Project Development Costs

Here you can find a basic guide to the costs of developing your website project. I think it’s important to be upfront about costings so I am trying to give you an idea of what is involved and how much a website is likely to cost you.

This guide firstly provides an overview of the main costing areas as can be seen in my overview table below. If you read on you will find more details on the individual costs and how I manage them for you.

You may also wish to read my non-technical guide to some of the aspects of having a publicly available website as discussed below.


Project Development Cost Overview

Basic WordPress Site Setup

£400.00

FULLY FUNCTIONAL WORDPRESS WEBSITE

  • Basic WordPress Site Setup Functional WordPress Website £400 for up to 4 pages
  • A fully functional basic website or the foundation for a larger more complex site
  • Based on your choice from thousands of free WordPress themes, commercial themes are available at additional cost
  • You provide the text, images and video content and I’ll add them to your new site
  • Can be expanded using any of the additional features that I offer
  • Please Note: This does not include the annual cost of Web Hosting and Domain Name renewal

Maintenance Package

£20.00

FROM £20 / MONTH

  • Keep your website healthy from £20 per month
  • Let me take care of the upkeep of your website with a maintenance package
  • Installation of official WordPress and Plugin updates
  • Regular WordPress database and website backups
  • Trouble-shooting issues with your website, including dealing with any issues with your website hosting
  • Costs of Web Site Hosting and Domain Name renewals included

Customised Theme

£ Negotiable

ENHANCE THE LOOK OF YOUR WEBSITE

  • Negotiable depends on complexity
  • Enhance or modify your chosen theme to suit your business requirements
  • Change the layout or modify the colour scheme beyond the ability of your chosen base theme
  • I can overcome the limitations of WordPress themes by hand coding improvements to your theme

Enhanced Plugin Functionality

£ Negotiable

DO MORE WITH YOUR WEBSITE

  • Negotiable depends on complexity
  • With thousands of Plugins to choose from you can do much more with your WordPress website
  • Enhanced Slideshows for images and video, E-commerce shopping carts, Social Media integration and much more…
  • I will use free plugins if they suit your requirements and only charge for the installation and configuration of the plugin
  • Commercial plugins will be used if the free alternatives don’t meet your needs. You will be charged for the cost of the plugin, but not without your agreement

Setting up a Basic WordPress Site

WordPress allows you to start your website with just a few pages and over time add new content and functionality, this allows me to base my pricing scheme on the same method. All WordPress sites require the same basic setup:

Setting up the initial WordPress installation:

  • Create a new WordPress site configured to your basic requirements
  • Install and configure an agreed WordPress Theme for your website
  • Configure standard WordPress Plugins

Adding Your content (based on a 4 page* website):

  • Add textual content provide by you
  • Add images provided by you
  • Add videos provided by you

The content above can be added to pages as individual items or basic slideshows depending on the functionality of the chosen Theme and installed default Plugins.

* Pages that scroll through lots of content are not classed as standard for this guide. 

The cost of setting up a basic WordPress is £400.


Domain Names

Note sure about Domain Names? See the Domain Names section of my guide.

Using an Existing Domain Name?

If you already have your Domain Name and it is registered with an existing Web Host then I can assist you to transfer it to another Web Host, either my own so I can manage it for you, or to an alternative of your choice. You will remain the registered keeper of the Domain Name in any case.

If you decide to manage your Domain Name yourself then you will be responsible for all issues relating to that Domain Name, mainly the yearly cost of renewal.

I can assist you in the process of  setting up your Domain Name.

Allow me to Manage your Domain Name for you

If I host your website I will include the yearly cost of domain name registration and renewal within our agreed maintenance package.


Hosting Costs

Note sure about Web Hosting? See the Web Hosting section of my guide.

Using Your Own Host?

If you decide to host your website yourself then you will be responsible for all hosting issues relating to your website. This includes the cost off setting up and renewing of your hosting account.

I can assist you in the process of  setting up your web hosting account.

Allow me to Manage your Hosting for you

I can manage the hosting of your website for you. I use Tsohost UK Cloud Hosting to host my websites, with their developer licence I can host multiple shared-hosting websites allowing me to offer savings back to my clients.

If I host your website for you then I can offer you a maintenance package. The cost of website hosting will be covered in the cost of this package.


Maintenance Package

Whether you have a small simple website or a more complex site we can discuss whether a maintenance contract is appropriate for you.

The maintenance requirements will vary from one website to another but all maintenance packages will include:

  • Installation of available updates to the WordPress core system. These updates can fix bugs, address security issues or provide additional functionality to the main WordPress system
  • Installation of available updates for installed Plugins. These updates can fix bugs, address security issues or provide additional functionality for the plugin
  • WordPress database and website backups in case of issues with your website
  • Trouble-shooting issues with your website, including dealing with any issues with your website hosting
  • An agreed number of modifications to your existing website content
  • If I host your website and manage your Domain Name the the maintenance package will also include you annual Domain Name renewal and Web Hosting costs

Don’t worry, if you decide not to go for a maintenance contract, you can contact me anytime during the life of your website to discuss one-off assistance.

My Costs

The cost of the basic part of a maintenance package will be determined by the time allocated per month.

I will allocate an agreed amount of time each month to the regular maintenance of your website and will charge an hourly rate of £20 for this maintenance. Small websites will require 1-2 hours of regular maintenance per month.

Regular maintenance:

  • WordPress and Plugin updates
  • Database and website backups
  • Trouble-shooting issues with your website, including dealing with any issues with your website hosting

Site Modifications

We can either agree a time allocation or number of updates that I will perform on modifications or updates to your website each month. The cost of this work will be agreed with the client.


Enhancing your website with a Custom WordPress Theme

Note sure about WordPress Themes? See the WordPress Themes section of my guide.

There are thousands of free themes available for WordPress but many are limited in styling and layout options. There are also many more commercial themes available but even these may not meet your exact requirements.

I can either tweak an existing theme using hand coding or create what is known as a Child Theme for you. Child Themes are new themes which inherit the styling, layout and functionality of it’s parent theme.  Child Themes allow greater modifications to made and still allow, in theory, the parent theme to be updated without causing issues with your Child Theme.

The cost of customising  a WordPress theme will depend on the complexity of the customisations.

When developing your WordPress website for you I will endeavour to use free themes wherever possible.

Where the free themes don’t quite meet your requirements we can discuss either tweaking an existing theme or whether I should create a new child theme for your website.


Enhancing your website with free and commercial WordPress Plugins

Note sure about Plugins? See the WordPress Plugins section of my guide.

The cost of installing and configuring plugins will be determined by complexity of the plugin and the amount of time required.

When developing your WordPress website for you I will endeavour to use free plugins wherever possible to give you the functionality that you require.

Where the free plugins don’t quite meet your requirements we can discuss either upgrading the free version of a plugin to give additional functionality or customisation, or replacing it with a commercial alternative.

Some Popular commercial plugins are available under a developer licence, where suitable I purchase this extended licence allowing me to use the plugin in multiple websites. This allows me to pass savings on the normal cost back to my clients.