3 April 2024 · 3 min read · Bartosz
How much does a website cost?
Based on the research report by Jarosław Kończak, “The image of women in advertising”, we can conclude that it is women who make the purchasing decisions.
Time to poke the hornets’ nest. Cards on the table. I am answering one of the most-typed questions in our industry according to Google Trends. HOW MUCH?!
🟠 It depends how much it matters to you. 🔵
The banal (yes, I know) pick-two of cheap, fast, good is the main character here, although the truth is a little more calculating. It is a fact that a capable full-stack developer (read: stunt performer, acrobat, the one you send on special assignments) can produce the web masterpiece of a lifetime in a dozen or so working hours. And charge a fortune for it. On the other hand, we can just as easily burn tens or hundreds of hours perfecting a client’s imperfect vision — and without a certain assertiveness and without educating our sponsor along the way, nobody ends up happy at the end of the adventure. And it never makes it into the portfolio. 😎
The heart of it is a good brief and real needs analysis. That is what fails most often, and it sets the rhythm of the whole project from the start. We now have standards for questioning the client from the very first contact. I am proud that as a company we recommend the smartest solutions within the client’s budget. Well, they do not always believe those solutions are the most budget-effective. Some of them come back to us after failing to get along with whoever came next and tried to follow the client’s dream instead. We put the brakes on when the prospect of the workload would bankrupt us, or — if the budget really is generous — we extend the timeframe to include thorough research and prototyping. In this industry clients are rarely aware of what an agency really spends on the creative process, the research and well-chosen moodboards. Generally — I get it, I sympathise. 😁
In the age of stock templates, Canva Pro and the tumour eating the creative industry that is AI (which I adore anyway), if a client wants it cheap and exactly their way, they are better off doing it themselves. And they will. And that is great. At worst they will come back later for proper optimisation and SEO. Also fine.
If, however, the client demands “pixel perfect”, something unique, a custom visualisation of their business baby — that will cost a fair bit. In working hours? Four figures will not do it; however you add it up, it will not come out in the black.
For those in a hurry — simple websites at infoBrand start at PLN 6,000 net and go up. ⬆️
More advanced ones plus e-commerce tend to run at three or four times that figure.
At that level my team’s skills are properly valued, and I am not stressed about counting every hour of consultation with a red marker (the one for losses). There is also no need to go for volume, and the design process for each client gets room to breathe. It is hard to combine good creative work with relentless time pressure.
🟠 Interested in working together? We will build you a remarkable website. Write WWW in the comments — we will get in touch! 🔵
