Better Image - Web Design Prices in Raleigh-Durham, NC

Filed under: Web Design by Chip on August 14th, 2008

Very often I get emails and phone calls from people in Raleigh-Durham area asking for a web design quote. I have some of the best prices around for the quality I provide, and still, some of them say “your quote is over our budget”.

For small business owners in Raleigh-Durham area who want a professional website and actually want visitors, here are some good tips and information about web design stages and the time involved.

Hourly Rate

My hourly rate is $50. Does it seem to much? Not really. Almost 30% of it goes to taxes, 20% will be spend on running the business, vacation time, computers, software, etc. So how much the net pay for the designer will be? Usually $25 per hour.

Design Drafts in Photoshop

For a usual type of small business website, this design stage should take from 20 to 30 hours, depending on the client revisions. This means anywhere form $1000 to $1500.

Optimized, Valid CSS/XHTML Templates

This phase should take anywhere from 10 to 15 hours. What you’ll get is top of the line optimized code according with W3C Standards. This means between $500 and $750.

Integrating Templates with a CMS

This phase should take between 20 (for Wordpress CMS) to 40 hours (for Expression Engine) depending on the functionality desired. This means between $1000 and $2000.

So, the total price for a website on a CMS should be between $2500 to $4250. What you’ll get is a great looking, professional website that will rank great on search engines, have visitors, and most important, easy to update in the future. There are no ongoing fees.