Over the years, we’ve had some potential clients tell us we’re expensive, and others ask if we inadvertently left off a zero on our quote because we’re so cheap. Eventually, towards the end of 2009, our curiosity got the better of us and we decided to investigate.
We anonymously emailed 100 web design companies and asked for a web design quote. Of course, websites vary in scope and spec, so in order to get consistent quotes, we requested the website be a standard 5 pager with no animation or fancy programming, and boy were we surprised at the range of responses and results.
Initial Result
Of the 58 web design companies that even bothered responding, the website prices ranged substantially. Specifically, a standard 5 page website was quoted between R 600.00 and R 28 200.00.
At this point, our curiosity was piqued even more. We wanted to know why there was such a wide range of web design prices, so we decided to investigate further. We looked through the online portfolios of every web design company that had quoted us and what we found was consistent with our suspicions. The work standard of these web designers differed considerably.
So in order to compare apples with apples, we then split the quotes up into 3 categories, those with good quality work, those with average quality work and those with bad quality work.
Our finding were as follows..
Good Web Designers…
The 8 web designers that offered good quality websites, charged an average price of R 7 268.13 for a 5 page website. Generally we found these prices were justified. They offered good quality web design with clean coding that would likely do ok in the SERPS (search engine result pages). There was one company that charged excessively high, but another that charged excessively low, so it balanced out in the end.
OK Web Designers…
The 22 web designers that offered ok quality websites, charged an average price of R 5 260.11 for a 5 page website. They offered ok web design (nothing exciting) that might do ok in the SERPS. Apart from one web design company that had to have been smoking crack to demand such a high price, we found the rest were either justified or quoting a little too low.
Bad Web Designers…
The 28 web designers that offered poor quality websites, charged an average price of R 3 330.40 for a 5 page website. Barring the one or two web designers that were practically giving away websites, generally, we found the quality of work in the bad category so poor, that we think these web designers should find new careers – because any amount of money they charge a client will be too much for what they offer.
Conclusion
So for clients, the moral of the story…
Most of the time, you get what you pay for, a lot of the time you waste your money, and occasionally you find a diamond in the rough. It’s important to be discerning, when you choose a web design company. Don’t look at price alone, go through web design company’s online portfolio / example work before making a decision.
Lastly, be wary of web design companies that will give you an excessively low price on web design in the event that you host with them. Often the hosting packages are so astronomical that in the long run, you have paid for the web design over and over again.
Article by Roxane Lapa of .COZA Web Design