Website Development, and how expensive can it get?
Web development projects for businesses can range from as cheap as a few thousand, to as expensive as hundreds of thousands. It all depends on the complexity of the project, as well as the platforms and tools used for the implementation.
The most basic type of website would be a corporate website with just a few pages, telling people about your business. The website is purely informational, and has nothing complicated. For example, a Home Page, About Us Page, and a Services Page that elaborates about the services that you provide. Such a website will be really simple to build, and could even be as cheap as a few hundred dollars.
However, most website owners will never stop at this. The needs will always grow. Soon they may begin to want a Contact Us form for clients to email enquiries, or an Online Store in order to sell things online. This list can grow to no limits, and many businesses fail to understand that you cannot want more, yet only wish to pay the worth of a simple website.
The trend these days is to make use of Content Management Systems (CMS) to develop your website. In the past, websites were developed using written code. So, whenever you needed to make changes to your website content, you would need to go back to your web developer to ask them to update it. This was troublesome and costly. Today, CMS systems will allow you to make changes to your website content on your own, anytime you wish.
In general, there are 2 types of CMS Systems:
(1) Simpler and more affordable ones more suitable for small businesses
(2) Enterprise level more expensive ones for larger businesses.
Feel free to read through the 2 hyperlinks above for both types of CMS to get a little more understanding of the capabilities of each. It is important to note that the annual fees for both differ tremendously. Affordable CMS can have annual hosting costs of just a few hundred dollars, while those of Enterprise Level CMS can cost anywhere from $10,000 USD a year and above. These refer to just basic hosting costs alone. Then, you will need to factor in the hiring of people to develop the website for you.
It is therefore safe to say that website development using affordable CMS can cost anywhere between $2,000 - $50,000. While projects using Enterprise systems can go way higher, it is no surprise that some project values go up to the 6 digits.
But what suits you best? Why don't you share with us your needs first, and let us advise you on the options.