with apples and that’s a fairer judgement.
Now, I also wanted to take the question to the next logical level and see if there was something that these designers wanted to offer as a piece of advice to you that would help the would-be relationship.
If you could give one piece of advice (or request) that you would give to someone who wants to work with a web designer, what would that be?
I know from being on the design side of the fence that the relationship between the client and creative is the most important thing. Whenever that communication hasn’t been clear, I’ve had problems building websites – so I put that out to them and here’s what they had to say –
Make sure you have identified your target audience, the message you want to convey, and the ideal action you want them to take on your website.
Clément Gonnet
Yes! This is so important! Your designer isn’t going to know your brand as well as you do – having a clear thought process as to what you want and needs this site to achieve is going to save you both a significant amount of heartache, trust me.
“Oh, you decide”
This is like giving a portrait artist a commission to paint one of your kids, but they don’t get to meet your child or see a photo. It’s ok though, they’re an artist, they can decide what they should look like?
A designer will be able to make decisions, but will you like them? If you know what you want, at any level, tell them early on – you’ll be much happier with the result.
Make sure they have everything together, content, images etc. This makes things a lot smoother and they don’t incur cost for going over a deadline. Also, a good idea to familiarise themselves with the contract and deadlines so they are clear what is included and what isn’t.
Peter Martin
Yeah, know exactly what you’re buying! Like when entering any business relationship, what are the terms, what’s included, what isn’t? Who’s responsible for what bit – are they writing the copy for the site (spoiler: most don’t as standard)?
Depending on the ‘other’ services your designer provides, you may need to think about supplying your own images – whether stock or hiring a photographer – you should think about the licence implications of these too (let your photographer know what you’re going to do with the photos).
And a huge one: who owns this website? Don’t assume that you do – check if the intellectual property of this design transfers to you upon completion of the project.
Make sure you’re speaking the same language. Make sure what is being said is the same as what is being heard. Write down proposals, remember changing things = more work (scope creep) and examples help illustrate visual requests.
Rosie Brent
Absolutely! Document things – agree on them – make sure you both understand what has been said. Emailing three weeks later saying “wait, you expected me to do that?” isn’t going to help your stress levels.
A decent designer is going to take a brief – usually, some questions to assess the need and scope, it should involve some discussion and will normally take place before the formal quote.
I would be asking a designer for proof. This is a visual interpretation of what they understand the brief to end up looking like. Check it – is that what you thought too? Because that’s what they’re going to build – if it’s not right, you need to tell them before they start.
I know you understand what you think you heard me say, but what you don’t comprehend is what you heard is not what I meant
Rosie Brent’s Father
I’d again like to thank the folks to take the time to talk to me – I didn’t include all the responses, but I chose a few as they represented a nice cross-section.
Are you a designer?
Did I miss something? Leave a comment below and let me know!
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