Why are there no prices on my website?

Particularly in a recession, everything seems to come down to money—and websites are no different. Also, people who have never commissioned a website before may be surprised at how expensive they can be—or the amount of work involved. 

Web design is an extremely broad term; each designer has his or her own range of skills and this dictates the gamut of jobs he or she is willing to take on. To help my potential clients work out if I’m the right person for their site I will briefly outline my ethos on prices and explain why there are no prices on my website.

If at any time you’d like to discuss your web project, call me on 07843 483 078 or get a free quote now.

First of all, I believe that every project is different and as such cannot use a ‘one size fits all’ approach. While I do use certain third party components when building certain sites, generally I only believe in offering bespoke websites, uniquely tailored to meet the project’s requirements. So to put prices on my website is nigh impossible. Well–meaning web designers have tried to include fixed prices on their site only to find out the hard way that no two projects are the same. The result is either the client pays too much or—more often than not—they end up obliged to include lots of extras the client assumed were included.

Secondly, I build websites on value, not price. I focus on producing the most appropriate website for the client rather than on making money. A £100 website that only generates £50 income to me is more expensive than a £50,000 that makes £1,000,000. Those are two very extreme examples but they do illustrate the difference between value and cost. For this reason, I usually decline to quote when the potential client is quoting against a number of other companies. I have been in these situations many times before and they almost always go to the ‘lowest bidder’, not the best person for the job. I don’t believe I am ‘cheap’ but with nearly ten years of experience in the industry under my belt I believe I have the knowledge and the skills to offer the great value.

Thirdly, I believe if you can commit to a price without even hearing your clients’ requirements then you must either be offering an inferior service—or you’re going to sting them with costly add–ons later in time. There are plenty of these companies about too. A cheap website will always come at the cost of something else; usually it means they’re using a template as opposed to something bespoke and you’ll end up with a site that looks the same as the other 1001 they’ve ‘designed’. Or they’ll use an open source product instead of programming it themselves. Because these aren’t bespoke and are developed by a third party, they lack the scalability and support most businesses need.

Finally, I don’t put prices on because I have different hourly rates for different jobs. For example, when an agency outsources work to me, I charge less than when I deal directly with the client because they are taking responsibility for managing the project and they need to add on a markup to reflect that.

I hope if you’re thinking of contacting me about a website this information has been useful and that it has helped you understand the kinds of websites I specialise in building. If you are after a ‘cheap’ website, while there are plenty of organisations that offer them, I wouldn’t recommend it. As with many things you get what you pay for and if it sounds too good to be true, it often is.

To conclude I will at least leave you one price; because of all the work involved in any site, regardless of size, I do have a minimum cost. Anything under this and it is not viable for me to take the project on. This applies even for very small projects as I need to factor in phone calls, meetings, emails, et cetera too.

With the exception of agencies—to whom I work on an hourly rate—a basic design and build of a website starts at £1250. The actual price I quote you depends on exactly what you want on top of that, whether it be SEO, eCommerce, a website you can update yourself or an all–singing all–dancing Flash website.

To discuss your project call me on 07843 483 078 or get a free quote now.