How Much Does a Website Cost?

It's hard to find a good web designer and figure out the value of a website design and web development for your business. There are so many options, platforms, methods, and pricing that it's almost impossible to pinpoint how much a website costs for your business or what a reasonable investment is.

After 15 years of designing websites, we have developed a system to help you figure out how much your business should spend. We created a "Three Bears" approach, which fits with the size of your business and other factors such as competition in the market.  

Just imagine Goldilocks trying out each chair and bed until she found the one that was "just right." Like the story, Papa Bear is the biggest, Mama Bear is in the middle and Baby Bear is the smallest. We break it down for you here:

Papa Bear

Our highest cost starting point is called the "Papa Bear." It uses a total custom design process. This entails:

1. Wireframe design - This is basically a sketch of the website with no colors or graphics to show the layout
2. Graphic mockup - We take the approved wireframes and decorate them with brand colors, fonts, and images
3. Template creation - From here we code the mockup to a web design template for use
   on the website pages
4. Page replication - Templates are used for creating pages and tailored for content

This is much more expensive because of the work involved. Many businesses feel it's too big for their needs. Just like Goldilocks, it's just isn't quite right.

Baby Bear

Our lowest cost web design option uses website templates or a "template-based approach" to design. We start with a pre-made theme and brand it with your logo and colors. You save money by not having much custom design. Sometimes a business experiences the same thing that Goldilocks did: it is just too small and not the right fit.

Mama Bear

A middle-of-the-road approach is to use a hybrid of Baby Bear and Papa Bear. We start with a template-based website using a theme but add in another layer of custom design to help it feel more professionally designed. This is our most popular package.

A visual representation:

Additional Variables and Assets

As part of your website design project, you may need some other things to make sure you are successful. If you don't have these items in-house, we help you with additional fees.

• Branding and Messaging - Typically the most overlooked and important part of the content on your website.  This should represent the "WHY, HOW, and WHAT" benefits to your customers
• Copywriting - Rewriting your website copy can be a big benefit. Website visitors only skim content and it needs to be formatted for easy digestion
• Graphics and Images - Some existing can be used but it should be evaluated first
• SEO - Search Engine Optimization is critical for your website
• Features - There's an unlimited amount of features that you may require. Newsletter signup, forms, social media feeds, integrations, … etc.

As you can see, there are many variables that come into play when figuring out the cost to build a high-functioning website and choosing the right web developer. To learn more about pricing and how you can get your Softwired website design started, please visit our web design page >