How much does a Website cost?

[Divya R]

Hi All,

I am in the process of getting my website up and running and I already have a professional WordPress template, even though it is not a complicated site, I am finding hard to edit it myself.

I want someone who can set it all up for me so I don't have to go through the trouble.

I am just wanting to know how much would it cost approximately?

[AgentMail]

It really is how long is a piece of string question. Depends on number of pages, forms, databases, and on and on, there are so many variables.

It also depends what the purpose of the website is, how you need it to look, what design elements are involved etc.

I wouldn't budget anything less than $1000 for a simple site, and upwards from there if you need additional forms, design elements etc.

If that isn't in your budget, contact your local uni/college and find a student looking to build their portfolio - but don't expect the same results as with a professional web designer

[OneArmedGraphics]

I'd say this could be done in an hour if you have a decent host with cPanel & install scripts.
I'd charge $50 to $100 if it is a straight forward install + content setup.
This does not involve template tweaks to suit your branding etc.

[OneArmedGraphics]

Originally Posted by Newcastle Business Cards

I completely agree, the price can vary depending on what you are hoping to achieve from the website. If you look around, you should be able to get a reasonable website design and development from anywhere between $1000 to $1800.

They already said they have a professional template.

Horses. Courses.

[SavvySME]

Depends on the template though, you have ones like thesis which is much harder to set up and requires a lot more custom coding if you want to change the look and feel - or you have more straight forward ones.

I would advice to hire someone on an hourly rate to ensure both parties are happy with the exchange. Have them give them an estimate of the time to be spent though. Usually you can find web developers for $50 an hour and upwards.

Thanks for reading,

Wendy

[MJS_Virtual]

Hi D

It really depends a lot on which theme you have chosen (all WordPress themes are not created equal..), how much customisation you require to that theme (changes to colour schemes/fonts etc to match your branding), how much content you have to be set up and how many plugins and widgets you would like to add (things like contact forms, social media integration etc)

I would be happy to quote you if you like - flick me an email to melissa@mjsvirtual.com.au

Good luck with it!

[JohnSheppard]

You are asking the question wrong.

What it costs is directly related to what you want to achieve...other variables alter the cost in a way that doesn't matter to you...

What do you want to achieve?

[thewpguy]

I would have to agree with the majority here.

A common misconception is 'I'll buy a nice looking theme install WordPress and I'm done'.

To customise most themes you need to work on the front and via admin area and also the back-end via ftp and css editing software. These are skills not learnt overnight.

The cost will really depend on your ability to communicate what you want accurately the first time. Costs will blow out quickly if you keep needing to revise your vision changes are made.

I think these days $1000 is a starting point for reworking an existing WordPress site design.

[SmartBizBlog]

I might just add. If you are getting a developer to modify a theme - make sure he uses a child-theme to make his mods. This way, you can install updates from the main theme without overriding all the changes.

Updates are important because they often fix security holes and bugs. Many developers seem to overlook this.

If you've already bought a theme - I hope it's child-theme friendly. What this means is: if you open the functions.php file - you should see something like this:

PHP Code:

if (! function_exists('somethinghere')) {
  function somethinghere() { 
  }
} 


If you don't see the !function_exists part, then your theme is more than likely not able to have a child-theme developed for it. Which means you will need to have your developer make the theme child-ready, and for future updates the developer will have to plan and schedule it carefully as to not break anything (all future updates would require the developer to make the theme child friendly again - painful).

You can find affordable drones to customise wordpress for about $5/hr on oDesk or Elance. I would then employ a more expensive developer to polish the work done by said drones.

IMO, you can get it done for about $250 easily.

[Jefrey]

I do wordpress customization myself. I charge depending how complicated the modification is needed.

It would be much easier to create your design instead of modifying a theme or use a framework.