This is not something that happens often. It does happen.
The cost of your project might change if we are hired to create it.
Doesn’t seem fair, does it?
Yes, I understand. We hate it sometimes, but sometimes we have to.
Most projects go as planned and, in 90% of cases, the price quoted at the beginning of the project is the final price.
However, 10% of our clients end up paying more.
This post will explain how to prevent this from happening.
Website costs
We try to be as transparent with our prices as possible. To avoid any confusion, we also display our fees clearly on the website.
For an indication of our pricing, most websites we create cost between PS3495 and PS5497. However, some websites can cost as high as 10K-15K.
It all depends on what you need and how long it takes.
Information gathering
We gather as much information about your project as we can before we begin to quote you.
We will ask you questions about:
- You want the website to have all of your favorite features
- Your design preferences
- Which pages do you want to see on the site?
- What advice do you require?
- What number of people will work on this project?
- What do you want from your website?
- Plus, many other things
These questions are asked at the beginning of a website project because every answer can drastically change the amount of work required.
The more information we have, the better the proposal.
Let’s now talk about the elephant in the room.
Why should we change the price we have set for you?
Below are the main reasons this could happen.
1. Extra features & services
This is normal. The price will go up if you add additional features or services to your original package.
You may want to change some parts or make adjustments as things change. It’s okay. We try to be as flexible and adaptable as possible.
We will need to charge you for certain things. Let’s suppose you want a website that will allow you to promote your freelance services. Later, however, you decide that you want an online shop page to sell physical products. Because it is something we did not include in the original package, and because it takes longer, this will be charged separately.
Let’s say that you need us to create a booking calendar so you can book online appointments. We may require additional tools, which will be more time-consuming for us to setup. We will charge you more if this is the case.
The same applies to:
- You can also design additional pages
- Installing landing pages
- Integration via email
- Modifications to page layouts
- Extra support, e.g. Online coaching available from us
- Completing more in-depth keyword research, and optimizing SEO
The bottom line is that anything you don’t agree on at the beginning of the project can increase the final cost.
2. Modifying the schedule
We try to estimate the time it will take before we start building your website. While most of our projects take 12-16 weeks to complete, this is not a fixed time.
Each project is unique and will take different amounts of time depending on what you require. We’ll give an indication of the timeline at the beginning of the project.
Once the project is started, we will work with you on a launch date. We will schedule it on the calendar and then we’ll schedule other projects around it. We can schedule our projects around yours so we have enough time to finish your website and be ready for launch day.
If we agree on a launch date but you change it, it could affect the final price.
Let’s say you want to move the launch date up and make it live earlier than originally agreed. This usually means that we will need to adjust our schedule and allow for extra time to finish your website. We’ll charge more if this happens.
Alternately, if we set the date for a project to go live but then have to change it due to delays on our end, this could sometimes affect the final cost of the project. We have found that if a project is delayed, it leads to more changes later on and more work.
3. Design Changes after approval
We take every precaution to make sure your website is exactly what you want.
We’ll then move to the design phase after our initial research and discovery phase. We’ll create all your pages in photoshop before building them.
We’ll send the designs to you once we are satisfied with them. We will then send you the designs so you can tell us what you like, dislike, and what you would like to add, change, delete, or remove.
Based on your suggestions, we’ll make more changes. We move forward with the pages once you are satisfied and have your approval.
This is your chance to let us know if there are any changes you would like to make before we code.
We may need to charge more if you decide to change your mind after we have started building your site. This is because it will take longer to rebuild certain elements.
However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t make changes. You will likely need to make some changes, even if they are small.
To avoid extra charges later, it is always better to be happy before anything is built.
How can you ensure that the price stays the same?
If you have a tight budget and want to ensure that the final price is the same as what was agreed upon at the beginning of the project, take some time to plan the project before you hire us.
Take a look at our website buyers guide. Make notes as you go.
This will allow you to be fully informed about what you may need before we start our first consultation.
To help you choose the right web design agency, we created the website buyers guide. This guide will help you determine how much you can afford and what features are most important to you.
Summary
Hopefully you now understand why the price may change during the website building process.
We don’t charge extra for any of our web design services. Some leading web design agencies in South Africa, especially larger ones, charge extra for very small changes. We are fair and understanding. If it takes us longer to complete the task, we might have to charge.