How much does it cost to build a website ?

[thairookie]

I wonder if any one you in business has ever engaged companies to construct your business website.

What is the pricing like ?

I know it depends on many things. But let's start from a simple 5-page static site and gradually move on to a full fledged e-commerce website complete with shopping cart and payment gateway.

Please quote currency in baht or USD.

Thanks.

[CharlieH]

Far too many veriables. You can go do it yourself now on many sites, easy step by step all in one solutions.

You could be easy led to "technical" specialists and can go from a few thousand baht to hundreds of thousands dependant on what you need and what you want to achieve.

It also depends on what you know and how easily someone could convince you ,of what you need.

[thairookie]

Far too many veriables. You can go do it yourself now on many sites, easy step by step all in one solutions.

You could be easy led to "technical" specialists and can go from a few thousand baht to hundreds of thousands dependant on what you need and what you want to achieve.

It also depends on what you know and how easily someone could convince you ,of what you need.

You know I tried so hard to pre-empt "it depends" answer in my question.

Maybe I should rephrase it.

For those who have engaged others (not DIY) to do your website, how much did you pay ? How "sophisticated" is your website ?

Would appreciate if you could share some bit of information.

Edited July 10, 2014 by thairookie

[SheungWan]

Companies can charge you a lot of money and well in excess of any budget you may have. And they may do a scrappy job as well. It would be useful for you to have some idea of what you want to spend in line with your anticipated turnover. Bear in mind that building a website is only half the job. Maintaining, updating and getting reasonable results output (eg Google Analytics) needs also to be factored in. If your primary objective is selling stuff online then a static website is not really a step-wise process. You might want to consider using the Amazon or even the eBay website facilities to set up your shop.

[rwdrwdrwd]

5 page static site with a shared header and footer across all pages from a quality provider is unlikely to push past 15 - 20k Baht. It's 8 - 12 hours work max, unless what you're actually saying is '60 pages of content crammed into 5 since I think that will reduce the cost'.

Full fledged ecommerce anything from 75 - 250k++ - depending on how much integration you need with other systems (back office, payment gateways), how many categories there are and the level of customisation for each, how focused you are on optimising for SEO, how scaleable you need to be - sky can be the limit here, can easily go into the millions for very large and complex projects, and the tens of millions for trying to compete with Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Rakuten etc, but these sorts of projects tend to be refactors rather than straight builds, and generally occur as the popularity of a service increases and the prior implementation becomes insufficient.

Back to earth and the 5 page static site, you could of course get it cheaper, probably as little as 3 or 4000 baht if you simply select the cheapest quote, but I'd personally question the quality, particularly having seen what happens when people try to go the cheap route - it's common that the purchaser ends up throwing everything away or worst case scenario having a completely unscalable XSS ridden nightmare that does things like expose previous customer order details when people fiddle with the URL and expose the database to being wiped by hackers (really, have seen it happen - can be as simple as appending ?search=test';drop table users; to a url if a bad developer has not considered sanitising user provided data - and bad developers tend to be the cheap ones...).

Budget at 1600 - 2500 an hour for someone decent that is going to have a strong understanding of security, maintenence and performance. Developers within this budget should be able to explain exactly what they will do to optimise each of those factors in understandable English, should have an active portfolio of previous work, and references.

Edited July 10, 2014 by rwdrwdrwd

[Yme]

A five page static site doesn't leave much room for content when you take into account boilerplate pages such as Contact Us, Terms of Service, About us, etc.

You also don't mention who will do the ongoing maintenance, updates or add fresh content.

A properly SEO'd static website should cost you about Bt15,000. Add an extra Bt15,000 for a basic eCommerce site.

You'll find people who will do it for less, but the old adage of getting what you pay for holds true.

[BngkkB]

Sent you a private message

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[abhaya]

I have a website selling arts and crafts and pay about $80.USD a month. They take care of the search word rankings. Basically they offer a template with lots of options so it looks original. About 10 years ago I opted to for them to custom design one for me (about $500.USD) and upgraded my account to a superior subscription $180. a month but found it not make that any difference in sales so I have went back to cheaper one.

[yankee99]

I can tell you full ecommerce professional looking word press site should be sub $300 if you pay more your being robbed. It should be done in less then 5 days. Heres the secret google elance. I think hosting from a usa server like lunarpages is about $6 per month or less and domain is something lime $15 via go daddy.

[lucifer666]

I wouldn't know how much a web site would cost here. I have always designed my own for many years ( most of which are still online). Bus after asking around locally, i believe 20,000 Baht seems to be the local average rate.

[Somnambulist]

I'm at the same stage as the OP but am looking into the open source wordpress.org. It seems to be aimed at non-tekkie people like me. You pay for hosting and it allows Paypal buttons.

[SDM0712]

I got so many varying quotes that averaged out around 80,000 baht. In the end I used the firm that did my UK site and it's all hosted from there too. I just couldn't get any straight answers here.

SDM

[timewilltell]

I wonder if any one you in business has ever engaged companies to construct your business website.

What is the pricing like ?

I know it depends on many things. But let's start from a simple 5-page static site and gradually move on to a full fledged e-commerce website complete with shopping cart and payment gateway.

Please quote currency in baht or USD.

Thanks.

How much should a new car cost - let's start with a simple one with two wheel drive and four sets and go up to a four wheel drive one with 7 seats complete with air con and sleeping accommodation.

You may not get what you pay for but you certainly won't get more than you pay for. There is a huge difference depending on security, Hosting, page speed, quality of graphics, advertising integration, site structure, link methodology and implementation.

Unfortunately like the previous $300 poster there is huge ignorance in the sector and most people have absolutely no clue. Yes you can host with lunapages or dream host on a shared server with porn sites that is off line sometimes but worse cannot serve your pages quickly because the resources are insufficient. The average guy does not know the difference a fast page verses a slow page make, does not understand linking or engagement, bounce rates and the SERPS. It is an entire industry and a little knowledge will lead you places most do not comprehend.

Content is another hugely varying thing, how long the articles, topic and depth images and video, style and competence. What about social integration Facebook etc., and does the website need to talk to the social channel or Youtube. Do you need them and know how to set them up? What about ongoing content and linking and how will you manage it or is the site just to sit on a bookshelf full of the most beautiful illustrations that no one ever sees because the book us never opened.

Then there's local integration and a slew of other more hidden aspects that the ordinary man dies not see nor want to know about really,

My advice is to document exactly what you are trying to achieve and then ask a few firms to quote you a measurable solution. I hope the above ideas can give you at least a list of considerations, though incomplete, to focus or cross off as unnecessary so that you have some hope of getting what you want. I have websites costing from several thousand dollars to a few hundred - its horses for courses as they say.

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[spidermike007]

It depends on so many variables. What about the artistic content? If a plain site, without much real design as little as $1000US for a decent site with e-commerce. I had a $40,000US site designed, as it had over 500 programming hours, at US rates, along with 250 design hours. It is absolutely gorgeous. But, it can be done for a fraction of that. Depends on the purpose. If it is just a utilitarian site, no need for a lot of art, and design. In my case, I needed it to be very impressive. And I had a designer willing to offer me major discounts, as she wanted to develop it as a template that she could then market.

[kurnell]

An Aussie bloke did 2 websites for me. One from scratch including all content, and one where we already had the domain. I'm very happy so if you want his contact details, let me know.

[yankee99]

I wouldn't know how much a web site would cost here. I have always designed my own for many years ( most of which are still online). Bus after asking around locally, i believe 20,000 Baht seems to be the local average rate.

Thats the prices i was getting quoted in Thailand. Then wentto e!ance for better quality speedier service and less then half that price.

[yankee99]

I wonder if any one you in business has ever engaged companies to construct your business website.

What is the pricing like ?

I know it depends on many things. But let's start from a simple 5-page static site and gradually move on to a full fledged e-commerce website complete with shopping cart and payment gateway.

Please quote currency in baht or USD.

Thanks.

How much should a new car cost - let's start with a simple one with two wheel drive and four sets and go up to a four wheel drive one with 7 seats complete with air con and sleeping accommodation.

You may not get what you pay for but you certainly won't get more than you pay for. There is a huge difference depending on security, Hosting, page speed, quality of graphics, advertising integration, site structure, link methodology and implementation.

Unfortunately like the previous $300 poster there is huge ignorance in the sector and most people have absolutely no clue. Yes you can host with lunapages or dream host on a shared server with porn sites that is off line sometimes but worse cannot serve your pages quickly because the resources are insufficient. The average guy does not know the difference a fast page verses a slow page make, does not understand linking or engagement, bounce rates and the SERPS. It is an entire industry and a little knowledge will lead you places most do not comprehend.

Content is another hugely varying thing, how long the articles, topic and depth images and video, style and competence. What about social integration Facebook etc., and does the website need to talk to the social channel or Youtube. Do you need them and know how to set them up? What about ongoing content and linking and how will you manage it or is the site just to sit on a bookshelf full of the most beautiful illustrations that no one ever sees because the book us never opened.

Then there's local integration and a slew of other more hidden aspects that the ordinary man dies not see nor want to know about really,

My advice is to document exactly what you are trying to achieve and then ask a few firms to quote you a measurable solution. I hope the above ideas can give you at least a list of considerations, though incomplete, to focus or cross off as unnecessary so that you have some hope of getting what you want. I have websites costing from several thousand dollars to a few hundred - its horses for courses as they say.

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

Lunarpages has a 99.9% uptime with lots of redundency. They don't host porn on their shared server. So unless they op is starting a new thai amazon i guarantee they will be more then sufficient. Plenty of sites to check speed optimization too.

Op dont be fooled that this is rocket science i have had many sites made and they all work and can be upgraded easily if youexpand.

[Beetlejuice]

Far too many veriables. You can go do it yourself now on many sites, easy step by step all in one solutions.

You could be easy led to "technical" specialists and can go from a few thousand baht to hundreds of thousands dependant on what you need and what you want to achieve.

It also depends on what you know and how easily someone could convince you ,of what you need.

I go along exactly with what our CharlieH says.

Asking how much it should cost to create a website by a person or a company is like asking how long is a piece of string?

The answer is; it depends and according to what facilities is required on the site. From my experience a decent professionally made website can start from around 40000 baht and then on average about 1000 baht each time an update or an amendment is required. In some cases the company that builds the website will not submit the user names and passports to gain access to the site, meaning the company has to be paid when updates are required, plus there is a lot more to it than just creating and uploading a website.

The website format has to be compatible with all browsers, apps and computer screen resolutions (no easy task) there will be maintenance required, continuous updates, registering the site on search engines, rental fees to the website host company and for the domain name and address and so on.

If the OP`s company is only a small concern, then I suggest that he goes for a free site with Weebly or Google. But if wants a professional all singing, all dancing state of the art website, then it`s a case of shopping around for the best deals, as no one on here can tell exactly how much for the creation of a commercial website and not even give an approximate estimation.

[olaska]

Woow big big question. Agree with some of the earlier posts about quality, SEO etc. I have a pair of sites for sale here at Thaivisa in Opportunities. One of them (40000) ready to stuff with products and go. A bit expensive? Yes but because it's not a standard looking e-commerce and have a very good name URL 1stopthaishop.

A standard e-commerce (up-and-go) with Paypal included is 25000.

But as someone said, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is very important, without it you land at page 25000 (if at all) in Google search and nobody find you - ever.

A last word of warning, careful about sell via Amazon and sites like that, can cost more then it gives since buyers "rule". Facebook selling I have no idea, haven't tried it.

Sending private message if you want to discuss further.

BTW the portal for 500 000 Baht, if some marketing people are interested in a serios partnership the pricetag is 0 Baht

Edited July 11, 2014 by olaska

[leafmould]

try weebly.com free and easy to do yourself, have to pay for "upgrades" like a .com rather than weebly.com but look worth it.

[mostertmik]

I have had a site for about 11 years, originally done by a business associate for free. Had a graphic designer add PayPal capability and update all the pdfs and change a lot of content for 200 USD. Every few years I paid him another 100 or 200 USD for another edit. He was charging 50 bucks an hour. Last year I paid a guy in India 200 USD to compeltely redesign with lots of new content, re-designed menus and looking a lot more modern. Now I have new products to add, some edits to content and adding Bitcoin acceptance. He is charging 60 USD for these edits/additions.

[brucegoniners]

These days, depending on how complex you need your site to be, it isn't very hard to do it yourself.

If all you want is a basic site, download wordpress, buy a cheap template and go to it. It is very easy to do yourself. Wordpress is free.

If you need a good designer at a reasonable price I am in the internet marketing business and work with a guy in Argentina who is very good.

PM me and I'll give you the information.

[OmegaRacer]

I can only recommend create.net, based in the UK. Excellent customer service and very reasonable prices. Easy to set up and customize by yourself.

Rates start from 5Pounds up to 36Pounds a month.

The websites runs smoothly. In 2 years only had minor issues that were dealt with quickly and competently.

Once you have the website online, make sure you do your SEO, constantly add new content and products and use the in-build blog to promote your products.

good luck

Edited July 11, 2014 by OmegaRacer

[y2k]

I just set up a website for our karate dojo using Google Sites. Cost me nothing. 20+ pages with links to YouTube,links to videos on Google Drive, embedded documents and photos.

[outre99]

As the previous posts have demonstrated there are 2 major options for your own site.

Option 1 - DIY: There many online services that would allow you to use their tools to create and configure a decent website both informational and e-commerce. Many technically savvy proprietors go this root at the beginning to save the money. The focus of these services is on pure web presence, which is only the first step for doing business online. The lion's share of work lies in marketing and optimization. Marketing online is no different than traditional marketing. It has to be done continuously. Members above who say that they are updating their site once a year do not understand the nature of the web and as such will have the sites that nobody goes to and that look like it's 1999. Web design, development, and marketing is a complex set of skills that professional spent years learning and perfecting. It is no different than any other profession. If you are critically ill you would not self-medicate or go to a cheap doctor. Why would you entrust the success of your online businees to the same? However if this is your hobby and not "mission critical" than by all means use it as a learning experience, but keep in mind that the first draft is never a masterpiece.

Option 2 - Hire professionals: If you need to do it right the first time you need to hire experts to do it for you. Many posters above have outlined all possible factors that you need to consider. The reality today vs 10-15 years ago is that the technology platforms have become a commodity. While in the 90's most companies had to build their web solutions from scratch these days there are open source options that can be had for free or very cheaply. Content Mangement Systems (CMS) and e-Commerce platforms remove the need to develop things from scratch and thus lower the prices. Any web expert you hire will use one of those packages as a starting point and customize it to your needs.

The web companies have 2 basic business models: Selling technology and selling services. The first one is easy thanks to the open source software mentioned above and this is the model most web companies in thailand follow. They promise the world to technically uninformed customers then do a passible job creating the initial site, which they through over to the customer, get paid, and move on. In the worst cases they don't release the source code and/or login details and force the client to pay for any update. There's very little incentive or interest in helping the client's business succeed. It's a pure high turnover game. Unless you're got technical skills yourself or planning to hire somebody on a long term basis you'll end up with a site that you can't fully leverage. I've been called many times to come in and try to resurrect and dying website that nobody touched for years.

The second model is much less common. It is the one i finally arrived at as it provides the real value to the client and satisfaction to me as a web professional. It is similar in many respects to the relationship one has with any other professional. It's a long term partnership focused on creating continuous return on investment (ROI) for the client rather than a one time sale. I would actually offer the technology for free or at a very deep discount. Then once the site was live i would charge for monthly work to optimize, market, and improve the site to support client's business. Monthly charges depended on how agressive the client wanted to proceed, which in turn drove the amount of monthly work required. At the end of every month we would review the results and adjust the strategy to direct future efforts. Besides the initial commitment of 6 months which is usually the minimum amount of time to build the site and see any kind of results from SEO and marketing there is not lock in. The client is free to stop or change direction if demonstrated ROI is not satisfactory.

So when you're evaluating potential web vendors you shouldn't really focus on the initial cost of creating a website. Instead look at the long term cost of ownership. First determine your business strategy and then see what each vendor can do for you to help realize it in the long run. Their incentive structure should be tied to your long term success.

Best of luck.

[OmegaRacer]

^^very good advice

[manarak]

Far too many veriables. You can go do it yourself now on many sites, easy step by step all in one solutions.

You could be easy led to "technical" specialists and can go from a few thousand baht to hundreds of thousands dependant on what you need and what you want to achieve.

It also depends on what you know and how easily someone could convince you ,of what you need.

You know I tried so hard to pre-empt "it depends" answer in my question.

Maybe I should rephrase it.

For those who have engaged others (not DIY) to do your website, how much did you pay ? How "sophisticated" is your website ?

Would appreciate if you could share some bit of information.

I can quote on OP's questions:

- simple 5-page static site: 30.000 baht, possible commercial template and paid content have to be paid separately, website design does not include any other work than the website just the raw website (no domainname, no hosting, no email, no SEO, no ftp, etc.).

- e-commerce site with shopping cart and payment gateway: same conditions and price as the above.

I choose the software. Shop comes with no products and although the software will support a wide range of payment gateways, they will not work until the shopowner gets a payment services contract with one of the payment providers.

I can also throw in multilanguage, stock management, newsletter, discounts, etc.

How can both cost the same?

Well, the work designing a 5 page static website including content is not much less than the work to install and configure an empty e-commerce site.

That being said, both site types are fairly standard, so filling a template with content in the first case is straightforward and in the second case, readily available opensource software provides everything a shop needs.

If one wants a website to achieve something specific that requires a custom database and custom scripts with sophisticated functions, the cost will be much higher and it is impossible to throw a ballpark figure before sitting down with the client and drawing up an exact specification.

Putting something online is easy and fast, the real work is to fill the website with content and to embed it correctly into the internet ecosystem.

[quicky]

I have 3 websites and the people I am hosting with did 2 of them the 3rd was a DIY.

When I asked for a quote they gave me 5 page static with design was 12k Baht no shopping cart

CMS with shopping cart and design was between 25k and 30k Baht.

I have 1 of each and the results were way better than I expected, my static site I would have paid double anywhere else, my CMS total came in at 27K Baht and it worked perfectly, I am getting the result from it that I intended so money very well spent.

Just a heads up, if you have the cash go for the CMS much easier to deal with, I don't update my static as often as I would like so I am going to change it over to CMS.

shoot them off a message http://www.thaiprowebhosting.co.th

Edited July 11, 2014 by quicky

[brucegoniners]

I can only recommend create.net, based in the UK. Excellent customer service and very reasonable prices. Easy to set up and customize by yourself.

Rates start from 5Pounds up to 36Pounds a month.

The websites runs smoothly. In 2 years only had minor issues that were dealt with quickly and competently.

Once you have the website online, make sure you do your SEO, constantly add new content and products and use the in-build blog to promote your products.

good luck

The only problem with these types of deals is that you are married to them forever for hosting.

If you stop hosting with them you will generally lose your site.

Better to either do your own or have somebody do it for you. But I can't stress enough to have it done in Wordpress either way. Then you can make small changes and you won't be charged by a developer for them.

[suppaman]

Well, the main difference between a five page static website and a full fledge ecommerce portal is mainly related to the server.

This is because now is full of ready made open source and free (cms) solutions around there that can satisfy both your needs, but the server needs a completely different approach upon the case.

While a simple static site with no money transaction can be fairly put in a shared hosting, an ecommerce should be hosted on a dedicated server with a minimum space and bandwith guaranted (or in a cloud hosting), with a ssl certification etc.

So, in short, the prices for the implementing of the website (excluding the content upload and optimization, such as pics and texts, the maintaining etc.) can start from THB1500 for the canonical 5 static pages, and start from THB3000 for the ecommerce.

In other words, you can greatly reduce the costs for the design of the site, but you must pay the premium for the functionality of e-commerce.
Cheers.