Googling “web design price” returns so many price variations it would drive anyone — especially a newbie freelance web designer/developer — up the wall. It’s not funny. You’ll see prices like “$299 for a 4-6 page website,” $350 a homepage & $75/page,” etc.
This is cheap, but usually they’re also ugly because these websites use already-made, boilerplate templates, which, in the end, makes the website just like the 50,000 others already out there.
Designing and developing a website takes a lot of time and effort, especially if the person working on it has his/her reputation on the line. Being a believer of “you get what you pay for,” I believe this also applies to web design/development. You can either buy a Toyota Corolla (cheap and like everbody else’s car) or get a Ferrari (expensive but unique).
A passionate and good designer/developer would employ the following (at the least):
- Best practices
- Standards-compliance
- Use optimal CSS/XHTML structure and adaptation
- Compose professional-looking graphics
- Create a clean, unique, and striking feel of the website
- Be so detail-oriented as to having OCD (e.g. looks at pixel spacing)
I’m writing this blog not to preach or rant, but to share my experience and explain why I charge $1,500 and up to design/develop a website. I’ll say it again, it comes down to “you get what you pay for.” Heck, I put in a lot of time and effort, not to mention the time I’m losing from spending time with my family, to create that quality website.