I find many clients get frustrated with the varying quotes they receive from various sources.
Most web quotes will vary, not in the hundreds but in the thousands of dollars. How come?
There are many different reasons, but the easiest way to explain it is by comparing your website to a car.
Any car you buy you can buy from different providers. Some will have more features than others, better quality parts, more warranty, varying levels of support.
So your Ferrari sports car will costs you a lot more than lets say your Lexus, although you might be able to reach the same speed and both might have a coffee cup holder (These are assumptions I’m making. I haven’t driven too many Ferraris myself…)
So the main thing to consider when getting a website is what does my business really need?
Make a list. Talk to friends that have websites you like and ask them about their experiences.
Make a list with features in two columns:
‘Must haves’ and ‘Would like haves’.
Do you want just a stand alone page with contact details? Whilst that might do the trick in the interim it’s certainly not recommended going forward and should be seen as just that: an interim solution (should be cheap!!).
When getting your cost estimate be sure to get extras listed so that you can get an idea what the price difference is. Depending on what software your developer is using some extras might not cost anything, whereas others that might sound simple come at a hefty additional fee.
So I hope this has made things a little clearer. There are different types of websites (ie. there are 4wd, sports cars, city cars, mum cars…) and they all come with various features that sometimes come included and sometimes they are not.
Do some research before talking to your developer. Make sure you check his references. And make sure that you feel comfortable talking to him/her since the website journey often takes a lot of tweaking and future development as your business and technology evolves and users expect more.