How much does it cost to create your professional website?

It's hard to find your way through this jungle of prices... This complete article guides you to find out how much a professional website really costs.
how much does a professional website cost
Table of contents

Whether you are a company, an association or even a freelancer, you must have a website on which you present your activity. However, today, with the profusion of offers, freelancers and web agencies that are present on the web, it is sometimes difficult to find your way around. But how much does a website cost? Between a website editor who offers to create one for free, in a few clicks, and a web agency that charges the equivalent of 10 to 100 k €, you have to know what is taken into account to establish a detailed estimate.

If you are a company looking for a provider for a service provider to create your professional website, you must have you will have realised that prices can vary from simple to double, and even triple double or even triple in some cases. Every day, nearly 2 websites are created per second, that is to say nearly 172,800 per day on average, for a 172,800 per day on average, for a total of 1.72 billion worldwide (Source: Internetlivestats). Focus on the jungle of providers and different prices.

A different cost depending on the type of website

Depending on your objectives and your initial idea, the costs are not necessarily the same everywhere. Online shop, simple one-page site or a portal site, here's how to make sense of it!

Prices for a showcase website

Generally, it is very popular with small and medium and medium-sized companies. It allows you to promote your brand, establish an effective marketing line of products and services and make useful information useful information for your customers, but above all very easily accessible. accessible.

Ideally, a showcase site should have less than 20 pages, as it should be as concrete as possible. The customer should not get lost in your pages. Of course, your main objective is to is to convince potential customers to contact you or to take an action, in order to generate a lead or action, in order to generate a lead or additional turnover.

Creating a turnkey website is the ideal solution to be visible on search engines without being a coding genius. a coding genius. If your knowledge is limited or you don't want it to be too sophisticated sophisticated, there are a number of website creation software packages available on the are available on the market such as Strikingly, Wix or the famous CMS WordPress.

For a correct estimate, count on: between 100 € and 10 000 € for a showcase site, depending on the project.

E-commerce website rates

When it comes to creating an site, the price goes up quite quickly. Whether it is a small platform offering only a few products or services, or conversely, a giant the opposite, a giant of online commerce, you should know that there is something for every prices. Generally, it is more economically interesting to follow solutions such as solutions such as Wordpress, WooCommerce, Prestashop or Shopify, than to a totally personalised and 100% customised site. In fact, these solutions These solutions are perfectly suited to the standards of e-commerce and are specifically designed for this reason.

On the other hand, if your project is larger project, it may be advisable to turn to customised services, such as services, such as :

  • The integration of a shipping, accounting and procurement management tool,
  • The addition of a large number of products, possibly with wholesale or retail prices,
  • And even a range of customisable products...

Let's say that a budget between 5 000 and €50,000 is more than enough. Beyond that, your project is very ambitious.

how much does a website cost
The price of e-commerce sites has fallen sharply, but they are still much more expensive than a shop window site

Price of a portal site

Particularly used by medium and large companies and large companies, the portal site offers a much wider range of functionalities than than a classic site. In short, it is simply a structure to which content pages and/or specific functionalities have been added. and/or specific functionalities have been added.

Clearly, this type of site requires a greater investment of time and cost than the previous examples. It is conceivable to add :

  • a dedicated member area,
  • a platform for downloadable content platform,
  • multi-language access,
  • a form integration,
  • optimised sales tunnels...

You always have the possibility to use solutions like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal, but it is obvious that the result will not be as good as with a result will not be as good as with a custom-made website.

Usually, this type of site is charged between €10,000 and €100,000 depending on the scope of the work and the type of provider.

Who to call for the creation of a professional website?

It is clear that the needs of a freelancer and an SME that wants to launch a new project are not the same. project are not the same. This is why the choice of service providers will not be will not be the same either.

Depending on your budget and the level of quality required, there are 3 options available to you:

  • Do it yourself
  • Using a team of freelance
  • Hiring a digital agency

In concrete terms, the way it works is simple: whether it is the freelancers or the web agencies, they both charge their services according to the time needed to complete the task. They only apply an Average Daily Rate (ADR). From this point on, it is that an agency will be more expensive, as it is usually more comprehensive and comprehensive and qualitative than a freelancer.

If you receive a quote of less than or 200/day (for a beginner freelancer) and up to day (for an expert agency), you should not work with these service providers. It is obvious that the price-quality ratio is too low and does not correspond to what and does not correspond to what is required.

Do it all yourself

If your project is not too big, it is probably you are your own webmaster. You will save a pretty penny, but you should be aware that it requires a very substantial investment of time.

On the other hand, you will have to deepen your knowledge knowledge in several areas such as web design, computer development (CSS, JavaScript, HTML...), writing and (CSS, JavaScript, HTML...), writing and content management, and even web marketing. It is all these skills that make the bill go up when you the bill when you call in a professional. However, you should know that that with just a few euros per month and some patience, you can create your own website from create your own website from scratch with turnkey solutions. solutions.

Using a freelancer

Alternatively, if you don't feel able to do it on your own, but but still have a limited budget, there is an interesting alternative: freelancing. alternative: freelancing. As a freelancer, they generally has many of the skills needed to create a website. a website. You will also benefit from a privileged exchange with the professional and will also be more attentive to your needs.

Usually specialised in only one technical aspect, such as technical aspect, such as graphic designer, developer, SEO consultant, web sometimes they can be multi-taskers (so be careful not to fall into the trap the trap of some dream sellers...). As a result, you will have to work with several professionals, which makes the work complicated if you are not you are not organised enough.

More expensive than on your own, but more economical than a web agency: it's up to you!

Hiring a digital agency

For "large-scale work", there is only one reasonable option if you don't want to lose your head: a web agency. Indeed, the latter, being expert in several technical fields, is much more qualified to manage a large project than a freelance team.

The support is better and communication is communication is also simplified. A project manager will be responsible for plan and implement all the resources needed for your project. project. The employees are also used to working together, which is not the case with freelancers. freelancers are not used to working together... Moreover, the production of your website can be faster. On the other hand, you will have to spend a larger budget budget...

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What influences the price of a website?

In addition to the various service providers involved in the creation of a website, there are in the creation of a website, it is important to know that there are other that there are other areas that vary the price of one service compared to another. other. Here are some examples of these.

Web hosting

In order to function, your website must have a domain name and hosting. This is clearly not clearly not the biggest expense, but it is always useful to have an idea of an idea of what it costs in the long run. For example, a domain name can cost between €5 and €50 per year depending on the extension chosen.

Next, you need to choose a hosting option option to have a dedicated server and storage space so that it can be so that it can be continuously operational. We will mention only two two: OVH and O2Switch are good hosts. Depending on the size of the website, you should know that that it will cost you between 5 and 500 € per month to use such a solution.

SEO and content creation content

Too often forgotten, content writing and its referencing on search engines such as Google are an integral part of integral part of creating a website. Whether it is for an online shop, with the shop, with the writing of product sheets or a simple showcase site with a blog, you will have a blog, you will have to write your pages.

Write the pages, yes, but they must also that they are all different so as not to create duplicate content... In which case, you risk being blacklisted by Google. This is not as easy as it sounds. as simple as it seems. You also need to position yourself on specific on specific keywords. SEO (search engine optimisation) is therefore essential. If you are not recognised by Google, you will not be referenced and therefore no visitors will arrive on your website...

There are many platforms and freelancers who can write for your website, for a fee that usually starts at starting at 1 cent/word, up to more than 10 cents/word for the best. the best of them.

Customisation

For the design of your site, you also have also have several choices: the use of a template or a 100% custom development or a 100% customised development of your image. If your requirements are quite restrictive, you should know that a freelance or a web agency can charge you the full price. On the other hand, if it is only a question of optimising a predefined theme theme, the cost will be lower.

Clearly, this is the most important item of expenditure. expense item. A very detailed customisation can literally make the bill go from a small the bill from a small €1,000 to several hundred thousand euros thousands of euros, just like the e-commerce giants such as Amazon, Cdiscount or Rakuten (compared to thousands of Rakuten (compared to thousands of hours of development of their own sites). their own sites).

If your budget is not stretchable, it is advisable not to not to focus too much on the customisation of the website, but rather on the content, as well as on traffic acquisition (marketing, advertising...). (marketing, advertising...). Of course, nothing prevents you from continuing to developing and personalising your graphic charter as your business grows! as your business grows!

Don't forget: your website must be responsive, i.e. adapted to mobiles, tablets and computers. computers.

Maintenance

Be aware that once your site is completely finished, in reality, it is not! As soon as it goes online, you will have to you will have to add new content, make updates, correct any bugs and develop bugs and develop new features to improve the user experience. the user experience. This is called maintenance.

Yes, it is not only necessary to work for its creation for its creation, but also for its "maintenance". This is the only way to maintain the effectiveness and visibility of the website. Contrary to what you might think, it is not Contrary to what you might think, you should not wait for the site to show bugs bugs online before taking action. The aim is to ensure that the site is working before any problems occur. of any problems. Sometimes it is simply an error during its creation, but it can also be caused by creation, but it can also be caused by Internet users who are malicious.

For this reason, when validating your provider(s), remember to ensure that they offer technical support and a range of and a range of after-sales maintenance solutions. The cost will certainly increase, but in the long run you will save a lot of money. in the long run. Also, be careful, as some providers have attractive introductory attractive introductory prices, but charge exorbitant surcharges for options options such as a maintenance service.

Marketing

Now that your site is created, it is time to time to attract visitors to it. Although your website is an important important, it is really just one facet of your digital digital strategy. Ideally, you should set aside some of your budget to promote your products and services on social networks, for example (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin...). These traffic channels channels are likely to reach potential customers and therefore generate sales.

It will also be necessary to integrate an e-mail marketing solution into your site with an e-mail marketing solution to complement your paid advertising campaigns campaigns (mainly Facebook Ads and Adwords). Although this may seem may seem insignificant when you create your site, it is not. a dedicated marketing budget from the start.

Bearded man behind a computer
Marketing is the determining factor in the success of a project

Pay attention to the future!

Finally, never forget that a site needs to be to be constantly optimised so that it can adapt to all the evolutions of the of the Internet over the years. This also applies to your evolution since you are bound to develop your activities and have new needs in a few months/years. You will inevitably face major work on your important work on your website to maintain optimal quality: change of hosting, addition of sometimes complex functionalities, change of templates... All this will probably be impossible to manage by yourself, so All this will probably be impossible to manage by yourself, so always keep a budget dedicated to your website.

One piece of advice: anticipate as much as possible the tasks, improvements and corrections to come. In any case, to know the cost of your future the cost of your future website, don't hesitate to ask for a free and detailed detailed estimate. Once you have several quotes from several service providers, compare them! providers, compare them!

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