How much does it cost to get a website created in New Zealand in 2023?
While it’s not very helpful to answer this with ‘How long is a piece of string?‘, it is actually pretty much the case. Firstly we need to define what type of a website we are talking about. A website could be anything from a simple web ‘page’ consisting of some text and images to a complex web application. But for most people asking this question, they are probably looking for a basic small business website, commonly referred to as a ‘brochure website’. The purpose of such a website is typically to serve as an online marketing tool to promote the products and/or services of a business. So even if we go with that type of website, you will still find very wide range of costs to build such a website.
Some years ago, we actually conducted a website design pricing survey where we created a mini brief for a simple small business website and sent it to 24 New Zealand web companies requesting a quote. At that time we received a wide range of prices all the way from $1200 to $15000. I would expect to see a similar wide range of quoted prices if I were to conduct this survey again today although given recent high inflation I’d expect the range to be pushed upwards a bit.
There are also ‘cheap’ options available right down to a few hundred dollars. The cheaper options tend to be built by overseas developers who whip them out with very little thought or consideration or are based on misleading marketing that does not reflect what the website will end up costing after extras and ongoing costs.
I’ve had personal experience fixing one of these cheap websites that was created by an overseas developer. A lady came to me asking for a quote to build an online shop for her dried flower arrangements business. I provided a quotation and proposal but did not hear back from her until months later. She had gone with one of these cheap overseas developers but was very unhappy with the result and her website was not finished and not functional as an online shop. I took on the job of fixing it and got an insight to how some of these guys operate. They had taken an off-the-shelf WordPress theme and installed a demo website of a fictitious flower business and then plugged in some of the content provided by the client. But they left most of the demo content in place and even some on publicly accessible pages. They did not complete the e-commerce configuration so the shop was non functional. I was privy to email threads between the developer and the client and it was not pretty! Communications deteriorated to the point where they no longer responded to her emails. Anyway, I worked on an hourly basis and got the website fixed up and working well. It ended up costing her approximately the amount of my original quote but she had lost valuable time in getting her business going and gone through some serious aggravation and stress.
So, proceed with caution if you are considering the very cheapest options. The old adage ‘you get what you pay for‘ is likely to apply. At Rapid Websites we aim for a middle ground. We do offer very cost effective packages but we have spent a lot of time developing our super flexible templates that we can easily customise to suit your content and the goals of your website so that we can create professional websites that are fit for purpose. Our packages are aimed at budget concious businesses who are looking for a pretty standard type of website and have prepared some content for the website. For those that need more assistance with creating content or are looking for a more unique website design, our sister business, Stellar Web Works, can provide a quotation for your project.