Notarealsignguy
Arial - it's almost helvetica
We need to replace our website. Does anyone here do custom sites? What would be the ballpark range for a nice turn key site about 5-6 pages run to build?
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Looking for Website Design & Cost
- Thread starter Notarealsignguy
- Start date
If you don't need anything complicated it will just be quick and easy to build it yourself. They make it these days where anyone can build a nice looking website just by pointing and clicking. Wix or Squarespace are good places to start. But if you need something complex then a web expert may be required.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
If it is really just a portfolio place and directing people to contact you thru email/phone etc, that should be able to be handled easily with HTML/CSS and that is fairly easy to do yourself.
Now, if you are looking at an online store, complex forms, client portals etc, that's something else entirely. If you look at your CPanel for your site now (or what passes for the CPanel depending on what your hosting service uses on the server, although I would imagine that it is RHEL), should be able to have plugins etc that allow you to easily get something else up on your own as well. Even with the more difficult online shopping etc type of needs.
One thing that I would caution with the the point and click type of site builders is that most people do not tend to style those radically different so sites all start to look the same. So while they do make things easier, they also make things look the same and for those that think that the internet space is a visual blight on the eyes, that's partially the problem right there. So keep that in mind as well. Another thing about those that I don't tend to like is that you are at the mercy of the people that made whatever plugins that you used to keep them up to date as well. So if you are unable to tweak things when necessary yourself, that may be another concern to think about.
If it's not needing a lot of interactivity and CRUD work, it should be easy enough to do a nice website and still have some animation etc (it's amazing what one can do (and should do) with CSS nowadays and not have to rely on JS) and be able to do it yourself.
Now, if you are looking at an online store, complex forms, client portals etc, that's something else entirely. If you look at your CPanel for your site now (or what passes for the CPanel depending on what your hosting service uses on the server, although I would imagine that it is RHEL), should be able to have plugins etc that allow you to easily get something else up on your own as well. Even with the more difficult online shopping etc type of needs.
One thing that I would caution with the the point and click type of site builders is that most people do not tend to style those radically different so sites all start to look the same. So while they do make things easier, they also make things look the same and for those that think that the internet space is a visual blight on the eyes, that's partially the problem right there. So keep that in mind as well. Another thing about those that I don't tend to like is that you are at the mercy of the people that made whatever plugins that you used to keep them up to date as well. So if you are unable to tweak things when necessary yourself, that may be another concern to think about.
If it's not needing a lot of interactivity and CRUD work, it should be easy enough to do a nice website and still have some animation etc (it's amazing what one can do (and should do) with CSS nowadays and not have to rely on JS) and be able to do it yourself.
Like signs: It depends.
Option 1: DIY. So you can do Wix or something like that. It's $20-40/mo which includes hosting. You're basically renting a site. The alternative is paying for hosting ($5-20/mo typically) and doing a WordPress Site with something like Divi or Elementor on top of it. Both Divi and Elementor cost I think $50/yr, but you'd need to confirm that. You're going to get a similar package as Wix but rely on community support, a little less friendly interface, and your options are going to feel unlimited.
Option 2: Pay a designer on Fiverr or Upwork. They're most likely going to use WordPress. They may or may not use Divi or Elementor. They'll load in a template for you or make one. They'll make graphics for you or load them. It's completely flexible. Big picture, you should expect to pay about $500-3000 for something like this. At the low end, you'll be working with someone in India, Pakistan, or the Philippines. Mid range you'll find some American developers but mostly Eastern European. Higher end will be American/Canadian/Western European
Option 3: Go to a "local". This will heavily depends on your market and who you find. Ball park will be between $1000-5000 probably. You will still have your hosting costs on top of this.
The biggest advantage of going with the higher cost person is they should be able to create passable copywrite, but big picture, that's something you can out source too using the sites above to someone that specializes in that sort of thing.
Ultimately the price is going to depend most on the graphics. If you draw something up in photoshop and they just have to create it, your site is going to be WAY cheaper than if they have to create it. At this point, with WP and the add-ons, it's a pretty straight forward process, so it's really not a coding job but a graphic design job.
If your company is good at graphic design, I'd recommend attempting to build your own site. It might be a market you want to enter in the future.
Option 1: DIY. So you can do Wix or something like that. It's $20-40/mo which includes hosting. You're basically renting a site. The alternative is paying for hosting ($5-20/mo typically) and doing a WordPress Site with something like Divi or Elementor on top of it. Both Divi and Elementor cost I think $50/yr, but you'd need to confirm that. You're going to get a similar package as Wix but rely on community support, a little less friendly interface, and your options are going to feel unlimited.
Option 2: Pay a designer on Fiverr or Upwork. They're most likely going to use WordPress. They may or may not use Divi or Elementor. They'll load in a template for you or make one. They'll make graphics for you or load them. It's completely flexible. Big picture, you should expect to pay about $500-3000 for something like this. At the low end, you'll be working with someone in India, Pakistan, or the Philippines. Mid range you'll find some American developers but mostly Eastern European. Higher end will be American/Canadian/Western European
Option 3: Go to a "local". This will heavily depends on your market and who you find. Ball park will be between $1000-5000 probably. You will still have your hosting costs on top of this.
The biggest advantage of going with the higher cost person is they should be able to create passable copywrite, but big picture, that's something you can out source too using the sites above to someone that specializes in that sort of thing.
Ultimately the price is going to depend most on the graphics. If you draw something up in photoshop and they just have to create it, your site is going to be WAY cheaper than if they have to create it. At this point, with WP and the add-ons, it's a pretty straight forward process, so it's really not a coding job but a graphic design job.
If your company is good at graphic design, I'd recommend attempting to build your own site. It might be a market you want to enter in the future.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
Do it in Inkscape as it uses SVGs by default and that's the standard for the web. Plus that will give you XML markup to attach JS to it if wanting to do interactivity.
I wouldn't suggest outputting from Ai or DRAW as their SVG output is bunk. Since Inkscape really is for web design and SVG is 1st class as that is the default format of the program, I would suggest using that. Plus it would be ready to go, regardless if you do it yourself or use a 3rd party. Especially if you use a 3rd party as they wouldn't have to recreate anything.
visual800
Active Member
I did wix. Simple easy and was nothing but portfolio. No one visits it anyway so we took it off the payed program and now its free. Only difference is WIX gets to throw their logo on it. Nothing fancy just some quick info and pics of work and contact info. I dont even update it since it gets no visitors
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
I did Wix myself and the templates they give you will make the site look professional. They had a sale so I bought 3 years all at once for like $300 so I'm paying under $9/mo.
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
Are you guys stuck using the FSI website or free to do your own thing?
CanuckSigns
Active Member
The local fastsigns has the standard site, it's pretty bad, Hard to navigate, and none of the images of work is actually work that shop did, they just use images from other fastsigns.
To answer the original question, anticipate paying a professional around $700 -$1000 for a basic site. Or look into something like WordPress and do it yourself with a theme.
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
I know, it's the worst sign shop website I've ever seen. They even have the same Facebook posts and nothing is local.
Notarealsignguy
Arial - it's almost helvetica
I didn't really want something super basic. We sell a niche type of truck and need to be able to list these there in addition to being on other listing sites like commercial truck trader. Other thing is I want to migrate a shopping cart site that we have over to this site at some point in the future. Wordpress has plugins to do the listings, I just don't have the time or desire to mess with it or the graphics. I'd rather just pay someone. We were going to use a local company but they're at 4500 which seems a bit steep. Now I have to use their server at $30 a month or pay them an $800 extra if I don't.
I don't want to waste my time or anyone else's calling around for quotes and having to listen to some sales lady rattle on and on or go back and forth with a million emails just to get a price. I could use fiverr but I don't want to deal with someone who doesn't speak English as their native langauge. Often times the people that say they're from the USA also aren't.
Anyways, I'm all ears for suggestions but wix and the like aren't really what I'm after.
I don't want to waste my time or anyone else's calling around for quotes and having to listen to some sales lady rattle on and on or go back and forth with a million emails just to get a price. I could use fiverr but I don't want to deal with someone who doesn't speak English as their native langauge. Often times the people that say they're from the USA also aren't.
Anyways, I'm all ears for suggestions but wix and the like aren't really what I'm after.
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
Don't balk at the 4500 then... its going to be several days of work and that sounds like the route you want to go...except for the price. Websites are very important especially selling to people outside your local market... don't worry about that price. If it helps you sell one more truck then it paid for itself
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
You have eliminated all the "low hanging" suggestions. My next suggestion is to lax a little bit on one of those things and go down that route.
1. Don't want to do the graphics yourself (which I would imagine don't want to do the entire project yourself).
2. Don't want to shop around for prices, while the one that you did get is too steep.
3. Don't want to deal with Fiverr due to language concerns
4. Don't want to use Wix and the like
In my mind something has got to give. Which is the lesser "evil" you are willing to deal with and go in that direction.
1. Don't want to do the graphics yourself (which I would imagine don't want to do the entire project yourself).
2. Don't want to shop around for prices, while the one that you did get is too steep.
3. Don't want to deal with Fiverr due to language concerns
4. Don't want to use Wix and the like
In my mind something has got to give. Which is the lesser "evil" you are willing to deal with and go in that direction.
Notarealsignguy
Arial - it's almost helvetica
I thought someone may chime in that makes sites or with what an average price should be so I can put things into perspective. I'm not balking at the price as much as I am being nickel and dimed on things like hosting. I don't want someone else in control of the hosting where I'm at their mercy for price increases, them going out of business etc. Paying an additional $800 to use my own host kind of rubbed me wrong. They have a sales lady too that is driving me crazy. Since I'm going through her, I also don't think we're on the same page about the functionality of the listings. I want someone that's normal and I can talk with directly. Figured that this may be part of someone's business here
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
I will admit that the 800 is quite high.
Going out of business is always going to be a concern with no matter who you get. As long as you are going to be depending on someone else, that is a risk. Also using their servers is just that much more of a risk. If plugins are used that the maintainers no longer keep active and your site uses those, then that's no bueno as well.
Depending on how much control that you want, I would just suggest do it yourself. Even with the shopping portal and all that (yes I have done that, so I'm not just talking out of my checks on this one). Web dev work is perhaps the most robust community out there and you can find an answer to just about any question out there if you are stuck with something, stackoverflow is a wonderful resource (shoot, my IDE has a plugin that accesses stackoverflow and shows the answer in the IDE). It just takes time. Depending on what the value is for your time versus the value for someone else's time can aid in determining rather or not to still do it in house or not. Thing is, as I have gotten older, I absolutely despise this lack of control direction that people seem to be heading into (and sometimes it seems willingly), so I'll still do things in house just so I'm not at the mercy of one more person that I really don't have to be (sometimes there is no way around it, but not in every situation).
CanuckSigns
Active Member
With web design, it doesn't really need to be someone local, I can PM you the name of my guy up here in Canada, he uses wordpress, you host on your own server for no extra fee, and as an added bonus the US Dollar is worth $1.25 right now, so you are already getting a 25% discount lol.
There used to be a merchant member on here years ago who offered various "pre made" website specific to the sign industry, I think it was this guy: https://signcompanywebsites.com/
There used to be a merchant member on here years ago who offered various "pre made" website specific to the sign industry, I think it was this guy: https://signcompanywebsites.com/
Notarealsignguy
Arial - it's almost helvetica
That would be great, thanks!
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
Those websites don't look too bad.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
They do love their bootstrap (yes that CDN is there on that site).
If you go with someone, please make sure that they really customize bootstrap if they use it. Otherwise sites do tend to look a like.
I would imagine for the lower tier that it would be used without customization. It does speed up workflow, but that does come at a price.
If you go with someone, please make sure that they really customize bootstrap if they use it. Otherwise sites do tend to look a like.
I would imagine for the lower tier that it would be used without customization. It does speed up workflow, but that does come at a price.