Going rates for a good web design?

Pitbull

Pitbull

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Hi guys,

I'm in need of a website to be used for business. The site will have to be created from scratch and will require some specifics like dealer pages where they can upload their products as well as edit/change the products from their own page. Also every product will have it's own page if clicked for details and so on.

This will also include some graphic design as there is also no logo or anything as yet...

I have a feeling this is going to break the bank. Or am I over reacting a bit?
 
Some people quote between 2k to 6k -8k depending on what you are adding to your website. That amount is only applicable to starting the web page and finishing it. There after your updates and such can be from 100rand anything upwards, and maintenance costs, etc.
 
Nokkie said:
Some people quote between 2k to 6k -8k depending on what you are adding to your website. That amount is only applicable to starting the web page and finishing it. There after your updates and such can be from 100rand anything upwards, and maintenance costs, etc.
Click to expand...

Oi...

That aint bad. I was looking at a couple of grand more like 10 grand+
Not that bad now, I'm actually pretty chuffed. Thanx Nokkie.
 
Pitbull said:
Hi guys,

I'm in need of a website to be used for business. The site will have to be created from scratch and will require some specifics like dealer pages where they can upload their products as well as edit/change the products from their own page. Also every product will have it's own page if clicked for details and so on.

This will also include some graphic design as there is also no logo or anything as yet...

I have a feeling this is going to break the bank. Or am I over reacting a bit?
Click to expand...

do you mean "good"
http://www.standardbank.co.za/portal/site/standardbank

or "good"
http://thefwa.com/
 
Pitbull said:
Professional, clean and good (it's for a business afterall).
Like the Standardbank one.

Actually,
Looking at that thefwa site, that is pretty damn awesome :o
Click to expand...

Hey Pitbull,

Taking a look at thefwa, be careful since that site seems to use a lot of flash and with apple iPad/iPhone not supporting flash you might cut a lot of people out. You can do almost everything on that site using javascript so you can make it look just as cool but more cross platform compliant.
 
Pitbull said:
Hi guys,

I'm in need of a website to be used for business. The site will have to be created from scratch and will require some specifics like dealer pages where they can upload their products as well as edit/change the products from their own page. Also every product will have it's own page if clicked for details and so on.

This will also include some graphic design as there is also no logo or anything as yet...

I have a feeling this is going to break the bank. Or am I over reacting a bit?
Click to expand...

Web designing is the easy part. it's the development side that can get pricey, there are lots of designers that charge roughly R130 per hour.
But where they make their money is in the developing of the site.

Most people ask "hey can you quickly design me a 6 page site for R600" the reply they normally get is, "okay, but your son will be able to do the same for that kinda money."

When creating sites, a lot of things should be taken in consideration. For example. If the coder is messy with his HTML, then Google's bots wont like the page or the site.
Optimizing your site so it loads super fast is and can be tricky. It's not enough making the site look pretty when it takes 10 mins to load.

One thing clients always forget is, the maintenance cost that is involved every month or once a year.
 
Hey Pitbull, you're welcome to inbox me with some more details and preferably an example of a similar page. I'll then draft an estimate for you...!

Regards,
hilrap
 
I'm with boswald on this one. Personally I'd prefer using a functional and easy to use website over one that's just all pretty and 'flashy'. Rather go for something that looks professional and more importantly, is simple to use.
 
"How much do do you want to build my house?" - This question when asked to a builder would be quite ridiculous.

A website can range, depending on functionality, design, etc.

The only way to get a quote on a website is to explain something like this:

I want x,y and z. When you click y, this must show. The website must be modern, slick and I need it to have the following: a,b,c,d

Majority of people who can give you a price off the top of their head will be guessing and taking you for a ride, or undercharging because they don't know what they are doing.

A good company will take your brief, draw up a estimate based on how many hours the project would take.

Example: x hours @ Ry.yy p/h = z

Thats a rough guide :)
 
hilrap said:
Hey Pitbull, you're welcome to inbox me with some more details and preferably an example of a similar page. I'll then draft an estimate for you...!

Regards,
hilrap
Click to expand...

I will PM you in a minute. Thanx

chriscapetown said:
"How much do do you want to build my house?" - This question when asked to a builder would be quite ridiculous.

A website can range, depending on functionality, design, etc.

The only way to get a quote on a website is to explain something like this:

I want x,y and z. When you click y, this must show. The website must be modern, slick and I need it to have the following: a,b,c,d

Majority of people who can give you a price off the top of their head will be guessing and taking you for a ride, or undercharging because they don't know what they are doing.

A good company will take your brief, draw up a estimate based on how many hours the project would take.

Example: x hours @ Ry.yy p/h = z

Thats a rough guide :)
Click to expand...

I pretty much gave the requirements I could for the time being. I know it's not that clear but you get the idea. I was looking at a rough estimate and I fully understand what you are saying.
 
murraybiscuit said:
or "good"
http://thefwa.com/
Click to expand...

Crap. Junk. K@k design.

While the site was still loading I moved my mouse over the menu. The menu expanded and then my mouse was nowhere near the menu I wanted. So I closed the site.

I do not give a toss how flashy it is, simple usability flaws like this makes a site crap from the start.

@OP: If you want to get an idea of prices - post your project on a site like http://www.freelancer.com/ and see what quotes you get.
 
Thanx for all the PM's guys. I knew this would be the right place to ask.

Much appreciated.
 
Hey Pitbull got your message but dont seem to be able to reply. cant find anything in my outbox. Could you PM me an emailaddress?

Thanx,
hilrap
 
chriscapetown said:
"How much do do you want to build my house?" - This question when asked to a builder would be quite ridiculous.

A website can range, depending on functionality, design, etc.

The only way to get a quote on a website is to explain something like this:

I want x,y and z. When you click y, this must show. The website must be modern, slick and I need it to have the following: a,b,c,d

Majority of people who can give you a price off the top of their head will be guessing and taking you for a ride, or undercharging because they don't know what they are doing.

A good company will take your brief, draw up a estimate based on how many hours the project would take.

Example: x hours @ Ry.yy p/h = z

Thats a rough guide :)
Click to expand...

I fully agree with this. You get what you pay for. Look at the experience of the the developer, and ask for a portfolio of other sites that they have developed. That should gie you a good indeicaion fo the quality of their work. Also watch out for Flash based websites. Generally they look nice, but that is where your benefits end.
 
I must point out that a lot of local designers download free templates online and try and sell you it as their own.

Best example I cant think of is http://www.capetownalive.co.za/ and http://www.uctradio.co.za/ Looking at both sites its clear they the same design. If you check the css files you will see they they where made by a free template site called Rocket themes. Take a look at the bottom of both sites you will see they are "designed" by 2 different companies. These companies could charge between like R4000 - R10 000 for templates they downloaded for free.

Just be careful when searching for designer. I personally design all my sites from scratch. This allows for me to be more creative and build the site around the brand instead of build the brand around a free template.
 
@bradrap Flash is not good for sites that need to be updated often. Flash is very tricky to edit where a html file you can open with notepad and edit. Also flash requires the user have flash enabled in their browsers. Some people don't have it enabled which means your viewers will not see your site. One thing I hate is having to wait for flash pages to load. Sometimes they take ages so users end up not waiting for the entire thing to load. Again this means that your information does not get to the viewer. The whole point of a web site is so the users can get the information they need. Anything that puts this at risk is not worthwhile using. Some standard html and jquery can look just as good if not better then flash without the risks of having people not being able to view your site. Last thing is SEO flash can not be found by search engines. Its the same as images. Google can't see what's on the picture therefore it can't correctly index the picture.

For more information you can google why not to use flash on your website. http://www.pat-burt.com/adobe-flash/6-reasons-not-to-use-flash-on-your-website/
 
I had a feeling someone would say exactly what you just said EthanEllis, which I know to be the biggest load of bs :) Sure flash requires a flash player but any decent web user has it. Flash can be extremely easy to adjust through use of XML so I don't buy that, and as for SEO, flash has only been indexed for the better part of 2.5 years now. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/google-learns-to-crawl-flash.html

Telling someone that flash sites are bad is a lie. Different strokes for different folks, just don't spread rubbish around on the interwebs please.
 
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