Posted by : Tom Doyle in (Web Design) 11th Mar, 2008
SMEs want better service from web designers… survey
I read an interesting article today that was brought to my attention through the Enterprise Ireland mailing list forum. The full article can be read here >>
Sadly, I have to say it comes as no surprise to me that SME’s have lost their faith in web designers. Let’s face it, for years, especially in the late 1990s, web designers were “creaming it” so to speak. A simple brochure website set you back over £15,000.
Nowadays, it’s just not the same. A similar website would set you back on average €2-3k. You can get cheaper than this of course, but it’s like everything else, you get what you pay for.
One of the differences nowadays is that there seems to be a lot more students / part timers / graphic designers doing websites. And the way I feel about that is, if you want to get a cheap and nasty website, go one of those. But if you want to get something back from your website… talk to professionals!
To be fair, there are also plenty of ‘professional’ cowboys. Paying big money doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a good website.
When I mentioned the phrase “you get what you pay for”, it was generally speaking. I agree, it doesn’t mean you’ll have a good website, but you are likely to have got more than just a website.
For example, if a company charges say €120 per hour and a freelancer charges €50 - it doesn’t mean the company is better. However, you could be buying more than just a website, as in service or reliability or security even.
If you pay €500 for a fully developed website, it’s unlikely that there has been sufficient time put into the website to make it compete with a company who has put time and resources into a project.
I guess it is a general term and there are some good guys out there charging small fees for good websites - but generally speaking, you are not getting a good deal when paying less than a couple of grand on a website.