How to Estimate
Website Cost
Business Matters
Website Cost
For a business person, costing a project is pretty logical: materials, labor and lead time. Building a Website should be costed essentially the same way. We cost our projects like business people do. It’s not fair for you to pay for something you’re not receiving, and it’s not good to work with a developer who’s resentful about guessing wrong. We stand by our pricing because it is carefully calculated – with a spreadsheet – for every project. We’ll discuss our costing candidly with you.
How Much does a website cost?
That’s practically the first question we get, almost every time we talk with a prospect. Companies don’t even want to discuss a Website without some idea of what it might cost. We understand. We agree. You should know.
However, we also don’t believe that estimate should be guess, or based on who you are, or how big your building is, or what you might be led to believe its worth. Do you? No, obviously. The following six the core components shape Clearian Website costing. We believe these components are common business sense. Don’t want to look all this over or the behind-the-scenes story? No problem. We’ll just give you a number and a lead time. However, please know the estimate was founded on facts and business prudence on our part.
1. software & hosting fees
Great news! We are a WordPress development house; WordPress is free! Our total outlay for additional software applications on most jobs runs in the low hundreds dollars or less. Special applications may be more – in rare cases.
We development sites – and recommend our clients remain – on WPEngine.com hosting. Monthly fees are typically about $35/mo. E-commerce may run a bit higher for security. We’ve worked with about two-dozen hosts, and do not require you be on WPEngine. Regardless, we do not bill you for, or ever mark up hosting fees. You will pay for hosting directly to your host. We’ll get you set up and good to go.
Visit our Website Hosting page for more information and a list of hosting and domain registrars we’ve worked with.
2. skill, Size & labor
As with any profession, craft or employee skill valuation, experience matters. Attitude’s pretty important too… With over two decades in Website development, Clearian’s experience in volume and range of Web projects – along with staying up with the current state-of-the-art – is a factor in costing. However, our business background in education and experience is our most important Web development asset.
Your Website’s business performance is our primary focus. We believe a Website should either increase your revenue or reduce cost of operations – or both. We believe you agree.
The size and scope of your project directly determines the amount of labor required. Smaller projects cost less, and larger projects cost more, obviously.
3. depth of quality
We want to be proud of the work we do for you. When we’re pleased with our work, our clients are pleased as well – almost without exception.
One scalable factor in Website quality is in design work. To lower cost, we can utilize a third-party WordPress graphic theme. However, we believe appearance matters and we can design a custom WordPress theme specific to who you are, what you do, and who your audience is.
Content creation, business research, SEO investment, image acquisition and copy writing – for clients who prefer not to provide it – will significantly influence Website quality – and therefore cost.
We’ll discuss your content and preferred quality-level before costing your project.
website cost adjustment factors
We cost Website on a straight “Task units measured in labor hours” basis. However, our costings can be modified according to the following three adjustment factors. Two of these factors are in your control. The third is subjectively assigned by Clearian according to human and business factors.
1. your Quality Standard
Depth of Website quality directly influences labor required, and therefor cost. A client’s preferred quality standard is a personal decision. Lower standards equate to lower costs. Higher standards equate to higher cost.
Conceptually speaking, the very same Web page for a topic might include:
A. Plain text.
B. Text and images.
C. Text, images, graphics, smart layout.
D. Text, images, graphics, smart layout, info-graphics, an embedded video, links to related content, and technical SEO.
Our depth of work effort increases with quality – as does cost. About 33% of the tasks we perform include the capacity for a variable quality level. Discounts apply.
2. Your preparation
Your Website is about your company, story, products, images and services, etc. You possess what we need to build your site. How we receive your content and information – and it’s degree of readiness to add to your site – is a huge and variable cost factor.
The degree of your content’s quality and readiness can reduce – or increase – your Website’s cost.
Our depth of work effort decreases with your better prepared content quality and readiness. About 28% of the tasks we perform include the capacity for a variable effort level in getting your content from you, edited and made ready for your site. Discounts apply.
3. ADDITIONAL DISCOUNTS
We provide global discounts. 100% of the total scope of tasks we perform are adjusted by the application of our discount standards. Our discount standards are entirely subjective and based on a variety of factors. human factors also weight heavily.
Standard Business Discounts and Compassionate Business Discounts:
A variety of business factors also apply to our discounting. We’ll apply discounts to those that give us a unique shot, companies that choose us over a lower bid based on our values and skill set, companies with tight cash flow, really good business people, and also companies in crisis, etc.
Website costing is variable by job. We strongly recommend you request an estimate that is specific to your site’s size, scope and your business circumstances.