If you're going through that wonderful process of pricing our the cost of a new website for your business, you've probably found that while gathering pricing from different firms, you're finding a wide variety of pricing: some very high; some very low; and plenty more everywhere in between.

You may have found yourself scratching your head, wondering where this 'all over the map' pricing is coming from. The are a lot of factors that can effect pricing, and at the end of the day, you need to make sure you are comparing apples to apples. The cheapest price will often come with pitfalls, but the highest price may always not result in a better product. Let's start by reviewing the different types of companies you can hire to develop your website:

The Freelancer

Freelancers usually come with the lowest prices, however there are pitfalls associated with this. You're hiring one individual, and any number of problems can arise from that. For instance, if he gets sick, then he's out of the game until he gets better and your project is on hold while he gets over the flu. Often times, a more lucrative contract will come along and the freelancer who was giving your project priority moves it to a secondary position, as he doesn't have the resources to handle both projects at the same time. When developing a website, there are two important and radically different halves to a good website: the actual coding of the website and the design of the website. In my experience, it's very difficult to find someone who excels at both of those disciplines, since they are so wildly different. When you do come across a someone who is talented at both aspects, their services typically come at a very high premium. Don't get me wrong, there are talented and reliable freelancers out there who have a long list of satisfied customers, but there are also a large number of freelancers who give the group as a whole a bad name. Hiring a freelancer can save you money, but often it can be a gamble and if you lose the roll of the dice, you may have to start your website from scratch and say goodbye to the money you've already paid.

Small Design Firm

Typically, a small design firm has been around long enough to establish a solid business of helping customers (though not always). They tend to range from 2 - 10 employees, and often fall in the mid-range of pricing. Using a small design firm is usually a safer bet than a freelancer, because they've been around long enough to get established. They also have multiple employees, so your project won't grind to a halt if one employee gets sick or leaves the company. They can overcome a lot of the issues that can potentially arise with a freelancer, such as already having both coders and designers in place. It's much easier to get high quality design and code married together when you have different people working on those aspects. There are drawbacks to small design firms though: obviously the price will be higher because they have a greater overhead to cover, and sometimes that overhead can cause them to focus on signing more and more clients, resulting in a poor support experience once you become their client.

Large Design Firms

Usually employing a team of 10+ and managing multiple large projects at the same time, a large design firm is often the best bet for an absolutely polished and top quality website. However, you'll pay quite a bit more for that type of solution. While the solutions provided tend to be extremely high quality, because of the scale, the problems a large design firm can have with overhead can cause their pricing to reach extreme levels, depending on how things are run on a management level. Unless you are part of a fairly large organization yourself, this type of company will most likely be outside of your budget anyway.

The Other Factors

In a perfect world, what I described above would be exactly how things work, without any deviation. Unfortunately, very few web development companies have the confidence in their products and services to offer a 100% money-back guarantee like we do. So, there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration, as some freelancers will provide a better product than a large design firm. Not every company is equal! Here are a few steps to take when making your hiring decision:

1. Their Portfolio

Take a look through work they've recently done, and have a few people you trust take a look through their recent work too. Make sure the designs they are developing meet your standards and are of a high quality. Don't think design is important? First read this (it's short, I promise). Then consider this: for some of your potential customers, your website will be their first point of contact with your business. If it doesn't look up to par, then it's the real-world equivalent of inviting a potential client to meet with you at an office that's run down and messy. A lousy website can cost you a customer before you even get to talk to them about your business!

2. Their Previous Clients

They should have a long list of clients that are willing to talk to you. If a company /individual is reluctant or unable to give you a list of at least five clients they have worked for and who are willing to talk to you about their experiences during the web development process, then red warning flags should be going up left and right. If they do a good job, then their past clients should be more than happy to tell you how pleased they were with the final result and recommend their services to you.

3. The Pre-Sale Communication

As a rule of thumb, communication usually degrades (even if it's just a small amount) after you've moved from being a potential client to actually becoming a client. Keeping this in mind, if your potential web developer / firm takes a week to answer a question or concern you have, then imagine what the communication will be like after you become a client! Before committing to a contract, be sure to extensively test the level of communication you receive and be sure that you would be satisfied if that level of communication lowered slightly once you became a client.

4. The Content Management Factor

The popular fad these days in web design is to sell a content management system that will allow you as the site owner to update your content on your site yourself. This is a good thing, as it can save you money and make your website dynamic with frequent updates. However, many freelancers and small design firms use a freely downloaded open source CMS. Often times these open source products are complex and difficult to use. Make sure that if you are buying a content management system, you get a live demo before purchasing so you can be sure that once the CMS is in your hands, you will actually be able to use it for the intended purpose of updating the content on your site.

So what do I do?

Start by identifying what type of level you're looking to work at, be it a freelancer, small, or large design firm. Once you've decided on that, find at least three firms, and compare them on the other factors. This is obviously a bit more labour intensive than just speaking to one company, but at the end of the day - after you've gone through this process - you should have a really good idea on who the best match for your company will be.