The price of websites is not always predictable

In the Hungarian daily paper Napi Gazdaság, 13 August 2003.

´Without the adequate data it is rather hard to predict how much a website would costs. It may be 300 thousand HUF but also 20 million, ´–claims Zoltán Csáki CEO of C.Enter Kft., an IT company that focuses on internet development tasks, among others.

Creating portals include graphic design and realisation, website development and programming, server and site operation and content management. Further on marketing strategy is also important but this is mostly not carried out by the website development companies.

In case of graphic design the price depends on how big the task is. The more colourful and catchy the site is the more expensive. There are websites in the case of which beside the company’s image there are goods that need their own image separately, so the task of the graphic designers is more.

Programming and website development is a rather versatile task. Flash-based sites also need programming. However these types of sites are easier, as people would simply not visit huge flash-sites, therefore they are only rarely made. Html-sites are also made via programming, although using a simple code system enables us to create narrative sites. It is more complicated to set up systems where the information is needed to be gathered from different places and the mentioned html-code together with the website are being dynamically built.
These sites based on a database system can easily be extended by content management systems, through which the user (client) is able to modify the content of the site with the help of a gleaner, as well as uploading and deleting new parts or changing the graphic design. Web server and website operation means providing the client with continuous internet connection. One may think it also includes continuous content operation too, but it does not. Content management means a company or a partner processing, making up and editing the incoming materials, and uploading them on the website. The quality and quantity of the materials is an important factor in this phase: there is a huge difference between creating 2-3 sites a day and uploading news on an already existing portal. When there is not much material to be uploaded, it is recommended to ask for a fix price per page, while in case of more work it is worth working with own human resources. The client has the possibility of buying the licence of a complete system. In this case beyond the licence the customizing and installing processes also need to be paid for. This solution may reach or even exceed the price of the individually developed sites, but the chances are smaller with multi-tested systems to go wrong.

Prices are usually calculated on the bases of working hours with either to be paid by the hour or the day. The time frame of the entire task is being calculated on the bases of detailed specification. You may pay between four and forty thousand HUF per hour, depending on many factors, such as the company, its policies, the current market situation, as well as some others that are not always predictable, says Csáki.

Practice shows that for graphic design it is normal to pay between a coupe of hundreds of thousands and a few million HUF. The hardest to fix is the price for programming. The price of creating a simple website falls into the same category as graphic design, while an entire database content management system with data import and export functions may reach millions of HUF. Providing internet connection for a server or a site is a few thousands, but maximum a hundred thousands HUF, while content management can cost you also between a few thousands and a few hundreds of thousands HUF a month. In certain cases this amount may reach millions of HUF too, for which you may already hire a small-stuff editorial room, claims Csáki.

In the Hungarian daily paper Napi Gazdaság, 13 August 2003.