If you are looking to design a website in Singapore, one of the first things to consider is the cost of the entire project. When it comes to the cost of creating a professional website in Singapore or anywhere else, costs generally vary depending on many factors. These include your needs and the desired features that you want to have on the website.
There are several types of websites. To determine how much money you will spend building one, you must understand the different types of sites and the effort involved in building them. Creating a website from scratch can be a cumbersome experience especially for individuals who have never undertaken such a project.
Individuals who aren’t in the IT space are likely to find it difficult to understand the requirements and cost of designing a website in Singapore. Initially, Singapore was offering grants to startups seeking to either create new websites or revamp their old websites. This initiative has since been scrapped, something that makes it necessary for you to understand the costs of building a website.
Factors that Determine the Cost of Designing a Website in Singapore
For you to have an idea about the expenses that you will incur when building a website, you must first understand the factors that determine the cost of designing a website. Many factors determine the cost of creating a business or personal website in Singapore.
When coming up with a budget for your web design project, you need to ask yourself how big your firm is. This will help you determine the number of web pages that you should create. Likewise, you need to decide beforehand whether you intend to build a dynamic or simple website, and if you need a custom design or just a theme.
If you are looking to build an e-commerce website, you also need to determine whether you will need e-commerce integration features. In addition, those need for back-ends with user logins will also determine the cost of designing a website in Singapore. The bottom line, however, is assessing the business needs of your company and aligning your site with them.
Cost of Designing an Informational Website
Typically, informational websites have simple layouts and basic features. If you are looking to start a business listing site in Singapore for instance, you do not need lots of features and functionalities. Instead, you need to focus on the basic objective of the website, which is to inform its visitors.
If you run a real estate firm, you will only need to have high-quality pictures of the properties that you are selling/renting, location details, amenities, and the addresses of who to contact for inquiries. Such a company will only need a basic website.
Basic websites act the same way that showcases and portfolios do. You can use them as your virtual advertising brochure, business card, or shop window. A basic website ensures that whenever web users search your brand name, they do not come up empty. This highlights the significance of SEO and keyword optimisation even when building basic websites.
WordPress should be your go-to website building platform if you are looking to create a basic website. There are many free themes to choose from. Although you will save a lot of money by using free web-building platforms, your site will lack a lot of features and functionality.
This highlights the significance of finding a professional web designer even when you are building a basic website. It will cost you between 2,000 and 10,000 SGD to create a basic website with the level of detailing and functionality that your visitors will love.
Cost of Building an E-Commerce Store
Singapore is emerging as one of the go-to destinations for e-commerce investors. This explains why there has been a sporadic growth of e-commerce stores in the city-state over the past few years. Generally, e-commerce stores are more complicated than basic websites.
When designing an e-commerce store in Singapore, you will need a high level of fluidity and customisation since this will keep customers shopping on your site. Some of the inherent features that e-commerce stores must have include customer login capability and account management showing past orders made, and shipping details.
E-commerce websites also need a setting-up of products section where you can list 50 to 5,000 products depending on the size of your store. Product images, pricing, tax, and shipping information also need to be included. There’s also need for a testimonial and customer reviews section.
An e-commerce site similarly needs cart functionality and product description sections. Generally, the complexity of e-commerce stores depends on the number of products listed and features set. You should be ready to spend anything between 5,000 and 50,000 SGD when building an e-commerce website. The cost of the project will depend on the size of your store.
Cost of Building a Community Website
In recent years, community websites have been gaining traction in Singapore. Nowadays, every website owner seems to have the intention of building their own Tribe. Such a site will have features for creating a discussion, enabling account sign-ups including Avatars, and an option for commenting on posts and uploading URLs and images.
A community website can help you engage with web browsers at a personal level thus enabling you to build a band of followers. To create such a site, you need to set aside a budget of 15,000 to 50,000 SGD.
Community websites may seem outdated bearing in mind that we are living at an age when social media groups are the in-thing. Nonetheless, these online forums still have a role to play in today’s digital world.
Cost of Building User-Based Websites
User-based websites are not standard, and neither do they have any pre-defined features. Typically, these websites come with features such as users’ signup/login sections, profile creation sections, profile searching sections, and seeking quotes sections.
Sometimes, user-based websites are referred to as web portals. To build a web portal in Singapore, you will require the services of an experienced web developer to design all the sections that will be on the site. Keep in mind that since such sites are user-oriented, they should be robust and user-friendly.
Web developers do not impose fixed charges when it comes to building web portals. For instance, a web portal for job searches, buying and selling cars, or tuition agencies cost an average of 15,000 SGD. Often, web portals come with free web hosting for one year.
Directory Websites
These websites often feature two sections. The first section is meant for businesses to signup/login to showcase their company details. The second section is for users to sign up and search for specific services and products in their locality.
Owners of directory websites in Singapore and elsewhere can charge businesses monthly subscription fees alongside the additional charges so that their companies can be showcased either at the top of the listings or on the homepage.
Some of the features that are inherent in directory websites include the ability for businesses to sign up or log in, the ability for businesses to create profiles and descriptions for their products and services, and the ability for users to search for companies based on their services and products.
Likewise, directory websites should allow users to send inquiries about their desired products and services. Web developers in Singapore charge anything between $5,000 and $8,000 to build directory websites.
Custom Portal Development Charges
Nowadays, almost all companies in Singapore have websites. Most of these websites are based on CMSs (customer management systems). What will set apart a site that is designed from a small business from sites built for large companies is the complexity of the CMS used.
A complex CMS costs up to 100,000 SGD since its code is likely to be custom-written. Therefore, you should only work with a web developer who guarantees custom application development, which incorporates customised database design and modules.
Should You Hire a Web Development Team or Hire an Agency?
When you are looking to design a website in Singapore, one of the dilemmas that you will face is whether you should hire an in-house team to build the site or contract an agency for the project. Each of these has its advantages and downsides.
When you outsource an agency to design a website for you in Singapore, you will only incur a fixed cost. The entire project will involve a one-time fixed cost without any additional charges. Also, you won’t need to recruit new employees to add them to your IT team.
The team that will be involved in web development when you outsource a web design company won’t have to be retained upon the completion of the project. Similarly, a web development agency is likely to complete the project on time. Often, agency employees are professionals who are good at what they do by virtue of undertaking similar projects in the past.
Hiring web development professionals to be part of your team may look enticing but has its disadvantages. For a start, you won’t have a fixed cost especially if the project goes beyond its scheduled completion. In this case, the costs involved will also go up.
Hiring employees to undertake a web design project is also cumbersome since you will spend too much time and resources assembling the web design team in the first place. This time and resources would have otherwise been spent on other productive aspects of your business setup.
The team that you will hire will also need to be retained as part of your IT team. This is likely to increase your wage bill even though they will be largely performing redundant tasks upon the completion of the project. Besides this, hiring web development professionals with different backgrounds is likely to have an impact on the timeline of the project.
A team that hasn’t been involved in building websites together on a regular basis is likely to take more time to develop a process and project schedule first before embarking on the job. In the long run, you are likely to experience unnecessary delays and burgeoning costs.
What Costs are Involved in Designing a Website in Singapore?
Designing websites in Singapore involves more than just hiring web developers to handle the project. Even so, hiring a web designer is the most crucial step involved in the project. A web designer will form the core of the entire project, and therefore, you need to work with someone who is good at his/her job.
Other than the cost of hiring a web designer, you will incur additional costs when building a website in Singapore. These include the cost of hiring a copywriter who will help your website to broadcast your vision to potential clients as well as create leads to your site. The cost of hiring a professional copywriter can be anything between 2,000 and 5,000 SGD.
When building a website, you will need a manager to oversee all processes involved. This is the person who will ensure that all aspects involved in web design are functioning correctly and that the project is within its timeframe.
A project manager needs to have overseen similar projects in the past as well as have an in-depth understanding of web development and design. The cost of hiring a project manager when designing a website in Singapore is around 6,000 to 7,000 SGD.
Conclusion
It is easy to understand why many people think that designing a website in Singapore or elsewhere is a complex process. The project involves meticulous planning and budget making to ensure timely completion.
Using free web design platforms such as WordPress may look enticing but such platforms won’t support the long-term scalability and flexibility of the websites that you will create. You will also miss out in terms of functionality when you use such sites. Hiring an agency to undertake the project on your behalf is the most recommended option if you are looking to design a website in Singapore.
