I'm looking into hiring a web designer to build a site ground up based on my outlines on how I want it to look. However I want to hire a professional with the right qualifications as I want the the website to look professional and clean, not amateur-ish. How much does a good web designer charge for a website? Or in what range should I accept the cost to be? thanks

Depends on the complexity of the layout, how good the designer is and how much (s)he is in demand. There really isn't a set range as such. Some people charge $50, some people charge 4 digits (don't laugh...I've seen more of the latter than the former.)

one thing i would say: DO NOT HAND ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY OVER until you are sure the site meets your standards.

And be aware of Code QUALITY! just because it looks okay in one browser doesnt mean it will be in all browsers or that it wont break easily.

also please bare in mind in many cases the "ametur" might be able to produce a much better looking, better working design and (should) charge a more reasonable price than a person who calls himself a professional and like Adam said charges in 4 digit numbers.

Dan

You are actually looking for a person with two sets of skills: design and development
don't assume these things go together as often the best designers lack development skills and most developers (myself included) lack visual design skills.
There are people who excel at both but, they can be harder to find.

Consider, also looking for a team or breaking your site dev into two parts (ie get a designer to create mock-ups in photoshop and get a developer to implement the designs)

Gentile,

These guys gave some great advice... one thing i would stress is that the more time you put into finding the right person, the more money you save. It's hard but i guess the ideal situation would be to ask around and ask people to refer you to a good designer... that way you'll know what you're getting.

As for price for design... you can find a good designer for $40 - $60 per hour. My partner does side jobs and charges $45 per hour. You may be able to find people for less, just be careful. And of course you can find people for more... be super careful of that too.

As for development... depends on so much... you gotta know what language and possible content management systems you plan on using, if you dont, im sure if you explain your idea people would be able to tell you what you need. Price-wise... again, be careful, you could find some cheap $10/hour developers in another country, but in my experience, you get exactly what you pay for... i would say without knowing what exactly you need... expect somewhere between $50 and $150 per hour.

Could be more, could be less... Hope some of this helped. If you want, feel free to message me and i may be able to help you out further.

Cheers and good luck.


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There isn't a set range. The cost of design and development depends on your web site requirements.

Browse Elance.com to find web development firms near you. Browse their portfolio, arrange a meeting and discuss your requirements with them.

Originally Posted by dansgalaxy

one thing i would say: DO NOT HAND ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY OVER until you are sure the site meets your standards.

Dan the problem with this is that most professional designers will ask for a deposit before beginning work. It's pretty much an industry standard, though certainly not 100% of designers/developers will ask.

Many designers have been ripped off once or twice early on when a client changes their mind or simply refuses to pay. I know it happened to me where I found a client having several people work on his site without the other's knowing. Then he picked a site and screwed over everyone else.

Now I always ask for a deposit before beginning work. I won't ask you to pay the rest until you're satisfied, but I also won't transfer a single file until everything is paid in full. I find most are fine with a deposit and my belief is those who refuse would possibly refuse payment when the job is done too.

Sorry Vangough i didnt think of deposit, I agree with what u said tho.

No need to apologize. I understand where you're coming from. As a client I wouldn't pay the final bill without making sure the site was what I wanted, but as a designer I wouldn't give you any files till you paid. Makes for incentive on both sides to work things out.

The deposit though covers the time spent working. If you set up a payment schedule well both designer and client can get what they want without either having to lay out much in advance.

On a large project you might start with a deposit, say 25%. Once the visuals are complete another 25% may be due. The client doesn't pay until he's happy with those visual. That next 25% will cover the next phase of the site which might be the development of the actual site.

At that point the designer might have a completed site on a test server and has received 50% of the payment. When the client pays the last 50% the site is moved to the client's server. If the client isn't happy with the test site the designer makes the fixes necessary within reason.

Just one payment schedule. Naturally it depends on the total cost for the project. If I was designing your site for $500 I'm not going to charge you every phase of the project. I'd still ask for a deposit though with the final amount due before moving the files to your server.

Originally Posted by vangogh

Dan the problem with this is that most professional designers will ask for a deposit before beginning work. It's pretty much an industry standard, though certainly not 100% of designers/developers will ask.

Many designers have been ripped off once or twice early on when a client changes their mind or simply refuses to pay. I know it happened to me where I found a client having several people work on his site without the other's knowing. Then he picked a site and screwed over everyone else.

Now I always ask for a deposit before beginning work. I won't ask you to pay the rest until you're satisfied, but I also won't transfer a single file until everything is paid in full. I find most are fine with a deposit and my belief is those who refuse would possibly refuse payment when the job is done too.

Either way you can ask for the full amount up front or a deposit to get started, then the full amount will be paid once the contract is met. If the contract is changed to increase scope requirements, then you should resign contracts and meet the requirements of the new contract. As long as you have an agreed absolute time deadline, then you can't keep stretching things out. Contracts are legal agreements, so they have to pay either way. It shouldn't matter if it's now or later. Your portfolio will speak for itself and clients will spread word of mouth. It all works out.

Originally Posted by Gentile2

I'm looking into hiring a web designer to build a site ground up based on my outlines on how I want it to look. However I want to hire a professional with the right qualifications as I want the the website to look professional and clean, not amateur-ish. How much does a good web designer charge for a website? Or in what range should I accept the cost to be? thanks

Tell us what you want to build and maybe we can suggest what is out there. Sometimes there are pre-existing simple solutions that can take care of what you need. Other times it requires extensive research/custom work that can be costly.