Web design is the broad term given to the creation and maintenance of websites. There are different areas of web design, such as user interface, user experience, web graphic, and search engine optimization design, which all focus on providing a positive or enjoyable experience for the visitor.
Web design focuses primarily on how a website looks and feels to the visitor, using best practice in user-friendliness and graphic design. Web development is carried out behind the scenes in the site’s backend, and typically involves developing software, building the site’s structure using code, and fixing bugs. To create a business website, most web designers would also be able to handle the web development aspects for you.
Web developers with reasonable experience usually charge about $75 per hour, but that can go up to around $180 per hour. This means you’ll likely end up paying between $5,000 and $10,000 for a developer to build a fully-functioning business website. Of course, these figures will vary depending on the developer’s skill level and the tasks required.
Web designers typically charge between $60 and $80 per hour, depending on their experience and the size of the website you need. With this estimation, you can expect to pay between $5,000 and $10,000 for a new business website. If that’s beyond your budget, then using a DIY website builder is an alternative to consider.
Website builders are online platforms that enable you to create websites without touching any code, or spending thousands on web designer fees. There are ecommerce website builders – such as Shopify – specifically for creating online stores, and ‘generic’ builders – such as Wix – for creating non-ecommerce stores. Prices for these platforms range from $6 to $299 per month.
Web design is important because it can affect your business performance. A poorly-designed website that’s hard to use will reflect badly on your brand, and could negatively impact your sales. Alternatively, a professionally-designed, user-friendly website should help to keep visitors on your site and increase sales. Considering over 2.14 billion people worldwide are expected to buy online in 2021, this is an opportunity you can’t afford to miss out on.
To find the best web design company for your business, you first need to think about what type of website you need, and what you want your new site to achieve. You also need to consider your budget. You should then search online for companies in your local area, and read customer testimonials or reviews to ensure your chosen agency has a proven track record.
You need to compare each company in areas such as cost, their previous clients, online review ratings, and the overall quality of their portfolios. You should then get a good idea of which company would best suit your goals.
Hiring a freelance web designer will usually cost between $75 and $200 per hour, depending on their experience. That means the overall cost of your website could range anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000+. This cost is broken down into separate fees including web domain and hosting (approx. $140 per year), design and programming ($5,000+), content (approx. $500+), and maintenance ($500+). Alternatively, website builders offer set monthly price plans, ranging from $6 to $299+ per month.
When building your site, most professional web designers will ensure your website is mobile responsive anyway. This means that responsive web design quotes will charge between $2,000 and $20,000+, depending on the project and the designer’s experience. The easiest way to get a clear price, though, is to get a web design quote today.
Responsive web design is very important because it improves the user’s experience by reformatting content to fit on a mobile screen. It’s also a search engine ranking factor, meaning search engines will rank mobile-responsive websites higher than non-responsive sites to give search engine users a better experience. With smartphone usage rising year-on-year, responsive design is something your business can’t afford to skip.
To build a website yourself using a website builder, you can expect to pay anywhere between $6 and $299+ per month, depending on your chosen platform. Some website builders, including Wix, provide free monthly plans, but these only enable you to create very basic sites that have adverts on each page. That’s why we’d recommend signing up for a paid plan if you want a professional-looking website.
The cost to build a website depends on the software you use. Website builders offer monthly subscriptions ranging from $6 to $299+ per month, depending on the type and size of website you’d like to build, which you’ll need to pay for as long as you have the website you’ve built. For instance, a large ecommerce store will cost more to build than a simple blog website.
Hiring a designer to create a small business website can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $6,000+, depending on the number of pages and functions you need. For example, you’ll need to pay more for things like ecommerce or blogging functionality. You can also use a website builder to create your small business site, with monthly price plans generally ranging from $6 to $50+ per month.