What does a website cost? Part IV
11 May 2016
What if the budget is really small?
We have in the previous episodes discussed why different sites may have different prices, what determines the price and how the types of functions and needs leads to placing projects in different price categories.
In this section we give you tips on ways to get a web page with a very limited budget.
What to do if you require many of the features that are at price levels far above the current budget?
If you want something done, do it yourself.
For the job to be done, someone has to do the it. If you are not able to hire someone else, it’s up to you to get the web site in place. How possible and easy it is for you to fix your own web site depends on your expectation of said web site, and your general computer skills.
In case you have a small budget and do not need anything other than a place to gather information about your business, just want to mark your presence and lack any specific requirements in terms of strategy or performance of the website, there are several simple ways to go.
Self Service
- Simplest and with the least possible effort: you put up your site yourself using online services such as Squarespace or WordPress.com. (Note that the services offered at wordpress.com are different to just using WordPress as a CMS.) They offer different templates for you to choose from, and in most cases these are both aesthetically pleasing and responsive. This is a subscription service in the order of a couple of dollars (USD) a month, and you can (for a few dollar more) also add your own domain.
- There are more options available for those who are comfortable with doing a little more work themselves: E-shops like ThemeForest sells templates for most CMS. There is a much greater variety of designs, but you will have to install the theme you bought, and arrange hosting. A typical template costs around 50 dollars.
- It is also possible to start with a template and then change minor details in the design through the CSS file. This is a cheaper alternative and a way of making the website more personal without spending resources on creating a completely unique design.
