Website development price

What each specialist does

Now that you know which specialists are involved, we can move on to the information on who's responsible for what, and then move on to the table of website development cost according to the work of specific specialists.

1. Project manager . First of all, this specialist is responsible for communication between you and every team member. They coordinate everyone's work, sign off on various points in the project, and decide what stays within the office walls, and what gets sent to you for approval. Besides this, they monitor work deadlines and how well execution matches the brief. In other words, they handle the full management of the project, and you won't have to spend time communicating with each specialist and explaining to each of them what needs to happen.
2. Marketer. These days everyone knows who marketers are and what they do. From a website development standpoint, marketers study and identify the target audience for the future website, analyze competitor sites (highlighting good solutions for integration), and figure out what needs the site should meet, and prepare a brief for the content manager, UX designer, and web designer. 

   Will your website sell without marketing?

   We think the answer is definitely No. So we suggest getting familiar with the cost of marketing services for a website:

   1. SEO promotion
   2. Advertising on Google
3. SEO specialist. The main job of an SEO specialist during website development is collecting the KC, on-page SEO optimization, and writing the brief for the UX designer, layout developer, and SEO copywriter.
4. SEO copywriter. Responsible for creating text content for the site's sections, according to the brief received from the SEO specialist
5. UX designer. Responsible for making sure the site is as convenient and effective as possible for the target audience. One of the main tasks they perform is thinking through the structure of pages and their individual blocks. Based on this, they create a visualization of the site structure and build a prototype for the website
6. UI designer. The counterpart to UX. That is, while UX handles the structure and planning of pages, the UI designer is responsible for their visual appearance. They're the one who thinks through the visual concept and sets the tone for the future website
7. Web designer. This kind of designer understands both Ux and Ui design for websites. So they help their colleagues during their work. At a certain skill level, they determine which direction to move further in, Ux or Ui.
8. Web architect. This specialist's main task – choosing the technologies to implement the project and understanding how each technology will interact best to meet the required tasks. Besides this, they determine when a certain ready-made solution can be used, and when custom functionality needs to be built. They're also responsible for the possibility of easy project scaling and determine the foundation for its future scaling, both vertically and horizontally, if needed for the project.
9. Layout developer. This specialist is exactly the one who turns the finished website design into understandable machine code (in this case Html and Css) and builds the page structure. They're responsible for making sure the site, or its individual elements, display correctly on various devices, browsers and systems. Once they've reached the necessary skills, layout developers grow into Frontend developers.
10. Frontend dev. In truth this specialist has a range of tasks, and unfortunately they can't be described briefly. On top of that, a lot of people confuse the work of a layout developer and the work of a frontend dev. So to explain this, we have a great article on our blog. But briefly, a frontend developer is responsible for functionality that's usually executed on the client side. For example, making sure that all the site's elements (buttons, text, photos, etc.) match the design and don't overlap each other is handled by the layout developer, while making sure those buttons, photos or other elements carry out their actual purpose (for example, a play button shown on a photo that opens a video in a modal window on click, or a buy button on a product card that, on click, sends the product to the cart and a certain request to the server to reserve that product) is handled by the frontend specialist. Another well-known example is working with product filtering and sorting, meaning in this case correct placement in the structure and correct display are handled by the layout developer, while the target action (i.e. sorting products by the chosen criterion, or filtering by criteria) – is handled by the frontend specialist.
11. Backend dev. A specialist who carries one of the hardest jobs – writing the site functionality related to the server-side hardware and software layer. Put simply, this is the person who builds everything you and the site's visitors never see.
12. Web administrator. First of all, the web administrator chooses hosting for the website and handles its technical setup. Besides this, they organize protection of the site from various kinds of possible attacks, for example the well-known one – spam. After the project is delivered, this specialist is responsible for a number of other tasks, including:
    • Improving site performance through server optimization
    • Monitoring security
    • Technical support of the site (minimal adjustments without involving frontend and backend developers, for example updating plugins if the site is built on a CMS)
    • Monitoring site uptime and a number of other tasks
13. Content manager. Organizes the work between the copywriter, SEO copywriter, translator and graphic designer. Besides this, is responsible for filling the site with information received from each of the assigned specialists.
14. Copywriter. Writes blog news according to the brief from the content manager
15. Translator. Translates various information for the site. This can include both news and other sections of the site, or the technical specs of products.
16. Graphic designer. From a website development standpoint, this specialist is needed first and foremost to develop graphics and ad banners, infographics, and so on

Website cost relative to time spent by specialists

We already know which specialists are needed for website development and we've gotten familiar with their market salaries and the tasks they perform during work. So now, with a clear conscience, we can calculate how much building a website costs based on the work of specific specialists. For this we've put together a price table, in whose calculation we used a project of average complexity (below we'll attach a link to that project and other useful links) and the hourly rates of the specialists who work at our agency

The cost of creating the SEO content for the site and filling it is calculated below.

Other project expenses

What you can save on

Honestly speaking, you won't really manage to save money. Because no matter how much you want to, sooner or later it will actually lead to higher costs

For example, you might think: «why do I need 4-5 different designers, 3-4 developers, and all those marketers and content managers anyway? I'd rather hire one designer, one developer, and handle the tasks of your project managers, marketers and content managers myself» It's entirely up to you, you can do it that way if you think it's best, but when scaling the project, or launching a marketing campaign, this approach will bring quite a few extra costs. So before thinking about saving from the point of view of a particular specialist, think about the following phrase

You will definitely get a good website if specialists in a given niche work on it. But an outstanding result comes only when you bring in narrowly specialized specialists into the work

From this phrase we can draw one simple conclusion: «If you want to combine in one person the work that 2-3 people are meant to do, you need to be aware of the eventual result and the possible consequences of that in the future».

So if your main goal is to get a cheap website, we recommend ordering the development from freelancers, since most of them work on exactly that principle, where one specialist combines several roles. But if it's important for you to earn revenue from the site, see its quality, and be confident about easy scaling options, then you should look into working with digital agencies or specialized agencies

Cost of website development with a freelancer

In this case, we're looking at a freelancer as one person who handles website development from start to finish. That is, they independently create the site design, code it, program it, fill it with content, and communicate with you at the same time. This option is the best solution for saving money. However, it's also worth understanding that freelancers don't always charge low rates, since they may position themselves at a middle or senior specialist service level. At the same time, count the time of each individual specialist and determine the cost of a given stage of work. With this approach, the project carries certain risks, since one person can't be a good specialist (let alone an expert) in different fields (such as marketing, planning, design, programming, etc.), so you should think carefully before starting work with one person

Depending on skill level, the hourly rate of this kind of contractor ranges within $4-6/hr . Based on this, the timeline and cost of developing a given website type will look approximately as follows

We'd like to note that this option is calculated for developing a template website, since one freelancer won't be able to build a unique project tailored to your audience and business goals. For developing a unique project you need to turn to other contractors, which we'll cover below

Cost of website development with a team of freelancers

This kind of contractor can build a website option either on a template or with a unique design. Besides this, project development quality will be considerably higher, since more than one person will be working on the project during development, usually people like this (designer, layout developer, programmer), and when texts are needed, (copywriters and marketers) get brought in.

The main advantage of choosing this kind of contractor is a slightly cheaper project cost compared to a digital agency and considerably better result quality compared to a single freelancer, while the main drawback – the contractor's lack of interest in your project's development and, in some cases, poor organization

You've probably wondered why we mention that they're not interested in working on development? That's explained very simply, they look for short-term projects, since they can't be sure how long any given team member will keep working with them. Sometimes different teams get put together for every project, so there's no cohesion. Of course you could say that for such cases you could appoint a lead, and assign a number of other people, but then that's already closer to how digital agencies operate

Depending on skill level, for each individual freelancer the average hourly rate will be in the range of $6-10/hr , and the cost of building a given type of website will look approximately like this

The price of building a website at a Digital Agency

Our agency belongs exactly to this type of contractor. Let's look at the main advantages of working with us, or with other digital agencies:

• Organizing work between specialists and monitoring the quality of services provided

No freelance team will worry about the quality of organizational aspects, since everyone thinks only of themselves.

• More qualified and motivated specialists compared to freelance teams, who don't care at all how your project turns out in the end.

Any freelancer's task is to spend as little time as possible on the project so they can take on the next one sooner and earn more income. Meanwhile, agency employees receive a market salary, so they're well motivated and give their work their all. In turn, the agency strives to work with clients long-term, so it focuses on quality of service and on results

• Expertise at an agency is considerably higher than at freelance teams

This is explained by the fact that agency employees constantly work with one another, exchange useful information, share their life experience and solve certain tasks and problems together that may come up. A freelancer, or freelance team – is limited by their own skills and tackles tasks alone, they don't brainstorm or exchange information. This in turn leads to the fact that each freelancer works with their own particular idea of the project, despite the fact that they're working on a certain team.

• The approach to carrying out the work and the project's quality

Put briefly, a freelancer, or a team of freelancers only does the work they were told to do. They don't think about whether this solution will be good for marketing, whether the project will grow in the future, and so on. A digital agency, in turn, cares about your project. It chooses the toolkit, gives recommendations on what's worth doing first, and what you can save on, and thinks ahead about how the project should bring you profit. In other words, the agency will do a lot of the routine work for you that you would otherwise have had to do yourself while working with a freelance team

• Projects are always delivered on time, according to the deadlines specified in the contract from the start of the cooperation.

The main drawbacks of this kind of contractor compared to freelancers include – a higher project cost and longer completion times.

Let's look at how much it costs to build a website at a digital agency, given that the average hourly rate of a specialist is $12/hr and the site is developed through most of the necessary stages we talked about earlier

If you go to an agency, let's say for example with a request: I need a website for my company, how much does that type of website development cost? And you get an answer of up to $1000, then you can be confident that the site will be built either from a template (though they may assure you it's a unique design), or the project will have a maximum of 2-3 people assigned and it will take up to 8 days.

How much does it cost to build a website at a specialized company

As you might have already guessed, the cost of website development with this kind of contractor will be considerably higher, this is explained by the fact that each stage of work is handed off to a specialized studio that specifically only handles that stage. Besides this, this kind of contractor doesn't work with template solutions at all. For example, you hand off website design to an agency that specifically does website design, you entrust website development to another specialized development agency, marketing – to yet another, and so on. Then the final quality of every stage will end up close to ideal. But there's one catch, and that's the price of this pleasure, which will be considerably higher compared to other contractors, for example a digital agency. The average hourly rate of a specialist at this kind of agency is $30-50/hr. Given this figure, the cost of website development for a given type will look approximately like this

The table clearly shows that development ends up costing quite a bit more here compared to digital agencies, which is why small and medium businesses can't always afford to work with this kind of contractor

The price of building a website at a TOP web studio in Ukraine

We're finally on the home stretch, all that's left is to look at the cost of website development with this contractor and move on to the conclusions. First of all, we'd like to say that this kind of contractor doesn't always carry out separate tasks, for example: development separately, design separately, and so on. They look at things on a much larger scale and take on comprehensive branding solutions for your company. But since a website is an integral part of branding, we'll also look at how much it costs to build a website at a TOP web studio in Ukraine. Specialists at such studios are no less qualified compared to specialized agencies. The hourly rate of a specialist there ranges from $50-100/hr. Based on this, the timeline and price for building a given website type will look like this

Brief summary of this section

Now that we've gotten familiar with all the possible contractors, let's put together a table for the price of building a website according to each of them, since this will best help make the difference in figures clear. We'll only look at contractors that provide a unique website development solution.

Timeline and cost of developing a Landing page

Landing page (a single-page website) – one of the website types whose main task is to «make» the visitor take a required target action. Such actions usually include: ordering a service, buying a product, signing up for an event, registering, subscribing to a newsletter, a phone call, and so on. This type of website is best suited for informing about a certain service, a single product, or a certain upcoming event. Landing page pricing, in most cases, is close to the price of a business card website, despite the fact that a landing page is a single-page site, and a business card website is multi-page. However there are reasons for this, and once you get to know landing pages in more detail, you'll understand why this happens. We'd also like to note that landing page development isn't suited for every niche and business, you can learn more about it on our blog

Timeline and price of a business card website

A business card website – the simplest multi-page website, designed to inform customers about the company's work, the list of its services/products, and convenient contact with managers. Such a site usually consists of 4-6 pages: home, about us, services, contacts, portfolio, price list. The price of a business card website (at digital agencies) starts from $800. This type of website is suited for sole proprietors and small businesses. You can visit the business card website development page if you're interested in building one and want to learn how work happens at our agency

Timeline and cost of a corporate website

Corporate website – a multifunctional tool for improving business communication between current customers and attracting new ones. This type of website consists of 9 or more pages. For example, on such sites you might see: company history, information about company employees, the company's services or products, information for partners, a blog, a forum, a personal account for customers and/or partners, and a lot of other useful information and functionality. You can learn more about corporate websites on the pages of our blog. The minimum cost of a corporate website (that our agency works with) starts from $1500. This type of website is usually built not only by small, medium and

Building this type of website on a framework isn't practical, since this option is the most costly in terms of both money and time. Besides this, our agency may help you with your business tasks and goals. For this, simply contact us, using whichever convenient method suits you

Timeline and price of developing a catalogue website

Catalogue website – a simplified version of an online store. It differs in that this type of website has no cart and has simplified functionality when ordering products. This type of website contains the necessary information about the company and presents an electronic catalogue of its products. You can read more about it on our blog The price of a catalogue website (like any other website type) can vary a lot. We explained why this happens in the section: website cost depending on the contractor, so if you skipped that section, we recommend reading it. If you're interested in developing this type of website, then our agency can help you with your business tasks and goals. For this, simply contact us, in whichever way is convenient for you

Timeline and cost of building an online store

Online store – a website designed for the online sale of products. In implementation, this is the most complex type of website (among those covered on this page), since it contains a lot of functionality needed for customers to work comfortably with the site, and for your managers to process orders and get in touch with customers. The main functionality of an online store: working with the APIs of various delivery companies, online payment through working with bank APIs, product reservation, product modifications, wholesale prices with the possibility of discounts, a personal account for customers and managers, smart search, and so on. The price of building an online store can vary greatly, this is all explained by the fact that different online stores go through a different number of stages during development and have different functionality, a different number of products, work on different devices (not just as websites, but as apps for phones or PCs) and a number of other factors. The price of building an online store (with a minimal set of functionality) starts from $2000. If you're interested in developing an online store, you can get more detailed information about the process of working at our agency here