[The Breakdown] How Much Should You Charge For A Website Design In 2017

Being a Website designer myself, I cannot count how many times have googled “How much does a website cost”. Even though have been in the game since 2013 and have had the opportunity of designing numerous websites for various clients around the globe, I still always search that term to see what others are charging and how what I charge compares to theirs. We humans always want to be sure that we are not been cheated and that we are getting what we deserve or what the service we render is worth. I have charged up to £5000 for a website design and have charged as low as £300 for website design and when I was in Nigeria, I have charged N50,000 ($158) and below. Yes, everyone has a very ridiculous price they’ve charged either because they felt the need to get the client or because they were broke. Sometimes when you are just starting out, you might charge ridiculously low amounts just to get a job and to get a website added to your portfolio.

If there is anything have learnt from those very low paying jobs, it is the fact they were the most stressful and headache giving jobs of my career. Before we go into the how much you should be charging for a website design in 2017 as a website designer, I want to take a moment to share some insights on why you should be charging good money in the first place.

(1) Clients Who Pay Less Gives The Most Trouble.

I had to learn this the hard way. I remember charging clients $350 to design their website, logo, business card, flyers and basically anything they wanted in terms of design. Even though the clients were good people, the fact that they paid so little meant they really don’t know the worth of a website and because they don’t know the worth, they are bound to ask for ridiculous features upon features.

The project takes months because they keep going back and forth with requests and demands or don’t reply to your message on time when you ask them to review the work you’ve done so far. On the other hand, I have noticed that the clients who I charged $1500 or $2500 and more gave me less trouble. This doesnt only apply to web design by the way, if you look closely, its also in most fields and aspects of our day to day lives.

The clients that pay premium  are the people who should be giving you the most trouble or headache but because they paid premium, they respect you as a s professional and adhere to the initial website plan and outline. About 2days ago, one of my students sent me a mail. He said he’s currently facing hell. A client who he charged $100 to design a website is giving him a lot of trouble, shes asking for this and that and that and instantly I felt sorry for him.

I know what he’s going through because it has happened to the best of us. I told him straight way that he shouldn’t be charging $100 in the first place!!! That’s a big slap to his face and the client should be ashamed of herself for trying to get a fully functional website done for $100. How much should he charge? We’ll get to that in a bit.

(2) Website Design Has A Price Range.

I always say this alot, web design is not a hobby. Its not something to be played with, its serious business for you the designer and its of great importance to the client because that is going to be their new online presence and first contact with their prospective clients.

There is a price range for website design and both businesses and designers need to be aware of this. The average price for a website for a Small to Medium Sized Business is $1000 – $5000 and the price for a large business ranges from $5000 – $9000 and ofcourse the designer or design company can choose which point within the range they want to charge, either because of their experience, the client’s unique situation or resources that will be used to get the work done.

I know majority of my readers are Nigerians, Ghanians and South Africans and they are thinking to themselves like “Wow! Thats much! I cant charge that much in USD” .

The answer to that is this – a website designed by a Nigerian and one designed by a US designer will most likely not be different in terms of quality if both designers are good web designers. Obviously, the cost of rent, resources and cost of living in the US or UK has an influence on the price to charge, designers in developing countries must ensure that this doesn’t limit them from charging what the market price is – but also try to be considerate.

(3) You Bring a ROI For The Business.

I’ll say this again. Website design isn’t a hobby. Its serious business. When you design a website for a business, you are literally giving them something very powerful. In this computer age, a business without a website is termed as “not in existence”. This means that you as a website designer, you are playing a key role in placing that business on the internet, giving them a space on the world wide web and exposing them to their prospective customer and to the world at large.

When you as a website designer think from this mindset, you will never charge peanuts to design a website anymore. Your design will bring a Return On Investment (ROI) for the client and you need to be well compensated for providing such valuable service. I have noticed that designers who don’t make alot of money doing designs are often those that think its just HTML, PHP, CSS or WordPress. They dont see it from the perspective of being a valuable service or commodity, hence why they are not able to charge and make good money doing web design. Last year, I did a short 30 days contract with a large firm in the city of London.

These guys make hundreds of thousands of pounds yearly. Their website was shit, anytime they tried to sell their service or event to a client and the client checks their website, the client always felt disappointed and didn’t want to move ahead with working with them and this resulted in them loosing alot of good and prospective clients and obviously alot of money.

This is where I came in to the scene, they hired me to give their online presence a Presidential touch and make them look more professional. This was a fun job, I got on board…tore down their previous website (which was designed by a UK based Creative Design Agency) and I made a new website for them. The website is so dope that its the best website on my portolio, I am so proud of the work. (You can check my ppportlio on my website www.Presidentialideas.co.uk).

I charged them between £3000 – £3500 , the website took me about a week to get ready and the rest of the other 20+ days just adding their content, taking pictures and some other things we decided to implement. Did I charge a good amount? Well, at that time I just moved to London and it felt right…looking back now, I could have charged more. The company sent me a message awhile ago saying that they are getting close to the £1 Million per year profit range and guess why? Because of their online presence, they now look like a million box on the internet. Their clients and prospective clients now feel confident in working with them.

Can you see the power of a website? Its more than just a website, its a building of the business online and you are the architect. So you deserve to be compensated well for being the person that provides that service. Stop undermining your work!

Now that I spent some time talking about why you should charge well for your web design service, Its time to talk about how much you should charge for website design. I promise this will be short and sharp. I think you already have enough solid information already. I will be straight and direct – You should never charge less than $1000 for a website design. In the nearest future, I am going to be exposing you to how to charge $5k and above but the least you should charge for a website design for now is $1000.

It might seem like alot if you are from a developing country but its not.  You might also think that you are still new in the game and do not have enough work to show or bragging right but I want you to remember that my first ever web design job was for $1200 and I had ZERO work to show in my portfolio, I was young and hungry and my office was a dead looking ACER on my grandmother’s dining table in Nigeria.

So, its all about having a process and following a blueprint that works. Knowing where to find clients that actually pays well, having a mindset detoxification, having a new process and strategy, having a solid proposal that makes your clients and prospective clients see the worth in what you are delivering, knowing how to deal with clients that wants to pay Walmart price for Trump quality service and overall learning some tricks and hacks that makes you deliver high quality work in a quick turnaround time.

That being said, I just released an eBook that goes into more depth on how to start charging over $1000 for every website you design. Below are just few of the things that you will learn from the eBook:

• How I Made My First $1200 back in 2013 when I was based in Nigeria with close to zero experience in web design.
• The Website To Place Yourself in To Get Clients Who Pay Over $1000
• The EXACT Proposal Template I Make Use Of To Charge Upwards of $1000 per Design.
• The Mindset, Blueprint and Strategy Involved In Making Steady $1000 per Design.
• How To Attract, Retain and Optimize Relationships With Clients Overseas who Pay over $1000 per Design.
• How To Spend More Time In Design / Developing The Website By Leveraging Time Saving Resources.
• The Ultimate Blueprint Of Turning One Time Clients To Repeat Clients.
• Access To Over 7 Time Saving Resources That Will Double Your Earnings and Reduce Your Time Of Work

You should check it out and get this valuable information whilst its still available.