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How Much Should A Singapore Web design and development Cost for small business/SMEs ?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions by many of our customers. The answer is that there is no fix price for web design. Web design is a service business part of digital marketing and the requirements and outcome for each projects differs.
The Answer Depends On Who You Are Asking and What Kind Of Website You Are Creating
Whether your business operates offline or online in Singapore, it’s crucial to build and maintain an online presence in today’s digital world. So how much should it cost? On average, the upfront cost for a website if you ask around website development companies in Singapore, it ranges from $3,000 to $150,000.
Does that mean that it really takes SGD$3,000 to create a website? Not really. It depends on who you are asking. A brief breakdown will be below:
- Wix/Squarespace/Shopify – Because you are building the website yourself. You just need to pay the monthly subscription fee of approximately SGD$10-50/month depending on the plan that you chose.
- Freelancers (Web Developers) – There are a couple of freelancers in the market who can quote you for a price. Usually, with a lower overheads, you are able to get a more competitive price. However, there are quality freelancers who might charge a higher fee. Price range will vary from SGD$899-$10,000.
- Fiverr/upwork – These are freelancer platforms that you can use to outsource your website design work to overseas freelancers. It can get really cheap from SGD$50-SGD$600 for your website.
- Web Development companies – This will be established ACRA registered companies and the price will range from $3,000-$150,000 and it depends on the vendor.
Essentially, web design is not a product. Website development is not the same as say buying a can of coke. Not everyone is going to have the same website design, as compared to buying a can of coke that is no different from other cans.
Just like a buying a car, some cars cost SGD$80,000 while some cars cost SGD$300,000. There are many factors that determine the price such as brand, features, design etc.
So How Is The Cost Broken Down?
Different vendors have various ways to charge the customer. Here are some of the ways that are listed in the quotation that adds up to the final amount:
- Number of pages
- Number of revisions
- Number of reference websites
- Custom development or using Open source frameworks such as Joomla, WordPress etc
- User interface and user experience design
- Content Writing Services
The 2 common traits among the points above are essentially “How Much Time It is Going To Take For The Vendor” and ” How Difficult The Project Is Likely To Be”
The average salary for a software engineer a year in Singapore is about SGD$4,750/month as of 24th March 2021 based on Payscale. In every website project, typically you will need the following roles and it scales up according to how big the project is:
- Account Manager
- Software Engineer
- Web Designer
So the key cost being a service business, it is the wages of the staff or person that is working on the project. Assuming the average salaries of the Account manager and Web Designers is about SGD$3,500/month for a junior role. A small custom design and development website project that takes 1 month to complete will cost:
Account Manager ($3,500) + Software Engineer ($4,750) + Web Designer ($3,500) = SGD$11,750
This is just the wages of the individual staff and excludes the overheads such as office rental, bonus of the company. Usually companies will put 20-30% overheads and another 10-20% mark up for profit margin. That should bring the total cost to about $15,000-$20,000. Again, the price will vary depending on how many projects this team is working on in the month. If you would like the team to be fully focused on your project, this should be a reasonable amount for web design cost in Singapore.
For a more complex project, you need more senior staff/talent working on the project and the price will scale up accordingly.
Not Possible To Cost So Much For Website Design
It really depends on what is the scale of the website. Government websites like Enterprise Singapore‘s website is likely to be more expensive than a small business corporate web design.
Again it depends on the customer and what kind of website that they want to build. A professional website with a responsive website design and ux design is usually sufficient.
How Should a SME/Small Business Do Their Website Design?
For discussion, let’s assume a company that provides legal services in Singapore i.e. a Law Firm. The following are likely the pages that the company will require:
- Homepage
- About Us
- Services
- Case Studies
- Contact Us
- Blog
Below are certain options
1st Option: Go To A Top Web Design Website Like Wix or Squarespace or Shopify
This is likely to be the cheapest option at about SGD 400-800/year. But it requires you to learn the software and spend time and effort to create the website. Unless you are well versed in website design, it is not likely that you will be able to create a website that matches industry standards. Typically, customers spend about 2-4 weeks from signing up for Wix/Squarespace/Shopify to finish their website. This is not including having a content management system or ui / ux design to ensure a comfortable user experience for a responsive website.
2nd Option: Approach A Freelancer
You can engage a freelancer or web designer and there are many online. These web designers typcially price range from SGD$3,000 to $10,000 or more. It usually take about 2-6 weeks to finish the website.
3rd Option: Outsource It To Fiverr
This is possible as well. Results depends on the skillset of the freelancer hired.
4th Option: Hire A Web Development Company In Singapore
Most SMEs will go for this option. There are government grants available such as the Productivity Solutions Grant or the Enterprise Development Grant . These grants enable the SMEs to claim up to 80% of the qualifying cost, including that of website development, web hosting, e commerce and digital marketing efforts like social media marketing.
How Does Web Delegate, A Web Design Agency, Help SMEs/Small businesses in Singapore?
We understand that web design can be quite costly and to do it yourself on wix will take up too much time for the business owners. Hence, as a SME ourselves, we have transformed our business model and operation model over the years to provide a very fast , price competitive and efficient way to create websites for SMEs in Singapore.
In the year 2021, you don’t need just a website to display the information about your company. You need a e commerce website that can actually sell your services or generate you more leads for your business through online. The Covid19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of the internet across Singapore and your customers have most probably gone online to do their research as well as purchasing decisions. It is time that you do as well.
Typically for a small business, here are the 3 steps that they go with us:
1st Step: Web Delegate X (corporate website) or Web Delegate XE (ecommerce website)
Quick and fast way to get started within 10-15 working days for both corporate website and to web design ecommerce website.
2nd Step: Web Delegate Hosting or Web Delegate Hosting Pro
Host it on our web hosting servers and we will provide with basic web maintenance so that you can concentrate on your business.
3rd Step: Web Delegate SEO or Web Delegate PPC or Web Delegate Facebook Ads
Digital marketing is one of the most popular methods that SMEs in Singapore are starting to get more business. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) will be part of it. As customers move online, a business should not be left behind and move online as well.
Worried that when your website looks different from what you expect when you engage a web agency? Talk to us about your web development needs and our web designers will share with you the secret to prevent this conflict between vendor and customer.
What Should You Take Note Of In Hiring A Singapore Web Design Agency?
Hiring a Singapore web design agency is always a challenging task. Very often, customers like to compare quotations but for a service business like web design, 2 websites that look very different online could be the same on quotation. Some factors will be the age of the company, price point and also if you company matches the business focus of the web design agency.
Want To Get More Leads Online?
You can look into our Web Delegate Products for a start if you are a small business. If you are looking into government grants, here is a detailed list of government grants including PSG for SMEs in Singapore.
We also help SMEs run Digital Marketing Campaigns such as Google Ads PPC or Facebook Ads.
Are you looking for a web design and development company that can take your website global? If so, contact us today to get started.
