The actual costs of setting up a website

With all the options available to you, WordPress, Joomla, HTML and free options such a Wix, how do you know which one to use? It’s a bit like facing a supermarket shelf and having to decide which cereal to buy.  Today we just have so much choice, it can be daunting and overwhelming.  And most importantly: the actual costs of setting up a website have to be considered.

The inevitable costs

There are a few non-negotiable costs, no matter what platform you choose to setup your website. Domain registration and annual renewal fee are fixed costs and vary according to which extension you are using.  For instance, a dot co.za domain will cost you R89 per year and a dotcom domain R189 per year. Register your domain with us here.

Then you need website hosting – this is the monthly/annual cost to have your site stored on a server (much like having your documents stored on your desktop computer). At Creative Imagineering we have our own server and offer a competitive price for hosting – we have a few different packages (view options here), starting from R99 per month.

Design and development costs

This is where things vary greatly across the various options. There is website building software out there that provides you with a free template for you to create a standard layout for your website. However, you won’t be able to fully customise it according to your specific requirements. In other words, you will be buying it ‘off the shelf’ and you are not able to reflect too much brand personality in terms of look and feel.  And of course, your functionality will be limited.

The price of a website depends on a host of variables. The best and most accurate way of getting a cost is to map our your idea, functionality and pages, before you even speak to a developer.  Draw up a sitemap so that your ideas are already mapped out.  This creates a clear picture for the developer and helps us foresee changes in client scope as the project unfolds. This can be discussed upfront before any development starts.

If we really had to talk costs, in our experience, a basic 3/4 page brochure site website may start at around R6500. This price will increase with an increase in pages, functionality, whether you want search engine optimisation included, copywriting, maps, forms…the list goes on. Good communication and understanding of what the project involves, no matter how small, is key to get accurate costing, with no nasty surprises.

At Creative Imagineering we will design your website from scratch to ensure it is pixel perfect. It has been our experience that businesses who try using these free services do not achieve their required goals, and will inevitably come to us for a professional site. So you see, design and development play a major role in the actual costs of setting up a website.

What’s under the hood?

And what about the engine or system behind your website? It’s a bit like buying a car – you can either buy a beat up old beatle or a Ferrari. Both will get you from A – B, but the Ferrari has a designer engine under the hood which sets it apart.  A website is a delicate combination of coding, design and time. Sure, you can set up your site on Wix, but can you move your logo to just the right spot, with just the right spacing around it? We can.

What about functionality? Once again, there are options for an online store, but can you adjust your rates for seasonal options? Will it integrate with your Airbnb calendar? Can it process payments in different currencies? The short answer is no, not without custom development. We can – and with our team of designers and developers, we are confident that we can offer you any functionality you can think of. The level of functionality built into your website dictates part of the actual costs of setting up a website.

Geeks that specialise

Creative Imagineering has a senior team of designers and developers that work together to ensure your site looks great and functions well. This is the key to a successful website. You wouldn’t want to buy that gorgeous looking Ferrari if it didn’t perform while you were driving it?  We generally use WordPress as the base ingredient for our sites. It is the most popular open source Content Management System (CMS), used by approximately 75 million websites worldwide. Because it is open source, developers can and are constantly making upgrades to the system and developing awesome plugins to power their interface.  This reduces development costs and deployment time. Less time developing, means fewer costs incurred.

The beauty of a WordPress site is that once it’s designed and built you can learn how to add content to the site yourself (content manageable), without any further assistance from us. You could simply use Creative Imagineering to host, update, backup and troubleshoot on your behalf. Should you not have the time nor the inclination, we are very happy to manage your site for you and offer effective monthly management costs.

Pennywise Pound foolish

You should also be aware that your WordPress site needs to be updated regularly and have a robust back-up system.  Read up on this here.

“I have seen many a designer quote peanuts for creative work. R200 a logo design. R500 for a website. We all sit and laugh at these guys because we know better. However a start-up company doesn’t necessarily understand what accompanies good design. The difference between paying an acceptable price and setting a barely established business up for failure. Great creative work is exactly that…”WORK”… Very seldom does everything just work exactly as it should.  Anything that is done half-assed will be seen as exactly that… half-assed.” Flow State

What should you do now?

Get in touch with our team and we will get your site up and running and make your brand visible.