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Affordable Web Design

taking "cost-effective" to a whole new level

One of the interesting things about the web design business, is that pricing chaos never seems to go away. The same design spec will generate an incredibly broad price range from different design firms. This is especially true for smaller projects that often aren't spelled out in detail like big jobs with their RFPs.

Templates or no templates?

Usually at the lower end of the pricing spectrum you're often quoted a fixed price per page. Typically this means you're dealing with a firm that uses a content management database and web templates. We can provide this kind of approach so we know how it works. If you have a site with a lot of content that requires the same layout (products, for example), the template approach is ideal. The other nice thing about using a content management system is that it allows you to add and edit content yourself, at least on a limited basis.

There's nothing inherently wrong with a template. In fact, page layouts shouldn't vary much from section to section anyway. So why not a template?

A More Practical Approach

If your web project is like most and you're looking for the "cheapest" price from the most reputable web designer (we use the term cheap web design cautiously), probably the most affordable approach is the plain old, hand-coded HTML file hosted by a low-cost web host. We say hand-coded because this type of site works better and is easier to move around, if that becomes necessary. If you're talking about 10 or 15 pages (or fewer), and you don't want to get your hands dirty with management duties, this is the way to go.

There is no content management system involved, so you'll have to pay your designer for updates (hourly rate), so make sure he or she is likely to be around awhile. On the other hand, you won't get stuck with the monthly fees associated with such systems - usually in the $50-100 range. So if you're site is only going to require periodic additions, it probably makes sense to pay for an hour here or there. So you're talking about $100 a year for hosting and $60 a hour for changes.

So What Can You Expect to Pay?

That depends (not exactly what you wanted to hear, no doubt). Figure, for the sake of argument, most smallish jobs (10-15 pages) are going to start at around $1,000. This is for an original design. [If the project is less than 10 pages and the design required is quite simple, the price may be less than $1,000.] From there we add on. Anything with animation will cost more (most sites don't need this by the way). Sites that require a lot of different forms or those that require the display of many photographs will take more time to build, hence cost more.

If you want to be able to manage content yourself, expect to pay more up front and monthly. The technology requires a set up fee and, as was stated earlier, it will drive up your monthly fees. So the 10-15 page site with content management capability will start in the $1250 to $1500 range.

No Sacrificing Professionalism

At Just Imagine we don't charge you extra for on time performance or customer satisfaction. We merely have little or no overhead, so we can afford to do jobs for less than our competition. And our competition, by the way, isn't the high school student with time on his hands. We deliver the same quality as much larger firms (we know because we've run much larger firms) but without the aggravation and costs.

So drop us a line and we'll be glad to show you want we can do.

2000-2007 Just Imagine, Inc.