The Real Cost Of Getting The Cheapest Website

Whether you are looking for a basic WordPress website design or are embarking on the development of a site with advanced feature functionalities, finding a competent company to do this for you is very important. Basing your decision to go with the company that is the cheapest can end up costing you a lot more money than simply getting it done right the first time. Below are some steps to make sure the company you are going to work with is competent and trustworthy.

  1. Look to see what other website work the company has done. Please note, the design is one thing, but make sure to look at actual functionality/development parts of the website too — for example, e-commerce, databases, mega-menu, product filter custom functionality, and so forth.
  2. Ask to speak with a couple of references which got websites designed and developed.
  3. Look at online reviews such as Google, Yelp, and Facebook.
  4. Check and see what their BBB rating is.
  5. Check to see how long the company has been in business.
  6. See if the company is located overseas or within the U.S. Please remember, if there is ever a billing dispute, getting your money back from overseas may be more difficult. Also, time zones vary greatly, and therefore, communication may be an issue.
  7. Get two to three proposals to compare.
  8. Pay particular attention to the scope of work section within the agreement. Make sure that what was discussed on a design and development aspect is actually in the scope of work! Also, make sure that you look over payment terms and finally, estimated date of website completion.

What is being conveyed here is do your due diligence before entering into any website agreement. Do not just take what a company, “says,” they can do. It is important to see what they do and verify who they are as a company in general. Here is an example of a client we encountered.

  1. We quoted client $6,000.00 for a custom website with e-commerce and some other functionality. Client goes with someone who quotes $3,000.00. Well, four months later, nothing has been done on the sit, and what has been completed is not correct. The client became frustrated and now comes back to our company to do the project. We completed the project for the 6k and have it done in two months. The client was happy but ended up spending $9,000.00 for a website that should have cost him six.
  2. On top of that, instead of two months to get the website done, it took six between the first company and us. Additionally, since the old site was more or less terrible (not mobile friendly, hard to order on, lacked content, had complicated menu and so forth), each month that went by not having the new and improved site led to lost income. Had the client just done the appropriate research and gone with the best overall proposal, this headache could have been avoided.