Whether you’re a budding startup or a large enterprise, you need a website of your own. It is a great investment especially with the digital-focused world right now. However, one of the big questions that come to mind before you start building one is the cost or the pricing.
Hiring and paying an in-house web development team can be costly and time-consuming especially if you’re a company that doesn’t specialize in web design. Developing an entire website is a long and complicated task that, unless you have the time, patience, and technical skills for it, is not worth taking on your own. For most companies, one of the best and cost- and time-effective solutions to address this is by outsourcing web design to a third party.
Let’s face it. You might not need or afford a dedicated Web Development Team. That’s why outsourcing web design and development can save you lots of money and relieve a lot of stress. You can hire a web design company or a freelancer. You can also think about outsourcing your web development in other countries or overseas. The cost or pricing may be lower but the quality will be just as high if not better.
In this article, we’ll explain the basics of outsourcing web design. We’ll talk about the process, the choices available, but we’ll focus the most on how much the whole endeavor will cost you.
How to Start Web Design Outsourcing
Beginning web design outsourcing can happen in a number of ways. First, you have to know the details of your project. You can conceptualize it by yourself, use a focus group, or consult with a web design agency or freelancer.
Whichever way you want to go about it first, here are a few steps to do your project in the most effective way possible:
Step 1: Define Your Project Details
Do you want to develop a website from the ground up? Are you updating a few pages of functions? Do you want a new look for your site? Are you looking to add more images and illustrations? It’s important to first establish and completely describe the project and its goals and objectives. This helps out the designers and developers you’ll hire so they’ll get an idea of what to expect for the project before having an initial meeting.
Step 2: Select a Web Design Service Provider
You can choose a US-based or global outsourcing company designed specifically for the task. Hiring U.S.-based freelancers, either through third-party sites or word of mouth, is another way to do it. If you’re looking for more cost-effective options, you can reach out to other locations, including the Philippines and other Asian and European countries. Do your research on them and match prices so you can determine which offers the best value.
Step 3: Learn about the Average Industry Prices
Depending on the size, complexity, and features of your project, the cost and pricing of web design can come in a wide range. That’s why you should understand how much are the typical prices for high-quality web designs. You get what you pay for. When you go for the cheapest price possible, you’ll also get a cheap-looking website. Prospective customers are wise about this. With bad designs, they may quickly leave your site than check what you can offer. This will hurt your revenue.
The costs of web design are mostly dependent on three different factors. These affect how much work a designer has to do for any given project. These are:
- Complexity;
- Features and functionalities; and
- Size and the total number of pages.
If you’re only developing a small website with a few pages as a brochure site for your company, it’ll probably go for around $500. If you’re designing a website with e-commerce features, prices might go up to $3,000. Websites for large enterprise companies with huge databases and custom features may rise up to $10,000.
Step 3: Gather and Analyze Quotes
A personalized quote is the best way to get an accurate price due to the varying prices a web design project may have.
Once you have chosen and reached out to web design companies, collect the quotes they give. Then figure out which provider understands your needs the best and gives the most cost-effective deal. While it may take up a lot of time, it’s an exercise worth doing. You’ll get a better idea for what would work for your company resulting in a better website in the end.
Step 4: Communicate with your Web Designer
After picking the web designer you like best, you should be prepared to answer their questions regarding the project. You may even ask them questions of your own as they work on the project. You’d want to set constant check-ins on the project so you can monitor if the project is going smoothly and within your expectations.
Throughout the project, it’s important to stay true to your principles and the original design of the project. However, you shouldn’t be afraid to allow the designer to make or suggest changes. After all, it is what you hired them for since they are experts. With that said, they might better insights on what is best and most effective for your business.
Step 5: Plan Your Next Web Initiatives
Working with a cost-effective and high-quality web design firm is rarely done once. With the fast and dynamic trends that come and go, you may need an update or a new template in the future. Who can better help you than a designer who you already have experience with?
This would work better if you already know which agencies or freelancers you can trust to complete the work effectively. After you’ve done the needed research and already built a stable and collaborative relationship, you’ll have a trustworthy web designer you can always return to for future projects.
However, if you’re not happy with your designer or developer, then a better step is to look for a different firm or freelancer. Depending on the level you want to do over, the costs may change.
Is It Worth Your Money to Outsource Web Design and Development?
Outsourcing web design is obviously not for everyone, Different cases would have different needs for outsourcing. If you already have a trusted web designer on staff or in-house team, they should be your first choice. Unless they’re over-encumbered or there are other factors you can’t use them, only then should you consider outsourcing first.
There are major reasons that make outsourcing an attractive solution for a web design project. One reason is its effect on a company’s profit margins and revenue.
Because of the international market, your money can go further and last longer by working with overseas companies or freelancers. With your access to the international marketplace, you have a larger pool of workers who will compete with each other to give the best quality and results.
One important point to consider when outsourcing is the time differences that may exist. With poor communication, a simple exchange of messages can last an entire working day. If it’s urgent you may need to wake up and check your email or message left for you in the middle of the night in your time zone. When a designer is working on your comments or feedback, you may have gone home for the day.
However, if you can deal with the time differences, outsourcing web design in other countries is the most economical and affordable solution for business owners who can’t perform “web design and development” on their own. There are plenty of web design firms that offer competitive prices in the US as well so don’t rule them out if you want your outsourcing firm to be closer.
What Is The Cost of Developing a Website on Your Own
If you don’t like the above options, there is still one remaining choice you can do. That is to build a website on your own using website builders. They are easy-to-use tools even for someone without technical knowledge.
As said above, the first step in outsourcing web design is to identify the project details. If you only need a small and simple site, maybe you don’t need any fancy functions or features or unique design elements. You might just want a site that will let your clients find you and get in touch. If this is the case, a typical third-party website builder can do the job for you.
Using this, a small business site would cost approximately $6 per month to $25 per month, depending on the scale of what you need and the service you choose.
Most website builder tools such as Wix or Squarespace give you a selection of templates to use. You can just customize them through drag-and-drop tools.
Since they are just templates and available to a lot of people, the result can look cookie-cutter. With the right creativity from you, it can still look sophisticated and fancy enough. It’s the result of using and fully customizing beautiful website templates that you start with.
Outsource Your Web Design Project
Now that you know the basics of what it takes and how much it may cost, you may be thinking of outsourcing your web design project. Qadra Studio is a full-service digital agency that will give you everything you need in web design, web development, graphic design, and digital marketing. Get your free consultation by contacting us now so you’ll understand why we’re one of the best web design firms in the Philippines.