Portfolio - New websites - explanation of charges
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What you can expect for your money
Understandably clients are keen to know exactly how good a website they can expect for their money. With this in mind we have developed the star rating system for design and development. Explaining the costs involved is difficult because we don't want you, the client, to feel that we are trying to baffle you with jargon - we'll try and keep it simple.
| Star Rating | Price Band |
 |
£300 - £500 |
 |
£500 - £1000 |
 |
£1000 - £2000 |
 |
£2000 - £5000 |
 |
£5000+ |
This table relates to the examples shown on our portfolio pages and includes hosting and domains where they were provided by TSF.
It doesn't include the cost of any supplemental services such as optimisation or promotion.
A further explanation of optimisation and promotional services can be found here.
Components of a web site
Firstly, we'll explain what makes up a web site and then break that down into broad price bands - as with everything in life; you get what you pay for.
Graphic Design
Simply put; this is what you look at online before any interaction with your web site, the shell if you like. It includes page layout and any images that may be used. The cost of graphic design can take up a sizable part of your budget. If you have logos, images or colour schemes already then this can reduce the design costs significantly. If we are not given any design cues then prices can rise.
Generally the cost of the graphic design ranges from about £100, for something that is very basic, to several hundreds of pounds. The average site normally has between £125 and £250 spent on graphic design plus any charges for stock photography that is being used.
Stock Photography
We hold a limited amount of stock photography. If you require images in a design; they may have to be purchased. Every image on the internet (or elsewhere) belongs to someone and permission must be sought to use such images, especially for commercial purposes. The price of a single image ranges from a few pounds to several hundreds of pounds so if you can provide your own then this can reduce overall design costs greatly.
Code
This is where the graphic design is taken and created into an interactive web site - the mechanics of the site. The cost of the code depends on the complexity of your web site. Generally speaking, the more complex the navigation system and graphic design, as well as the amount of pages required; the higher the cost will be. If you need web forms or other more advanced features the cost will rise. The cost of the coding starts at about £175 per site and can rise to many thousands.
Content
A website is nothing without content. If we provide content then copy writing and any accent photography that is required will need to be paid for. Photography charges would follow the same vein as the stock photography above and copy writing services are POA. We have a professional copy writer that can provide your text for you and we price this work dependant on the project. Dedicated professional photographic services may also be available if they are needed - again POA.
It is normal (and desirable) that text is provided by the customer, and if costs are to be kept to a minimum photos should be as well. If you provide text we can proof read it and adjust it for web use if you wish. We can also optimise titles and meta data to further improve your web site's performance. Prices for content optimisation on new web sites start at £20 per page. See our optimisation costs page for a further explanantion on this.
Web Hosting
We are more than happy to work with any web host, there are plenty about and some of them offer great deals. However, if a deal looks too good to be true it often is, so keep that in mind. Again - you get what you pay for.
You have three options when it comes to web hosting:
- Purchase and manage your web hosting yourself.
- We manage your preferred hosting account.
- We provide fully managed web hosting services.
Each option has its good and bad points and we'll outline them.
Option 1
With option 1 you pay the hosting company direct and manage the hosting service yourself. This includes providing us with all the necessary information we require to get your web site up and running. This is ideal if you have the IT skills available within your organisation and it works out the cheapest option.
Option 2
Option 2 is similar to option 1 but we charge you a management fee for set up and/or maintenance of your web server. This is a compromise in that you still pay the web host direct but you also pay us a management fee. A good option if you already have a suitable web host or have a particular preference for certain features.
Option 3
Option 3 is the option that may be the most expensive but it is also worry free for you. We deal with everything and you pay us to provide and maintain the hosting package for your web site.
If you wish to use options 1 or 2 then we are happy to advise you on what we consider to be reliable web hosts. Usually a shared hosting package will cost between £75 and £500 per year, depending on your requirements. For very basic sites we can provide hosting from £50 per year.
Domain Names
We can provide domain names for you or you can purchase your own through various web sites. Costs start from about £10 and depend on the type of domain name you prefer.
We hope our explanation has helped you understand what is involved in designing and hosting a website, and the likely costs and various charges that you should expect to incur when comparing sites in the portfolio with the explanation and star/price relationship table above.
