What are the costs of creating a website by an agency?
Of course, a blanket answer to this question is not possible. Nevertheless, the costs for a website project with an agency can be estimated quite well in advance based on a few key points.
Essentially, the costs depend on the type of website you have in mind. As a rule, you only have to expect relatively low costs if you only need a blog. In terms of expense, a typical business internet presence is in the mid-range. This is followed by the e-commerce area and the members area. At the top of the cost scale is the web app. This gradation is primarily due to the complexity of the respective project and the associated expenditure of money, time and know-how. The more of these resources are available in the company or the more resources the company itself makes available, the less expensive it is to implement a website. The in-house performance principle applies here.
Because if you have the appropriate know-how in-house and can also assign it to such a project in terms of time, it is of course not necessary to commission an agency with the programming of your new website. However, you may need support with hosting, strategically correct online marketing or the integration of third-party systems. A good agency will provide you with exactly the support you need to achieve maximum success with your website.
Now you already have a rough idea of the cost of having an agency create a website. In the following, you can read about the individual factors that determine how much you will have to pay in the end, what ongoing costs you should expect, and other important facts on the subject.
Own web designer, freelancer or an internet agency?
Very few companies have a web designer in-house. As a rule, it is also not worth hiring such a specialist for a website project.
The first and most cost-effective alternative to an in-house web designer is to hire a freelancer. However, you often need more than just a designer to create the interface of the website. You also need a programmer to create important functionalities and an online marketing expert to make sure that your website really works for you successfully in the long run. In this context, it is important that you have experience in project management and/or have knowledge of usability, user experience, SEO, etc. yourself or have appropriate specialists on your team. Many freelancers program strictly according to customer specifications - but the strategy is contributed by you as the client. Always plan for a low four-digit amount for this.
If you value comprehensive consulting, then an agency is the better choice. There, web designers, programmers and online marketers work together on your web project. Here, your requirements are precisely recorded, you are shown what is possible and what is necessary, and in the end, the professionals coordinate the individual work steps exactly so that you arrive at a maximally useful result in the most efficient way.
And how much does a professional homepage cost when commissioned from an agency? The investment can certainly go into the five-figure range, and in the case of a web app, it can even go into the six-figure range. Read on to find out what the cost is in detail. But first, a few words on how to choose the right provider.
Factors affecting the costs
Now let's take a look at the factors that have an impact on the cost of creating a website. In special cases, it may well be that other costs are added. However, you should almost always consider the following points.
- Individual needs
First of all, it very much depends on what you need and how expensive your website will actually be. We have already given you a rough orientation at the beginning of this article: The classification ranges from blog to web app. In between, however, there is still a lot of room to maneuver or some must-have necessities for specific website goals, which can mean higher prices.
As a rule of thumb, the more complex a website needs to be, the more expensive it will be. To keep the expense as low as possible while still achieving the greatest possible success, think carefully about how to answer the following question:
- What benefits do I want the website to have for my company and for its users?
- What is really necessary to achieve these goals?
- Do you already have a corporate design?
Corporate design is very important for the recognition value of your company. Already so that your Internet presence is actually associated with your company, the recognition must be given.
In addition, a correspondingly uniform corporate appearance promotes the formation of a brand and the acceptance of the company among customers. This, in turn, leads to a significantly higher chance of buying again or identifying with your products, visions, values, etc.
If a corporate design is still to be created for the website, this is of course associated with additional costs.
- What security measures need to be taken?
Depending on the type of website, different security standards are important. As a general rule, commercial websites must have sufficient encryption.
HTTPS encryption with a corresponding SSL certificate is mandatory for this reason alone. This is because browsers warn visitors about websites that are not appropriately protected. This would naturally cast a bad light on your company.
In the case of an online store, the requirements go even a bit further. Secure payment methods and DSGVO-compliant data protection are particularly important to consider here.
- Installing the software
A CMS must first be installed on a web space before it is available. This is usually done largely automatically. No additional costs are incurred.
However, setting up the system or adapting it to your needs as end users does not happen without your intervention.
A good agency will also ensure optimal usability in the backend, which means at the base that particularly important functions must be made quickly accessible. Calculate the individual effort here.
- Where is the place for hosting?
Hosting providers are a dime a dozen. The prices are very different. The website can be hosted particularly cheaply if your own web servers are available. In the rarest cases, however, these prerequisites are given.
Servers of your web agency are the optimal alternative. Here you usually get exactly the services you really need and do not pay for various package features that are actually useless for you - as is often the case with external hosters.
- Is it necessary to integrate contact and communication options?
The fact that all available contact data should be available in a prominent place on the website has not been a question for a long time. Direct communication options are also increasingly expected by (potential) customers today.
If this is the case with your target group, you should have corresponding features such as live chat, chat bot, video chat, etc. integrated. The choice of communication channels depends on the preferences of your typical visitors. Or also on your claim to stand out from your competitors.
- What kind of multimedia content is part of the website?
One of the most important success factors for websites today is offering value-added content. On the one hand, it is necessary to create outstanding multimedia content with interaction potential.
On the other hand, it is also necessary to create the optimal environments or locations for this content. Both are associated with considerable costs.
- Should SEO be done at the same time?
(Potential) customers today usually first look for solutions on the web when they have a problem or a wish. Google is often the first port of call, so a new website should have the ideal prerequisites for good findability in the Google ranking right from the start.
SEO does involve additional costs, but it also has a high economic relevance.
- Is it necessary for third-party systems to be connected?
The connection of one's own website to other systems is often even absolutely sensible.
For example, support for inquiries via a chat integrated into the website can provide particularly targeted support if customer relationship management (CRM) is integrated. Or marketing automation can be connected to turn leads into customers without much effort, but with maximum benefit.
What are the ongoing costs to maintain the website?
In addition to the one-time costs for setting up the CMS, for web design, for integrating third-party applications, etc., a website pretty much always involves ongoing costs.
- Costs for the domain
The domain is basically the address of your website. Domains are usually the subject of a lease agreement.
- Costs for hosting
Rental costs are also incurred for the servers on which your website is hosted. These include the energy required to run them and regular maintenance.
- Online marketing
The full potential of a website can only be realized through online marketing.
This is a typical example: If you want to improve your website's ranking to convince more customers to use your website, you need to perform targeted search engine optimization (SEO). In fact, the probability that your website will be lost in the vastness of the web without appropriate optimization is very high. In general, online marketing is a continuous process. So there are always costs involved.
- Maintenance and support:
Your website must be kept technically up to date. Only then will it be functional and secure in the long term. To minimize the risk, use the support of a professional service provider.
- SSL certificates
An SSL certificate is often included with hosting. However, paid SSL certificates or TLS certificates make sense especially for sensitive data and processes. In addition to the typical and often free domain-validating certificates, there are also those that allow an organization to be identified.
Costs for web development of CMS, online stores & Co.
Content management systems (CMS) and online stores are available free of charge as open source. So you might think that the costs for web development of content management systems, online stores, web applications, apps & co. don't cost much money, right?
There are several tasks involved in setting up a content management system. It is up to you which tasks you take care of yourself and which you let third parties do:
- First, you need to install the content management system or online store on a web server. And it is precisely at this point that many already reach their technical limits. Many hosting providers offer these open source applications pre-installed on their servers. With just a few clicks, the content management system or online store can be up and running.
- The design of the application is not ready yet. So you have to create the templates for start pages, overview pages, category pages, detail pages etc. yourself. For this you usually also need technical know-how and experience with HTML, CSS, PHP, Java & Co.
- Do you want to customize your content management system or your online store? Then you need to be even more familiar with HTML, CSS, PHP, Java & Co.
And this is where web agencies come in. They are specialists in this field and offer the setup or web development of web applications as a service. And that comes with a cost.
What kind of costs are incurred?
Of course, it depends on your requirements what costs you will have. Are you interested in adapting or setting up an existing system from scratch? Do you want the implementation of your individual requirements for the system? All these factors can have a great influence on the type and amount of costs for the development of a website.
Developing a website with a digital agency
The most important steps in the process
Finally, we have summarized for you (in simplified form) how a typical website project proceeds. Knowing this process is important for estimating the scope of the project and the time and (wo)manpower involved.
We would be happy to support you in making your online presence competitive and future-oriented:
- How does your website's position compare to your strongest competitors? We will conduct a free TYPO3 Upgrade Check and define a success-oriented target together with you.
- In doing so, we advise you with our extensive know-how on the topics of user experience and user guidance on your website. This way we can help you to offer your customers an optimal experience.
- Our experienced web developers will be happy to implement your individual wishes for you - be it the development of extensions, responsive websites, apps or interface connections.
- A new website is needed? No problem. Together with you, we will find the right content management system for you and start from scratch.
- Our support team is always available to provide technical and editorial support and regular training.