When you are setting up your own business there are many important tasks for you to complete and one of the main questions that you will find yourself asking is how much does it cost to design, or redesign, your website?

No modern company can operate without a digital presence that includes a corporate website, social media offering and a number of different contact points that can be used online including email, social media messaging and instant messaging among others.

The start point for all of this should be creating your own website. As most start up companies have little in the way of disposable funds there can be a temptation to cut costs on a project like this. However, this can lead to issues that will persist long into the lifetime of your company.

When you begin to research the cost of having a professional design and create your website you will notice that it can be quite costly to hire someone to do this. There are many reasons for this.

As a website is one of the main, if not the main, selling points for a business it is natural that companies are willing to invest a considerable amount of money towards ensuring that they get this part of their start-up phase correct.

Options for Creating Your Website

Today, a website is one of the first considerations a business makes when planning their launch. In fact, many entrepreneurs narrow down their potential business names based on which domains are available and how the URL will look.

In the early days of the Internet a simple page that included contact details and product information was sufficient and, relatively, inexpensive to put in place.

However, nowadays there are requirements for engagement, online sales, mobile optimisation, video, SEO, social media integration and customer services solutions. All of these must be designed and coded correctly to ensure that there are no hiccups down the line that will result in business interruptions.

Mobile optimisation is particularly important as Google will demote websites that do not include it in the search engine results pages. Being found online for the services that you offer is pivotal to your chances of business success. While a website must look professional it must also be functional.

Designing the Website Yourself

Of course there is nothing to stop your company attempting to produce their own website using a platform such as WIX or WordPress.

Most of these services will guide you through this process in a step by step process where you select the style of website that you require and match it to a theme that you find suits your business.

This can be a very cost-effective way of getting up and running quickly.

However, things can become much trickier when you have to consider integrating marketing and CRM solutions, adding an eCommerce section and ensuring that you have all of the correct features in place to ensure that you are in compliance with legislation such as the European Union’ s General Data Protection Regulation.

Whatever cost you might save at the beginning of the project could end up multiplying down the line when it becomes clear that you need to have a professional designer review the website that you have created to ensure that it is delivering properly for your company.

Admittedly the cost for completing the project yourself would be very low. Platforms can charge around €500 for hosting and the purchase of a theme and there would be some annual subscriptions to be paid along with any additional apps that you think you need on your web portal.

Using a Freelancer

Recently there has been a trend towards project managing the creation of your website and hiring designers or coders to complete the task for you at a lower rate than a website design agency might do the same work for.

If you are considering this option be sure to do your research into the background of the freelancer that you hire. Make sure that they have completed the project that they’re taking credit for and ask for references.

There is a high degree of variance between the skills and talent available in the freelancing pool. You could very well get lucky and find someone who is excellent at producing the exact type of website that you’re seeking.

There are definitely savings to be made when it comes to hiring a freelancer, just be conscious that you will need to work closely with them and you could end up paying them more than you intended if the project grows and there are more hours needed to finish the work.

The cost of using a freelancer can come in anywhere between €2,000 to €6,000 for a basic website, or much more for an ecommerce website, depending on their level of experience.

Website Design Agencies

A step up from this is paying a website design agency to do the work. This is an attractive option if you have the funds available to do it. A corporate website can cost up to €10,000 to produce while an ecommerce can cost €50,000, or much more, depending on the complexity of the work involved.

You do pay for what you get and the process, with a good web design agency, will involve a range of collaboration meetings to deduce what you require, cost proposals and subsequent meetings throughout the design process to gather feedback and gauge the suitability of what has been produced so far.

In most cases design agencies will also offer a support package to complete updates to all elements of your website. This is extremely important when it comes to preventing cyberattack involving malware and ransomware.

An unpatched vulnerability dramatically increases the chances of a hacker taking over your web portal and charging you ridiculous amounts of money to hand back control of the site.

Conclusion: The Best Web Design Option for You

Every company will have a different amount of funding available to match a different set of requirements so there is no correct answer to this quickest. What you should be looking for, depending on the level of budget available to you, is to have a web presence created that is both aesthetically-pleasing, safe and 100% functional. A

fter this make sure that you are able to devote enough time to tending to your website on a regular basis to make sure that updates are being applied and nothing is working incorrectly.