How Much Does a Website Cost in Adelaide in 2023?
Web Design Prices Adelaide
One of the first questions you’ll have when looking for a web designer is, “How much does a website cost?”
Whilst the cost can vary significantly due to a range of factors (which we’ll cover in a moment), there are many common factors that determine the price of a website.
In this article, we’re going to cover:
The factors affecting website costs in Adelaide
What goes into building a website
Website price ranges in Adelaide
Factors Affecting Website Costs in Adelaide
1. Complexity and Design
The first thing you’ll need to know is how complex your website needs to be.
For a simple brochure-style website with 1-3 pages, you’ll be paying less compared to a complex e-commerce site with much more functionality.
In addition to the complexity, will your site be fully custom-built, or will it be built from a template?
A fully custom site might be more creative and flexible, but costs can quickly run up into the tens-of-thousands of dollars compared to sites that start with a template, such as on Squarespace, Shopify and Wix.
Whilst there’s no right or wrong, it’s important to get clear on these things before speaking to a web designer, so you can get a more accurate quote for your website.
2. Content Management System (CMS)
The next factor that will determine the cost of a website in Adelaide, is the Content Management System (or CMS for short).
A CMS is a website design platform that provides the building blocks to design, develop and manage your website. Some of the most popular Content Management Systems include:
Squarespace (my personal favourite)
Shopify (great for e-commerce
WordPress (the most well-known)
WebFlow (extremely robust)
Each of these Content Management Systems comes with its own pricing and set of pros and cons. The one you choose will determine the price, complexity and timeframe of your website build.
At Edwards Design, we strictly use Squarespace for every single client website, as it allows you to create flexible, beautifully-designed websites much faster than the likes of WebFlow or WordPress, without sacrificing performance.
To have the same quality site built on WebFlow for example, could cost you almost double what you’d be paying for a Squarespace website.
3. Responsive Design and Mobile Optimisation
The next web design pricing factor is website responsiveness. In other words…will your website be built to look great across multiple devices, or just on desktop?
In 2023, it’s expected that all sites should be fully responsive, so no matter which device a customer is viewing your website on, they’re getting a great experience with your brand. There’s nothing worse than trying to learn about a product or service, but not being able to, because the website is loading funny on your mobile.
With that said, each CMS will have different levels of complexity when it comes to making a website responsive, so it’s important to choose a web designer in Adelaide who uses the right platform for your needs and budget.
4. E-commerce Functionality
For product-based businesses such as clothing brands and retail stores, you can expect to pay more for your website, simply due to the fact that your site will need a lot more functionality, compared to service businesses.
Your website will need e-commerce functionality such as:
Inventory management
Add-to-cart
Secure payment gateways
Product display features
Customer accounts
As product-based businesses tend to have a larger range of products compared to service-businesses, there are often many layers of pages, collections, etc. that drive the cost of website design up.
The good news is that there are some excellent, relatively low-cost e-commerce platforms out there, such as Etsy (great for smaller creators) or Shopify which is the preferred choice for many businesses, from single-person businesses to some of the largest brands in 2023.
5. Custom Development and Features
Similar to e-commerce functionality, the cost of website design in Adelaide heavily depends on the features and functionality.
For larger companies who may need internal portals, more robust security, etc., website development costs can be up in the tens-of-thousands.
For smaller businesses such as restaurants, dentists and hair salons, there are many affordable plug-ins that allow customers to make reservations and schedule appointments. It’s important to discuss these needs with your Adelaide web designer to get the most accurate quote for your site.
Another thing to consider is the design itself.
For most businesses, there’s no need for custom coding to achieve highly-specific designs. Most platforms are flexible enough to create beautiful, on-brand websites. However, if you’re looking for a much more custom-designed website, you can expect to pay more for someone to develop code to achieve your specific design requirements.
6. Content Creation and SEO
One of the most important aspects of your website is the content (ie. pages and blog posts).
High quality content shows your customers that you know what you’re doing, and it shows Google that you’re worth listening to, which helps your website show up higher on search engines. This is called Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO).
It’s important to note that your website isn’t going to immediately show up at the top of Google when someone types in “Dentists in Adelaide”. Doing this requires months and years of consistent SEO efforts, such as creating high-quality, relevant content, improving site load speed, adding new pages with relevant keywords and getting backlinks from other high-authority websites.
If this is your goal, you’ll need to hire someone who specialises in Search Engine Optimisation, which has its own pricing factors (I can’t cover all of it in one article), and this will also drive up the cost of your website.
At Edwards Design, we offer an affordable and flexible monthly SEO solution with no lock-in contracts for businesses who want to kickstart their SEO efforts.
7. Maintenance and Support
The last factor that determines website design costs in Adelaide, is the need for maintenance and support. This will vary, depending on your CMS.
For platforms such as WordPress, maintenance is essential, as sites can often crash as a result of errors with plugins. Conversely, sites on Squarespace require very little maintenance and can be self-managed with a basic understanding of the platform.
The more maintenance, backups, updates and changes your website requires, the more you can expect to pay for your website.
What goes into building a website?
1. Planning and Strategy
Before building your website, it’s important to get clear on your goals, and put together a strategy and plan. Don’t skip this step, otherwise your website won’t be effective.
Many of the cheap web designers (ie. $300 on Fiverr or UpWork) don’t include a planning or strategy phase, and this will come back to bite you. Eventually, you’ll need to backtrack and start from scratch because your website won’t be doing its job properly, so it’s important to do this right from the start.
Some of the things you’ll need to define:
Website goals
Target audience
Desired functionalities
Sitemap (which pages you’ll need)
Another important element of planning and strategy is conducting competitor analysis. This will allow you to put together a strategy to create a more competitive and compelling website.
2. Design and Development
After putting together a plan and strategy, the next phase is designing and developing the website. This will take up the bulk of the process, and can vary from as fast as a week, to as long as 6+ months for much larger, more complex sites.
An experienced web designer will break the design & development process up into phases where you’ll see the design at different stages and approve it before moving on to the next phase.
3. Domain and Hosting
The final step is setting up your domain (yourbusiness.com.au) and your hosting. This will allow you to publish your site and go live! A great web design will be able to help you purchase and set up your domain and hosting.
There are countless domain marketplaces and hosting providers, but some of my favourite include:
GoDaddy (#1 option for domains and hosting)
Google Domains (great for domains)
CloudFlare (great for hosting)
Squarespace (all-in-one for Squarespace sites)
Website Price Ranges in Adelaide
The price of a website in Adelaide can range from as low as $1,000 for a one-page, brochure-style website, to $4,000 for a standard small business website, and all the way up to $20,000+ for a fully custom-developed website.
After comparing various website design prices in Adelaide, here are some common price ranges:
1-5 page website: $1,000 - $4,000
5 - 10 page website: $4,000 - $6,000
10+ page website: $6,000 - $20,000+
E-commerce website: Starting around $3,500+
Conclusion
Web design prices in Adelaide will vary from web designer to web designer. It’s important to get a clear understanding of your needs and goals, as well as the complexity and functionality of your website.
Our recommendation is to consult with a web designer to determine a price that’s right for your project, needs and budget.
If you’re looking for someone who can help you build your new website, then get in touch with Edwards Design! We’re a Squarespace website design studio in Adelaide for local businesses. With over 43+ clients in 15 industries, we’ve got the expertise, experience and enthusiasm to help your business thrive online.
