Website Design Costs In Singapore – A Quick Guide

There are over 30 major web design companies in Singapore and hundreds of less recognised agencies run by freelance web designers.

Because of the various expertise, experience, and value the website design costs can range astronomically. Here are some guide prices assuming a small-mid scale website:

Price Range Of Website Costs In Singapore

1. Corporate Template-based Website: $2,500 – $5,000

2. Corporate Custom-built Website: $4,000 – $8,000

3. Retail, Branded Template-based Site: $4,000 – $8,000

4. Retail, Branded Custom-based Site: $6,000 – $20,000

5. E-commerce Website Template-based (up to 200 products): $4,500 – $10,000

6. E-commerce Website Custom-built (up to 200 products): $6,000 – $15,000

7. E-commerce Website Template-based (500+ products): $8,000 – $20,000

8. E-commerce Website Custom-built (500+ products): $15,000 – $40,000

Disclaimer: these are guide prices only. You are encouraged to get various quotations from various web design firms because certain firms, although top-end, may be able to quote you far less because they have the benefit of customising a similar website and hence can recycle the script as well as manpower, other resource and time costs.

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You can also call MediaOne at (65) 6789 9852 or click on the [ GET FREE QUOTE ] button on the left. As an established digital marketer we are able to work with the best web design companies in Singapore for the best prices AND propose digital marketing packages that will help you get plenty of visibility online as well as web traffic and sales. After all, what is the point of having a nice top-end website but having no visits? Its like a white elephant by any name.

Here are some of the top web design firms you can get a quote from:

Names of Key Executive: Tom Koh, CEO

Key Services: Web Development, Website Design, Branding Websites, E-Commerce Websites, SEO, Digital Marketing

Key Clients: Capitaland, P&G, NTUC, SportsHub, SingTel, Maybank, Noel Gifts, Fuji Xerox, ST Electronics, Ministry of Law, Changi Airports Group, EDB Singapore

Year Established: 2009

Staff Strength: Up to 100

Estimated Annual Turnover: SG$3 million

2. Verz Design

Names of Key Executive: Henry Ng, Managing Director

Key Services: Web Development, Mobile App Development, Premium Design, Custom Programming, Creative and Interactive

Key Clients: Bee Cheng Hiang, BYSI, MediaCorp, Kitchen Language, Gong Cha

Year Established: 2009

Staff Strength: Up to 100

Estimated Annual Turnover: SG$3 million

3. Oasis Web Asia

Names of Key Executives: Simon Yap, CEO

Key Services: Web Design and Web Development, PPC and Social Media Marketing, Real Estate Solution, Mobile Application Development

Key Clients: NKS Hotels and Travel, Flow and Balance, CLS-Touche Marketing, Eurotours and Travel

Year Established: 2009

Staff Strength: 10

Estimated Annual Turnover: undisclosed

4. eFusion Technology

Key Executives: Lau Wee Kiat, Director

 Year Established: 2004

 Services: Web Design, Web Development, Search Engine Optimization

Top Clients: Pokka Singapore, Singapore Flyer, Inform Media, C.K. Tangs, Hobee Group

 Estimated Staff Strength: 15

 Estimated Annual Turnover: Up to SG$3 million

5. Bruce Clay, Inc.

Key Executives: Bruce Clay, President; Virginia Nussey, Manager of Operations

 Year Established: 1997

 Services: Local SEO, Pay Per Click Management, Search Engine Optimization, Digital Marketing

 Top Clients: Century, NEC, Sundance, Atos, Burpee

 Estimated Staff Strength: 25+

 Estimated Annual Turnover: SG$3 million

6. iCrossing

Key Executives: Nick Brien, CEO

 Year Established: 1998

 Services: Local SEO, Digital Management, Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Management

 Top Clients: The Coca-Cola Company, Bank of America, Toyota, MasterCard

 Estimated Staff Strength: 100+

 Estimated Annual Turnover: SG$10 million

7. Notion Age

Key Executives: Jack Wong, CEO

 Year Established: 2001

 Services: Reputation Management, Web Design, Search Engine Optimization.

 Top Clients: Resorts World Sentosa, Trend Micro Singapore, Microsoft Singapore, Mitsubishi Electric Asia, Toshiba Singapore

Estimated Staff Strength: unknown

 Estimated Annual Turnover: Up to SG$2 million

8. iConcept Digital

Names of Key Executives: Ang Chong Han, CEO

Key Services: Customized Web Design, Marketplace Solutions, Search Engine Optimization, Digital Marketing Strategies, Google Adwords Marketing

Key Clients: Volkswagen Group, Sony Xperia, Singapore Airlines, Pandora, Julie’s, Captain Oats

Year Established: 2008

Staff Strength: 22

Estimated Annual Turnover: SG$1 million

9. Fixx

Names of Key Executives: Darren Lee, CEO

Key Services: Web Design and Development, eCommerce Development, Audio Engineering, Video Production, CMS (Content Management Systems), Mobile App Development

Key Clients: MahSing, AhHuat, Southville City, Suria FM, Nanyang Technological University

Year Established: 2004

Staff Strength: 15

Estimated Annual Turnover: SG$2 million

10. Elves Lab

Key Executives: Felinn Shoo, Business Development Manager

 Year Established: 2008

Services: Web Development, Web Design, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Optimization

Top Clients: Kanebo, Consumers Association of Singapore, Malayan Racing Association

Estimated Staff Strength: 60

Estimated Annual Turnover: SG$2 million

Disclaimer: these are information available online and may be subject to change over time. If you are aware of more current information or feel that another web design firm should be incorporated in this list. Kindly contact [email protected] today.

What Are the Costs to Develop a Website in Singapore?

It’s true that you can tell the cost of a website through its visual appeal, but the case is not reliable. For example, a custom made site may appear less costly to the eyes in comparison to free templates from Wix.com. It means that it’s hard to make a sound judgment based on visual appeal.

Why don’t we take the example of the Lamborghini Spyder car? The car is among the hottest you can buy in the market. It has a lot of fans, not because of its appearance but the sound it produces. The same case applies to websites. It’s not how they look on the screen that makes them costly but the qualities they feature. As a result, we recommend that you don’t judge a website by its cover.

In this article, we take care of all your worries while purchasing a website. We look at three strong points that’ll need you to pay attention to. These include:

• what type of sites are worth your money and which ones are not,
• where to place more efforts and where not to, and
• which factors matters and which ones doesn’t

When developing a website, you’ll need help from experienced developers and designers. They will help you avoid all technical errors and financial shortages that might come your way. They will also help you choose the best solution for your budget and the period it will take to complete the project.

There is a variety of website pricing charts you can use to predict what you’re expected to pay for a website. However, to make it easy for you, we prepare a guide on how much you can expect to spend on your site.

First, in case you want to hire a designer for your website development, it’ll cost you approximately $6, 750 for a basic website. If you do not employ a designer, you can drag or drop a website builder such as Weebly. Such will only cost you a monthly charge of $5 for a basic website. Web builders will offer other surfaces such as ecommerce. In this case, it’ll cost you approximately $17 a month. It also requires no trained personnel as it’s a DIY website.

Website builders will help you design your website without digging much into your pocket. Also, no skills are necessary in this case. Some good examples of such builders include WordPress, Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace. For Squarespace, they offer no free plans but have 14 days of free trials to make sure you buy out of the experience. The following features are essential in a website builder;

• Free Adverts: check whether builder’s ads get to display on your website or not.
• Personal Domain: do you get to receive your own site address
• Unlimited Bandwidth: such refers to the number of visitors your site can comfortably handle.

Factors that Affect the Cost of Website Design in Singapore

To get a clear view of web design costs, you need to understand the various elements that make a website. These are also the factors that when combined, affect the cost of developing a website. These include;

• Domain name
• Website design
• Website UX and UI
• Website development
• Security
• Database integration
• E-commerce
• CMS
• Additional functions and apps
• Website hosting
• Website maintenance
• Website marketing

Domain Name

A domain name is an address that you key in into a web browser to get to a website. For instance, https://google.com is the domain name for Google. This explains why each domain name is unique to a particular site.  

Although a domain name and its website are connected, they are not the same thing. You can easily change the domain name and retain the website. There are two types of domain names – free and paid.

• Free domain names – these are available on polar web design platforms such as WordPress and Wix.com. For example, is a free domain name. Such is not ideal for businesses that want unique branding.
• Paid domain names – with these, you pay a monthly fee and choose your preferred name.

When you buy a domain name, you can only keep it for the specified length of the contract. You have to renew it once the period elapses. Otherwise, it will be available to whoever pays for it.

A domain name costs between S$10 and S$20 to acquire. Once the first year elapses, you have to pay the renewal, which has a similar price. You can buy it from providers such as GoDaddy and NameCheap.

Website Design

After choosing your domain name, the next step is selecting the design of your website. This depends on your business needs. For instance, you could want a blog, an e-commerce platform or a regular informational website.

As mentioned above, the cost of website design in Singapore depends on the complexity of the design. A small blog can cost a few hundred dollars, but a complicated site with a massive database will require thousands.

Website UX and UI

Website UX, also known as user experience, is a collection of the emotions that visitors feel when interacting with your website. It also includes their perception and response to the quality of your website.

If you want visitors to find your site appealing, you must implement an excellent website UX. Your site should be easy to use and navigate. The site should have interactive features such as clickable links and animations. More importantly, it should be responsive, so that it can display correctly on all devices.

Website UI, on the other hand, refers to what visitors see on your site. An excellent UI is often the result of an equally impressive UX. Both are crucial for traffic retention and lead generation.

A massive chunk of your budget for website design in Singapore will go towards website UX and UI. As of now, professional UX designers charge S$150 hourly. This means a more complex design will cost you more than a simple interface.

Security

Every day, hackers breach thousands of websites, making away with crucial information. Hacking also tarnishes the reputation of the affected organisation. This makes security one of the most significant considerations when doing website design in Singapore.

The reality is that hackers target all types of websites. Even if you run a small one, you are not entirely safe if you do not implement preventive measures. The most widespread security issues include spam, viruses and malware, denial of service attacks, and search engine blacklists.

When designing a website, ensure that you use the HTTPS protocol. This ensures that the data transmitted between the user and your site remains secure throughout. Another benefit of HTTPS is that it improves your search ranking.

The cost of acquiring an SSL certificate (which has the HTTPS protocol) ranges from as little as S$12 for basic encryption to as high as S$207 for the most advanced form of encryption. It is advisable to go for the high-end packages because they offer features such as malware scanning, security risk assessment, and so forth.

Besides SSL encryption, other ways of securing your website include:

• Updating software frequently – you should make a habit of updating your software to implement the latest security measures. This includes plugins, CMS, WordPress, and anything that your website runs on.
• Choose a secure web host – if your web host provider has security on its server, it improves the protection of your website.
• Use antivirus software – this protects your website from malware. A reliable antivirus is available from S$100 upwards.
• Restrict file uploads – allowing users to upload files to your site can be a potential security risk. However, if your website requires uploads, ensure that you scan the files for malware before they are executed on the server. 
• Backup your site – regardless of the reliability of your security measures, always backup your website. This ensures that you have something to fall back on in case the worst happens.

Database Integration

One of the popular trends concerning website design in Singapore is the migration from static informational sites to interactive platforms. If you are planning to design the latter, you will need to connect a database to your website.

Database integration refers to linking your website to your databases to allow for easy access to information. It eliminates the need for integration services on each application of your site, which saves time and money. Some of the databases that a website can have are a product inventory, lists of offices, supply chain data, employee records, and so forth.

The most popular data integration solutions are from large tech companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, SAP and Oracle, and so on. The majority of these services offer a free trial. Once this period elapses, you have to pay as you go (hourly billing depending on how much you use the service. The average hourly fee is S$0.70.

E-commerce

Your online business should be attractive to customers and simplify the buying process. This explains the importance of e-commerce development to website design in Singapore. An excellent design will ensure that you generate leads and customers return to buy items on your website.

During e-commerce development, consider the following.

• The primary objective of your audience – in this case, you want them to buy from you.
• Make your objective clear to your audience – if you are selling items, indicate it by having a shopping cart, ‘buy’ buttons, and product details.
• Your website must be secure and trustworthy – if visitors are doubtful over the security of their data, they will move to rival sites.
• Implement an easy-to-use interface – customers should be able to locate what they want quickly.
• Remove unwanted items and include the important ones.
• Ease of management and scalability – since your website is a shop, you should be able to add more products quickly.

Designing an e-commerce website costs between S$7,000 and S$50,000, depending on the size of your business. If you factor in other costs such as SEO, which is crucial for increasing visibility, the budget can go a notch higher. 

CMS

CMS, which stands for a content management system, is software that allows users to create, manage, and modify digital content without the need for expert-level knowledge in web design.  A CMS has two main parts – a content management application (CMA) and a content delivery application (CDA).

• Content Management Application – this allows you to add and manage content to your website.
• Content delivery application – this the backend that processes and stores content on your site. It also ensures that your website runs seamlessly.
• The most popular CMS software is WordPress. Others include Joomla, Drupal, Wix, and Magneto, which is ideal for e-commerce websites. Although these platforms have different functionalities, here are some features that are available in all of them.
• Intuitive search, indexing, and retrieval – users can easily search for content by entering parameters such as the data, author’s name, category, and so forth.
• Format management – you can convert scanned hardcopy documents into electronic formats such as HTML and PDF.
• Revision features – you can update and republish existing content. Also, you can track the modifications made to individual files on your website.
• Publishing functionality – you can access an array of templates, plugins, and other tools to create and modify content.  

Most CMS software supports the development of different types of websites.  The cost of building a website on a CMS ranges from S$1,000 to S$10,000. This figure is also dependent on other factors, such as the size of your website. You could also opt for a custom CMS, but this will cost you more.

Web Apps and Additional Functions

Nowadays, web app development is becoming integral to website design in Singapore. A web application is a computer program that performs a specific task by using a web browser as its client. This means that you can only access such apps by connecting to the internet, and you do not need to download them. An example is Gmail from Google, which is a web-based email client.

Web apps are particularly useful in handling tasks that do not require a server to store information. For instance, a web-based word processor can work similarly you the one on your computer, allowing you to download and store the document offline. Another benefit of web apps is that they are accessible across various platforms. You can easily continue working on a project on your mobile if you were previously doing it on a desktop.

If you are planning to include web apps in your website design in Singapore, you should know that it costs from S$20,000 onwards to develop a single project.

Web Hosting

Another critical aspect of any website design project in Singapore is web hosting. A web host is a platform that provides the services and technologies needed for a site to appear on the internet. These companies have servers that store the web pages on your website and deliver them when a user types your address on their browsers.

You should first have a domain name before seeking the services of a web host. Ideally, your web hosting company should offer the following:

• Email accounts – with this feature, you can create a custom email address such as [email protected].
• FTP access – the file transfer protocol (FTP) feature allows you to upload files from your computer to the webserver. This way, you can easily add new pages and resources to your website.

By making sure that your site is online throughout, web hosting providers give you time to focus on developing other areas of your business.  Web hosting is relatively cheaper than other elements of website design in Singapore. You can get a package for as little S$8 monthly.

Website Maintenance

Website maintenance refers to the continual checking of your sites for issues and fixing them to ensure that content is relevant and up to date. If you leave your site unattended for long periods, it can hurt the user experience, reputation, and SEO rank.

Some of the issues you need to address during maintenance include:

• Broken links – all links on your website should be functional.
• Update your software and plugins to the latest versions.
• Remove spam comments from your pages.
• Check the loading speed and remove anything that is reducing it.
• Search for 404 errors and fix them.
• Back up your content. You should also restore previous backups occasionally to check their health.

Your budget for website maintenance depends on the purpose of your site, the size of your audience, and the volume of content on it.  The cost of maintaining a small business website ranges between S$40 and S$100. For larger enterprise sites, this figure can go up to S$1,300 per month.

Website Marketing

Website marketing is the tactic you employ to build more awareness and potentially increase the traffic to your website. Getting people to visit your site is undoubtedly the ultimate goal when you decide to do website design in Singapore.

There are two popular ways of marketing a website- SEO and paid search, which is also known as SEM.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation refers to the strategies employed to get more organic traffic to a website. SEO achieves this objective by improving the rank of a website on search engine results.

There are two types of SEO;

• On-page SEO – this is the adjustments you make to your website to increase its visibility on search results. They include writing great content, implementing an excellent UI, having a clear structure, and so forth.
• Off-page SEO – these are the activities on external sites that impact your search rank. Off-page optimisation mainly deals with backlinks.

It is hard to put a price tag on SEO because it is an ongoing process that involves many strategies. That said, you will need to invest in keyword research and improving the design of your website so that it appeals to visitors. You will also need to do competition analysis and update your site regularly.

Search Engine Marketing

While SEO and SEM share the same objective, the methods of execution are different. SEM is also known as paid search because you pay to increase the visibility of your site on a search engine.

The most widespread tactic in this regard is pay-per-click advertising (PPC). Here, you pay each time a visitor clicks on your ad listing on the platform you are using. The higher the number of clicks, the more you spend.

The price you pay for a click depends on the competitiveness of the keyword in question. Phrases with little or no competition will cost you less than S$1 per click. On the other hand, high-intent keywords will require you to pay more than S$5 per click.

Is it Cheaper to Use Website Builders?

Although you can leverage the popularity of social media to increase brand awareness, it is not enough. Every business needs an online presence that only a website can offer. This explains why companies invest heavily in website design in Singapore.

A website gives you total control over design and content, which is not the case with social networks. It also adds credibility and uniqueness to your brand. The problem, hover, is whether to go for a professional designer or use a website builder and do it yourself.

Website builders offer a way for people without experience in web design to create sites within a short time. Most of them have easy-to-use drag-and-drop functionalities that allow you to add design elements. Even if you have little technical knowledge, you can get a site up and running in less than an hour.

The most significant advantage of website builders is that they are incredibly cheap. With just S$35 monthly, you can get a simple e-commerce website. In stark contrast, a website development company will charge you thousands. This makes it the perfect option for a small and upcoming business with a limited budget.

On the downside, website builders do not provide the level of customisation that an expert guarantees.  This is understandable, as they are meant for people with little or no knowledge of advanced design. You are only limited to a bit of tweaking of the featured templates.

Is It More Cost-Effective to Use Freelancers or Professional Agencies?

As seen above, using website builders for your website design has its advantages. However, there are reasons why you should go for a professional website designer. These include;

• Customisation
• SEO
• Migration
• Coding
• Pricing

Customisation

Website builders offer many templates that you can tweak to some extent to add a personal touch. With a professional, you can customise the website to your exact specifications. You can also view the HTML of your web pages, which is impossible with website builders.

SEO

SEO is crucial for website marketing. If you have a long-term SEO strategy, you should go for a pro to handle your website design in Singapore. They will implement a proper site architecture, which is unavailable in website builders.

For instance, most website builders do not allow you to add extra URL levels, which is terrible for SEO. Instead of something like http://mywebsite.com/SEO/on-page-optimisation, you have to be content with http://mywebsite.com/on-page-optimisation.

Migration

After some time, you might need to migrate your website to another platform.  This is pretty straightforward if a professional did your website design in Singapore.

Website builders, on the other hand, have unique scripts and other features that exclusive to them. If you want to migrate to a different platform, you need to start all over again, which can be very costly.

Coding

In some cases, you might need to integrate third-party APIs into your website. This requires proficiency in coding, which is only provided by experienced website design companies. Also, website builders have restricted adaptability, making it challenging to add third-party software to the website.

Pricing

When you consider upfront costs, using a website builder is much cheaper than hiring an expert to do website design. The difference is that the builder charges are recurring, while developers only require money during the development phase. You also have to pay for every app and extension you add to your website.

If you consider all factors, hiring a professional is more cost-effective than a website builder, especially if you are building a business website. Builders are great if you are developing small-scale, static, and personal websites.

Some Considerations When Looking for a Website Design or Development Agency in Singapore

Are You Asking the Right Questions?

Asking how much a website should cost you is not the proper question. The question lacks be specific. In the same case as budgeting for other items, the cost of a website will vary regarding people’s opinions. We can take the example of a mom with three children who are all under ten years. For her, time is of more value than money. And this case applies to websites as well. In simple terms, the price for building a site can break into four resources. These include

• Time
• Technical knowledge or willingness to learn to code
• Design skills and desire to study designs
• Money

However, it needs you not to have all of the four aspects as a starter as one will compensate the other.

Therefore, when you go about estimating the cost of a website, your first question should be whether you hold all of these aspects.

Do You Have All the Resources?

Most of the time, we think of money as the only resource in developing a website. However, of the four essential resources, capital stands as the most flexible of all. Take for example; you can possess the time, or you don’t have it at all. Also, you either know to code, or you don’t. And lastly, you either have an interest in web designs, or you don’t have any passion. But this is not the case with money.

For the money, we all have some level of cash. The question remains how you can best use the money you have in your website development. Take an example of a person who pays $4.50 to buy a fancy Starbucks while he can make one at home for $0.1. We, therefore, can agree that it’s not about how much money you have but is it worth your website. You, therefore, need to estimate the cost based on three other factors, that is, time, design skills, and technical knowledge.

Your Website’s Cost Based on Limited Resources

When we talk about building, operating, or managing a website, it’ll involve five phases. These include;

• The Website set-up: this stage occurs before designing the website content
• Learning how to maintain website builders
• Planning the layout,
• Creating the content
• Troubleshooting and further maintenance

In all phases, you must ensure to have adequate time, design, and technical skills for each of them to be successful. In case you miss any of them, it’s necessary to rely on modern technology or experts to have the job done.

Each website builder is different from the other in different ways. Consider the following three strategies of soup-making as a good illustration;

• Method A: you can make the soup by yourself. Here, you buy all the ingredients, mix them well to the end and make the soup.
• Method B: Using services such as BlueApron, you can receive packages of ingredients and the whole recipe which will fasten the speed of the process. Here, you save time for ingredient preparations and door-step delivery.
• Method C: You can also decide to order readymade soup from readymade food stores. You only need to make the booking and have the soup at your doorsteps.

In the same way as making soup, website builders will have different level services in the development process. Consider the following methods;

Method A: building the website from Scratch

In this case, you hire a group of experts who will not use website builders in developing your website. However, with instructions of site builders, building websites from scratch is diminishing daily.

Method B: Use Website Builders

With website builders such as WordPress, they give you all the ingredients and procedures you need to create a website. You can do it if you have the skills or you can hire an expert to do it on your behalf.

Method C: Using Drag & Drop Website Builders

Most of the website builders such as Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace are automated. They handle all technical and design issues for you. Only minimum technical knowledge is necessary. Even though you have to build the website, you don’t need to be professional. However, with the diversity of their features, it calls you to spend time learning which builder works best for you. Each website builder will have different characteristics, a list of tools, and web designs that will need you to spend the time to note the best. You can choose any of the above three methods to complete creating your website.

Cost Considerations When You Are Engaging a Professional vs DIY

OPTION 1: Website Development Cost When You Hire a Professional

In this case, we shall look at WordPress as our profession. Currently, WordPress powers approximately 26% of all websites. As long as you possess all the expertise necessary, you can develop any site using WordPress. It is suitable for all individuals that have no technical knowledge about websites and those who never owned one before. It has a better learning curve and a minimal cost in comparison to automated website builders. However, in case you have limited time, patience, or money, make sure not to use WordPress.

1. Cost of Setting up WordPress Website

To set up a website means to find a hosting provider, Using FTP, link the hosting provider with your site software, and then connect the domain name to the website. Let’s define each of these terms;

• Website Hosting

The host is like a coat closet where you keep your coat, and whenever you need it, you must go to the closet and retrieve it. When you enter the address of your website into the browser, the browser retrieves it from the host. There are different categories of hosting providers which include;

• Shared hosting that costs $5 to $30
• VPS hosting that costs $50 to $250
• Dedicated hosting works well for large or enterprise websites.

The pricing for the hosting services depends on the number of visitors your website can handle. For starters, consider Bluehost as the best option you have.

• Using FTP

FTP is necessary to managing files stored by your website host. Such records include web content, images, designs, and features among others. The hosting service providers offer instructions on how to use the FTP. It’ll take a few hours to get it running. You can also hire a designer or developer for direct support with charges ranging from $30 to $80 per hour. Using FTP will cost you from $0 to $50.

• Installing WordPress to the Host and Connecting the Domain Name

The process will cost you from $0 to $50. Most of the hosts will have WordPress already installed. Also, instructions are available on how to connect the domain name to your website. If you’re new to sites, you can use the beginners guide for the task. It, however, can take a few hours for the first-timers to make the connection. You can also hire professionals to do the work for you at a price ranging from $30 to $80.

Website setup cost with WordPress can cost as low as $5.

2. Cost in learning how to use WordPress

Learning how to use WordPress can take up to one month. You can decide to use the free tutorials online or can pay for high-quality learning services from Lynda.com. The charge per month here is $50.

3. The cost of designing a WordPress website

With web designs, you can spend as much money as you have. You have a variety of models to make a selection of. These include;

• Pre-Made Designs: you can decide to use the underlying templates which cost between $35 and $50, or the premiums costing $80 to $200.
• Custom Built websites using pre-made templates: here, you can hire an expert to customise the pre-made templates to give you a unique site. Depending on how much work gets done, it can cost you from $300 to $1, 000.
• Custom Web Design: here, you’re sure to get unique websites. And depending on the country of origin of the developer, the service will cost from $5, 000 to $30000.

4. Cost of Content Creation

The process of creating website content involves the framework of your website. These are the logos, slideshows, how the sidebar should look and function among other uses. It also includes images, texts, and blogs among others. These are what explains to your website visitors what your site and business entails.

The best way to make the content is to purchase the Pre-made templates at a price of $35 to $200, and then hire an expert to create the content for you. Charges per hour will range from $50 to $80, while charges per project range from $250 to $500. The branding can cost you from $100 to $1500 with an ongoing maintenance cost of $100 to $500 per year.

You can also use online guides and learn how to go through image editing and logo branding to minimise the cost.

5. Troubleshooting and Maintaining the site

The maintenance and troubleshooting cost will range from $500 to $1000. It will involve taking care of the breakdown challenges that are more likely to come your way.

OPTION 2: Website Cost Using Drag and Drop Website Builder

Good examples of Drag and Drop Web Builders include Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace. They are good for the following cases;

• In case it’s your first-time website
• Those with limited time to learn technical skills,
• Those who have limited money to invest in website building,
• You need full control over the site and
• In case you don’t need specific software on making your website.

1. Set-up Cost Using Drag and Drop Builders

The costs incurred in setting up a site in any of the drag & drop web builders are $0. You have no worries with hosting, using FTP, installing software, or how to link the domain name. Every set-up is automatic. You only need to sign-up for an account using your email. Before you can use paid plans, you can use free intends to test the reliability of the builder. At Wix.com and Weebly, they offer free ideas. It means that the hosting needs and usage of the website is free. You have no time limits to use the free plans as well.

2. Cost of Learning How to Use Drag & drop builders

It also costs $0 to learn how to use drag and drop builders. No lessons are necessary to master any technical knowledge with these types of builders. It only needs the understanding of how to drag things around your computer screen using a mouse. If you can correctly do this, you can comfortably use drag & drop web builders.

3. Website Designing Cost Using Drag & Drop Builder

You can access free web design templates at free charge. Most of the models are perfect, but you lack access to the codes. At Wix.com, they offer over 510 professional template designs, while at Squarespace, they offer the best web design templates better than some custom design websites. At Weebly, they allow access to the codes to enable you to make changes where necessary.

4. Cost of Creating Website Content Using Drag & Drop Builders

The cost of creating web content will range from $500 to $2, 000. You can consider hiring a designer to create the graphics, do branding and page content on your behalf. And since the overall cost of building a website is low with drag & drop web builders, you will find it easy to spend a few dollars on this task.

Hiring a designer for Drag & drop Web builders is more convenient than in the case of WordPress. The process is not cheap because the designers get less qualified. Instead, the drag & drop builders minimise possible technical barriers. In return, this reduces the amount of work a designer has to do making the service cheaper.

It means that you need no coding skills to qualify to be a designer in this field. And with its wide variety of available designers here, you will have a pool to make a perfect selection.

5. Troubleshooting and Maintenance Using Drag and Drop Builders

It’ll also cost you $0 to manage and maintain your website while using the drop & drag builders. They have a 24/7 support team that will cater to all your technical issues at free charge. The problem with website builders’ example of WordPress is the fact that you will have to pay for designers to correct the arising technical issue. Also, the payment may not appear as a big issue, but finding a trustworthy designer is always a challenge. And as for advice to individuals with no technical expertise, we recommend a fully managed web builder. It also applies to those individuals new to website designs. In doing this, you face minimal confusion, frustrations, and complications. And this gives you a chance to concentrate on building your website while the technical team deals with any arising issues.

How to Get Designers to Quote to Ensure Fair Pricing

As much as you are ready to invest in a website in Singapore, you want a choice that is fair and guarantees results. You have to be smart when choosing your web design company to avoid incurring avoidable losses.

Before settling on a particular choice, look at the previous experience of the company. This will help you narrow down to designers who have worked on similar projects in the past. Once you do this, send a request to all the companies to see which one is ready to work with your budget.

What Kinds of Guarantees Designers Should Give You For That Package?

If you manage to get a designer that agrees to work on your budget, the next step is working out how to implement the project. The designer should stipulate a timeline within which they will complete the development process. Ideally, you should set milestones that you can assess after a specified period, such as weekly or monthly.

Additionally, the designer should also promise to issue regular updates about the progress of the project. You do not want a situation where you have to pester them to give you such crucial information.

Lastly, the designer should make it clear that the price you agree upon will not change throughout the project. The best way to avoid such an issue is by signing a contract.

How to Ensure the Costs Are Kept in Check

To ensure that you effectively manage your expenses, it is vital to have a budget. You must also have a contract that shows how much you have to pay to the company handling your website design in Singapore.

Costs of Marketing Your Website

The cost of marketing your website in Singapore depends on your objectives. If you want to reach a bigger audience, you will have to pay more. Regardless, the two main methods of website marketing are SEO and SEM.

If you wish to get a specific quote, you can get one from MediaOne Marketing here. Working with us guarantees success, as we were recently voted the best SEO agency in Singapore.

What Are the Key Deliverables in a Website You Should Expect From Your Web Designer?

Web design and development is a long process that entails discovery, planning, designing, integrating and delivering the complete project. Certainly, not all the involved documents are of a major interest to the client. In fact, a number of them are entirely ignored. But some documents are crucial communication channels between the developer and the customer. So what are the key deliverables should you expect from your web designer: 

Wireframes

Wireframes are schematic descriptions of the website and should adequately simulate the exact page layout of the site and the user navigations. Ensure that every wireframe has all the content you want to appear in the final website. 

Mood Boards

Mood boards describe the visual style used in developing the website, including colors, graphics, and fonts. They tell the web designer more about the clients’ taste in visual styles. 

Graphic Design

A graphic design mockup, often a composite image, is used to show the client how the final website will appear in terms of layout, color, images, and typography. Nowadays, it the industry standard for web designers to show the client desktop, tablet, and mobile graphic design mockups. 

Development Site/Prototype

The integration/programming stage of web design involves the conversion of the design concepts into code (DHTML, HTML, Scripting, CSS, database tables etc.). If you are a client who would want your website to have special functionalities or be developed using a particular programming language, you’ll have to ask the web designer to involve you in the prototyping stage.

What Are the Questions You Should Ask a Web Design Firm Prior to Engaging Them?

The internet is too competitive to take chances on critical decisions such as web design. The questioned listed below can help you, as a client, get more information from your web designer during the first meeting: 

Do you actually do web design/development in-house or outsource?

This question should appear at the very top of your list because you don’t want to hire the wrong person for the job. 

What’s the average turnaround time spent on one project?

A competent web design would take just 2 weeks to complete work on the graphics components of the website unless the client is slow in providing the necessary content. If clearly state what you want and provide the required materials, the process runs smoothly. 

Do you design websites from scratch or simply use standard templates?

Many people dislike the idea of using pre-made templates to design their websites because of the hefty costs that come with buying and customizing them to reflect individual expectations. Custom design, therefore, is the way to go. 

Will you supply all the original graphics files?

You must acquire the original graphics files lest you lose control over your website. If your designer decides along the way, ensure you’re in possession of the original graphics files so that you can easily provide them to a new designer. Be specific and ask for graphics files produced by a major graphics program such as Photoshop, Fireworks, and Illustrator, etc. 

Are your designs duly tested for multi-browser & cross-platform compatibility?

A web designer normally tests the website across several web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari browser for iOS) to ascertain that the website displays the same content, has the same layout and its functionalities don’t vary. 

Can you add design changes later?

A website is never “done”. It will keep evolving. In case you’re open to suggestions and comments from friends, you’ll want to edit, test, and change the content on your website. Ensure that you hire a web designer who is aware of these processes. 

Is web design your full-time job?

A wannabe web designer’s work is remarkably different from that of a professional full-time web designer. Part-timers may, at times, provide excellent services but aren’t always available when they are badly needed. 

Do you have marketing or sales experience?

Think of your web designer as being of your salesmen. You can’t hire a salesperson who can’t market your products. Neither can you would you recruit a marketing director without a proven experience. Best web designers tend to be creative and have the ability to “market” things alongside their design concepts. You’re advised to hire a multi-skilled web designer. 

Can you offer internet marketing services?

There is a huge difference between web designers who are “programming people”, “design people”, and “marketing people”. Every organization whether it’s e-commerce oriented or not looks forward to web-generated growth. Besides ensuring your website is optimized and has WordPress tools ready for work, your web designer should be willing to stay around a little longer after completing the project to ensure all the marketing strategies are working flawlessly.

Must I always reach you through the project manager or directly?

Sometimes, during the web design process, there arise matters you would love to convey directly to the web designer without having to deal with the intermediaries. For the sake of ensuring flexibility in decision making, it is advisable to for a web designer whom you can contact directly without involving the project manager.

Will you design the logo for my site as well?

Websites are starting to be increasingly essential on websites for branding reasons. Most clients would want their logos accurately shown on their websites. Most web designers offer logo creation services as well. It would be fabulous to get a designer who can do both, and do them very well.

Do you charge by the project or by the hour?

There is a reason why this question needs to appear among the top questions on your list and the reason has something to do with the overall cost of the project. Hourly charges can easily make the project look costly. The situation can be worse in case of delays, especially if you’ve already signed the binding contract agreements. However, the decision of opting for whole project pricing to hourly charges depended on your confidence in the web designer.

How a Website Should Tie-up With Good UX/UI

It is pretty easy to hire a web designer willing to take on any web design project but it’s quite harder to find a professional who is conversant with the UX/UI and the best practices needed. UI (User Experience) is used to describe a combination of elements used for creating a friendly and desired UX (User Experience). An experienced web designer knows how the UI and UX parts should sync.

Firstly, a good UX/UI relationship is built on principles of simplicity and consistency. A great interface is always simple to use. Reasonable usage of buttons and animations greatly improves the ease of how visitors interact with the website.

Secondly, a website should implement a well-structured visual hierarchy. This means that important elements of the site’s interface should be well highlighted to capture the focus of the user. If you’ve used Netflix, for example, you should have noticed that a range of impossible-to-ignore recommendations hits the main page right away when you open their app.

Why Being Mobile Friendly and Being Very SEO-Friendly Is Essential  

A mobile-friendly website means visitors have an easier time opening your website on their smartphones and tablets. This is only made possible by building your website with mobile-responsive capabilities.

So why is essential for your site to be mobile-friendly? Research has shown that more people nowadays – slightly over two-thirds of overall internet users across all ages – browse the internet using mobile devices (smartphones and tablet computers) more than they do with desktop computers. Therefore, creating a website without mobile-responsive capabilities means you’re locking out much of the internet’s traffic.

Search engine optimisation in the Singapore context, on the other hand, is essential in ensuring that your site appears among the few top search results on Google.com.sg and the other local search engines, out of millions of websites, shown on the screen of a possible visitor. If you’re running a business website, SEO would be highly instrumental in helping your potential client (who lives in a few kilometers radius from your physical business premises) trace your establishment.

What Are the Key Metrics Google Seeks on a Website?

Google, through Google Analytics (GA), is the de-facto king of free web analytics. This is so because the company monitors huge troves of KPIs (Key Performing Indicators) of business which is eventually used to tell Google about visitors’ behaviours and the traffic received by the specific site. Google looks for an array of metrics from your website to create the site-specific profile: 

• The origin of your visitors (where they came from)
• If the conversions are new or unique
• The number and kind of interactions made by the visitor during the visit
• The bounce rate
• The value earned by your website during the visit
• Over page views
• The duration of the session
• The number of sessions
• Age, gender, taste, and even the geographical location of the visitor

How to Find a Good Web Design Company for Your Budget

It’s typical of any serious business person out there to want to know how much it’s going to cost them to set up an amazing online portal for their business. There’s no denying that everything eventually boils down to money. It’s business, so it’s common sense to expect every buck you spend on anything to bring the most value.

Web designing and development is NOT an exception in this. Your vetting process is simply aimed at finding that one particular company that will be helping you create a sleek and highly functional website for your business without going heavy on your pocket.

So it makes more sense for you to find out beforehand about how much it’s going to cost you to bring the entire project up.

The majority of web users judge the credibility of a company by looking at its design. It is simple logic — a company that has invested a great deal of its time and effort creating a stunning website for itself is more likely to deliver an outrageously amazing website as opposed to a company with a shoddily done one.

The problem comes with finding a good web designing company whose price is flexible enough to accommodate your budget.

In this section of the post, we try to candidly and directly address the cost of designing. We try to break everything down while walking you through what to expect for a particular price range, all with the sole aim of making sure you don’t get short-changed next time you go hiring a web designer or developer in Singapore.

Scalable Price Tag

The first and perhaps the most important thing to take into consideration while you’re holding a discussion with any agency regarding web designing cost is that it’s almost entirely scalable. It’s even possible to create and manage a fully functional, self-hosted website for as little as $20 a year.

Of course, that comes with its share of shortcomings and hamstrings – for instance, it’s almost impossible to create a fully customized site that snugly matches your brand with such a budget. There’s also the problem of the site NOT meeting the required usability standards.

Meaning, to get a great website, it’s crucial that you take it as a serious investment. Consider pumping in a decent sum of money, and you’re likely to end up with a more satisfying website for your business.

The Three Categories of Web Designing

There are three broad categories of web designing – and that’s, low cost, medium cost, and high-cost web designing.

Low-Cost Web Designing

Low-cost designing encapsulates all the DIY designing methods like designing your website from a canned template. Works even better if you have the time to research and get the job done yourself without depending on the services of a web developer.

You also have the option to use a free template or to shell out a little sum of money for a premium theme. But even with this, there are numerous ways your site could still benefit from the services of a professional web designer.

The Medium Level Web Designing

This is the most common web designing method, and which basically involves hiring a freelance designer that you’ll be working together to bring your site up. Depending on what the freelancer charges, this category strikes to create a balance between quality and cost.

Keep in mind that you’ll be working in close collaboration with the freelancer, making sure they get the job done exactly as you visualized it. And if done right, then there’s a stronger possibility that the website you create will be more unique and customized to match your brand.

Usually, freelancers are charged based on their skill level. You have a better chance of getting a better website by working with a professional freelance web designer with years of experience. But you’ll have to shell out a hefty sum of money for their services.

Still, when all the factors are brought into consideration, there’s a strong possibility that hiring a freelance developer will be much cheaper than getting the same services from an agency.

Some companies however prefer hiring an agency as most of them do offer additional web designing services, while a freelancer will only be limited to providing the design work you hired them for.

High-Level Web Designing

The highest web designing level is one where you’ll be hiring a web designing agency. This is the option established company and enterprises prefer, considering they’ll be handling almost everything on their own while requiring very little from you.

The final product always tends to be much better. That’s because it’s handled by a group of developers, each of whom will be specializing in handling a specific part of the website. The only limitation with taking this approach is the cost involved, but it’s the most recommended option for businesses that are more serious about setting up a formidable online presence with minimal strain on their part.

Cost Benchmarking  

Benchmarking tries to compare the cost of designing a website with one particular agency and the rest of the agencies within the locality you’re in. It’s what you use to determine if the amount you’re paying is fair enough compared to the industry standard.

It’s to be however noted that the cost of web development will always vary depending on the type and complexities of the project at hand.

A great majority of web agencies in Singapore charge a flat rate. But there are times when the web designing cost will vary depending on the average hourly rates of the web developers working on the project, the complexities of the project, and the amount of time it would take to complete the project.

This is nothing out of the ordinary as most IT developers operate in the same exact way.

Take our agency for example – it’s based in Singapore where taxes, rent, and labor expenses for our team members are relatively lower compared to an agency in the UK or US. That means, the hourly web development rate would be a little lower for the clients we attract.

Of course, it’s still possible to find a web development agency in the west that still charges low for their work, but most of the time, such agencies will be using off-shores to keep their prices low. You might want to be a little careful with such offers, particularly those that sound too cheap, too good, and so unreal, as there’s always a catch that might be crawling back to bite you.

There also exist a few agencies that will be setting the web designing price based on your business value. For instance, if the company estimates your business to be about $1 million, then they may decide to ask for 5% of its total value as the cost of designing a website for their kind of customers.

Website Packages

Other agencies may suggest you purchase a website package. These packages usually go for a fixed price, with the option to upgrade to a higher package should you feel the need for it.

This option tends to be a little bit cheaper compared to the cost of working with a web agency that charges a flat or hourly rate. But their ways in which they may overcharge their clients, like when the client decides to ask for some of the features that are NOT included in the package they ordered.

Writing a Great Request for Proposal (RFP)

Request for Proposals is how many professional web development agencies in Singapore win new businesses. As an agency that has been in the web designing business for quite a while, we’ve received tons of them from organizations that are either trying to upgrade their existing website or design one from scratch.

Some of the RFP we get are usually clear, straight to the point, and detailed, in addition to providing all the information we need to quickly draft a great proposal. But that’s NOT always the case with every RFP we get.

So how do you go about creating a good RFP that will most likely be attracting great web designing quotes?

What Makes a Great RFP?

Before you even think of writing an RFP that will be attracting nice quotes, it’s crucial that you focus on one that web development agencies will at least consider responding to. If your RFP doesn’t paint a clear picture of your business vision and the road ahead, then there’s a fair chance that lots of the agencies you’ll be mass shooting it to will be completely ignoring it.

Writing a great RFP takes a whole lot more than just asking random web designing questions. The point is to focus on communicating in a clearer and more concise manner, taking time to elaborate on useful information about your business and what it is that you want to achieve.

That way, agencies will have an easy time deciding if they’re ready or have the technical expertise and experience to move the business towards your goals. A good agency isn’t just hungry about driving new business. Results matters to them the same way it matters to you.

They want your business to succeed and be sure that their services will be propelling your business to the next level.

Your role in this is NOT to select the most fitting web designer or developer. You also want to make sure that the agency you choose will agree to work with you and most importantly offer you a fair quote.

The last thing you want to happen is you losing out on a great agency simply because the agency didn’t consider you a great fit for doing business with them based on the RFP you provided.

Conclusion

We can say that how much to construct a website depends on the four resources you need to build a website. These are time, technical knowledge, design skills, and money. Therefore, understanding what you have and what you lack gives you an opportunity to know which path you should take. By doing this, you can quickly approximate the final cost of the website you aim to create. Also, the budget of your site should put the following into consideration;

• The amount of time you consider employing into your project,
• The financial capital you’re prepared to apply to the hiring process for qualified professionals, and
• The opportunity cost for being able to use your time to a highly valued business and personal things.

Also, from the above discussion, consider using website builders such as WordPress in developing your website if you possess the following properties:

• If it’s not the first time to develop a site and you have experiences in managing available WordPress website design templates,
• In case you have specific web design and software needs which you can only find in WordPress,
• When you have adequate time and money you can spend on learning, designing, and operating WordPress Websites.

On the other hand, we recommend that you consider using Wix.com, Squarespace, and Weebly if you experience the following conditions;

• In case it’s your first time creating a website,
• If you need no custom design websites, or you have no specific software needs for your site,
• In case the time to spend on your website gets limited, meaning that you find no necessity in learning coding skills,
• When your financial situation is limited and has no cash to invest in your site development. As a result, you find it not necessary to hire professional developers or designers in the process, and also,
• When you want increased control of the website. With improved control, it means that you have not to pay developers or designers to make changes in the website content. It assumes that you prefer managing the account all by yourself.

Finding a great web designing or development agency in Singapore is no easy feat. You have options aplenty, but only a few of them have the technical capacity and experience to deliver. Still, you can’t be sure if the quotes they provide will be accommodating your budget.

For more information regarding the cost of designing a great website for your business, then the first thing you might want to do is reach out to MediaOne today for a more informed piece of advice on the subject.