Affordable web design services for small business
Small businesses often may not have a huge budget to build a website, but it shouldn’t dishearten. There are a lot of web design agencies that can create a website for you at a relatively low price.
We have done extensive research to find the most affordable web design services for small business. Our guide covers DIY options and hiring professionals to make it for you. So, let’s dive deep and find before you decide which one is for you.
A new business won’t spontaneously get customers and begin making money. Of all the 100 things you need to do, building a website for your business is crucial as it helps to win trust and build a brand. Unfortunately, most small businesses cannot afford a high-end site and want affordable web design services for a practical site.
Many small companies, including startups, have outgrown their competitors, including those with a million-dollar revenue. Its secret ingredient has been an investment in its website, which outsmarts the competitors through online marketing.
A few key benefits of having a website:
1. Save time
You may explain to your customers who you are, your past work, references, etc. It is crucial, but it is time-consuming. Your website can eliminate it and save you time. People interested in your services can visit your website and learn about your services. It can serve multiple customers, saving resources and time.
2. Lead generation
Once your website is live, it can be your virtual sales assistant. You can run ad campaigns to bring traffic to your website and generate leads immediately. Or you can hire SEO companies to rank your site and generate organic leads like we have gotten you to our page. SEO takes time but is the most effective digital marketing strategy of all.
3. Build credibility
Your website is your online office address. For most people, it is tough to trust a business without a website. A beautiful-looking website is a tool to win trust.
Most small businesses are worried about the fact that building a website will cost a fortune. Honestly, the cost can vary from $200- to $200,000+. The prices vary depending on your end goal. The web development company may have to develop custom features and functions based on your requirements. If so, you can expect the cost to run into 5-6 figures.
If you are low on a budget, you can start with a standard 5-page website, for which you will find many affordable web design services. First, however, ensure you do not neglect the power of a blog.
Three affordable alternatives for web design:
DIY Web Design Services
There are a lot of DIY platforms that will charge you a monthly retainer for the site. They have many ready-made templates; you can pick one from them and modify the website. Their monthly fees will include the domain name and host, so you are covered there.
Remember that you may need additional tweaking to change the website’s looks to your preference. Also, if you do not know HTML and CSS, you may need a pro to help you.
Let’s cover some of the top players in the DIY industry. Of course, we will look at the pros and cons too.
Even though most are very transparent with the pricing, I thought I should explain the maths again. If you are a business planning to accept payments online, you will see an additional charge every time your clients pay online. I will give you an example of affordable DIY providers and their payment models.
1. Shopify
Shopify is one of the go-to DIY platforms if you are looking to build a complete e-commerce website. If you cannot afford the upfront fees, a web designing agency will charge Shopify as one of the solutions. However, you will quickly have a website up and running.
Price: There are three plans.
-Basic Shopify is $29/mo
-Shopify is $79/mo
-Advanced Shopify is $299/mo
Any payment processor other than theirs will charge you (depending on the plan) 2.0%, 1.0% & 0.5%. Let’s say you are a Basic Shopify customer with a monthly revenue of $5,000 from your online store. The transaction fee is 2.0%. You will pay an additional $100 ($5000*2.0%) over and above the $29 monthly subscription. The overall cost comes to $29.
2. Weebly
Unlike Shopify, Weebly is a DIY for business and e-commerce websites. The basic plan starts with a low fee of $8. It also has a free option but is not recommended for business owners. The free one will not have your domain, but the subdomain like https://yourbusiness.weebly.com and the website will display their ads.
Price: There are four options
-Free (Basic Use): $0.00/mo
-Starter (Personal Use): $8.00/mo
-Pro (Groups & Organizations): $12.00/mo
-Business (Small Businesses & Stores): $25.00/mo
-Performance (Power Sellers): $38.00/mo
Their transaction fee for the Starter and the Pro plans is 3%. So it means if you are a business with $5000, you will pay $150 ($5000*3%). So, by the end of the month, you will pay $158 a month.
3. Elementor
Used by 6% of the world’s websites, Elementor is a powerful WordPress website builder. With Elementor’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can create dynamic websites, including online stores, without writing a single line of code. One of the coolest features offered by Elementor is Full-Site Kits.
Elementor’s Kits Library contains dozens of complete, designer-made website kits. These kits include all the elements and attributes a website needs in one single kit. Then, all you have to do is click import.
Kits eliminate the need to tackle each page component individually (e.g., header, footer, color palettes).
With just a few clicks, you can customize a kit to fit your needs and vision, and voila, you’re up and running with a complete website!
Price: In addition to an extensive free plan, Elementor offers four subscription plans:
- Essential: 1 pro website for a total of $49 per year
- Expert: 25 pro websites for a total of $199 per year
- Studio: 100 pro websites for a total of $499 per year
- Agency: 1000 pro websites for a total of $999 per year
Many options have similar pricing models, such as Squarespace and Wix. Unfortunately, while they seem like affordable options, they cost way more.
Drawbacks of DIY web design services
a. Missed conversion opportunities:
Do it yourself, which is an advantage, is a disadvantage too. It doesn’t make sense Unless you open a web design agency. Unless you are a professional with experience designing a website, you will not know the best practices, design aesthetics, and knowledge to build a site.
You probably will miss opportunities that could have optimized your website’s conversion. As a result, it will cost your business more than it would have for you to build the site.
b. If you quit their subscription, you will lose your website:
These DIY websites undoubtedly sound like cheap alternatives; however, it is not look at the overall perspective.
Once you decide to discontinue their services, your website is gone. You may own the domain name, but the site you invested your time creating will vanish. The best part is they are not obligated to give you a copy of the site you built, as it is a proprietary design.
c. You invest your time. Your time is money.
You can either hire a professional or create your website. The latter may seem affordable for most, but let’s consider a few things.
If you do not know about website designing, HTML, or CSS, developing your site can take much longer than it will for a trained designer. Your time is better spent on the different aspects required for beginning a company. You must set a budget, create a business plan, perfect your craft, and maybe get investors. There is no time for learning web design.
Creating the website will take away your time, energy, and focus.
You must also factor in your hourly charge to know the actual cost. It should include your research for making a website, the best practices, and optimizing your website SEO. When combined, it costs more than hiring a professional web designing firm.
d. Hiring an Inhouse Web Designer
Hiring an in-house web designer might sound enticing, but it can be expensive. It won’t be a good idea unless you have projects that will take a long time. Once the project is over, you must let them go off, which doesn’t sound right, either.
DFY Web Designing Services
There are lots of excellent web designing companies, onshore and offshore. However, onshore companies are more expensive compared to offshore. So, if you are looking for affordable web design services, you want to stick with offshore web design and development agencies.
The bill for the same website you will design from offshore will cost about 4x less than onshore. So you must be careful about choosing the right web designing company; in your case, you need someone with experience working with small business owners.
Unlike the DIY options above, web designing costs more, but the website will be tailored to your needs.
What should you look for in a web designer?
If you are sure your time is better invested in other critical matters, hiring a professional design agency to create your site is the best option. Therefore, select your web design services carefully.
Some of the questions you should consider asking the designer agency are:
- Will you have enough time to look after and make changes to your website?
- What type of system do they build sites?
- Do they incorporate SEO into the build and use responsive web design?
- Is the work done in-house, or is it outsourced?
While there are no wrongs or rights to most of these issues, it will help you determine the agency. Take extra time to examine your options, saving you the hassle and money.
Choosing an affordable web design provider
Freelancer or agency? As a web designing firm, we ought to be more biased towards hiring a web designing company, but there is a solid reason behind it. There is no doubt hiring a freelancer will cost a bit less than hiring an agency.
A personal web designer will not have as many overheads and can usually charge lower prices, but contractors may lack proper, valuable, and training experience. You want specialists with experience and not just college-going kids.
A design agency has a team with their expertise. In the case of a freelancer, it’s one guy, but with an agency, a team works together to create your site. They share their expertise to make sure your website is leak-proof when it comes to opportunities.
You will need after-sales support. After-sales support is something only an agency can provide because it is their core business. The difference between a freelancer and an agency is the accountability factor. Between a web design agency and a freelancer, the former is more accountable.
A freelancer may decide to quit the job and change their career path, but it’s not the case with the agency.
After weighing in the pros-cons of freelancers and agencies, an excellent solution for a business looking to start an online presence may combine the best of both worlds.
One of the most notable examples of this is Crazy Media Design Web Design Services. We aim to give smaller business entrepreneurs and owners an affordable web design services choice with all the advantages of hiring a qualified and seasoned professional.
With our web design service, you get a group of content, development, and design experts at an affordable rate.
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