Web Design Pakistan, Outsource Web Design & Website Development

This is perhaps the most common question our clients ask us.

Even though there are many websites that try to answer this question yet no one has been able to come up with the perfect formula.

Website design and development is an ever evolving field. New innovations come up almost on a daily basis. Both design and development tasks of yesterday take half the time today. This however does not mean that the cost of a website or the time spent in making one has reduced. As technology evolves, client expectations for their websites also increases.

Pricing a website is a technical and often under rated task. Project requirement documentation is the key. Both the company that the work is being outsourced to as well as the client must spend a reasonable amount of time defining these requirements. This requirement document which is often part of the proposal or quotation sent to the client is the basis to resolve any disputes that may arise in the future.

If the requirements are properly defined and the number of hours that will be consumed on a web project are calculated with a reasonable amount of accuracy then the price that is provided will be both competitive as well as profitable.

If however the number of man hours that will be consumed are under estimated then the project will not be profitable or when they are over assessed then the bid for the project will not be competitive. Similarly the client also must be informed of the logic behind fixing a price for the project so that he knows that in case the requirements are enhanced at a later stage then the price will also increase.

Another important factor that must be taken into account is the skill and cost of the resource working on the project. For example a PHP developer with hard-core PHP experience of 5 years would be priced almost double to someone with 2 years experience in our region. Similarly here in Pakistan (where we are located), we are spending less than half of what is spent on salaries in developed countries while our infrastructure expenses are similar. That basically means that our price would be around half of what you would expect elsewhere.

Even though price is a major factor while deciding where you want to outsource, we always advise our clients not to base their decision on price alone. The decision taken should be after a detailed cost, benefit & risk analysis.

Most clients are not web designers or developers themselves so evaluating technical skills isn’t generally possible. A freelancer could be quoting half of what an established web design company might quote but then there is a much higher risk in outsourcing a project to a freelancer. Generally teamwork results are better and unless your project is very small in nature, you should always prefer working with a professional entity.

Similarly, there will be differences in pricing even between companies located in the same region. That difference too can also be understood by comparing the quotation & portfolios of the different companies under consideration. If there is a considerable difference in prices quoted by two companies located in the same region, then either the portfolio of the two companies will not be equal in terms of quality or the offers submitted might be totally different in terms of scope. All in all, generally “you will get what you pay for”.

Also there are many different pricing options that different companies may offer. For example, our company is currently offering three options i.e. hourly based pricing, project based pricing and dedicated human resource as can be seen on our “Website Design and Development Pricing” page.

As a rough basis the typical prices that we might charge for a web project is given below:

1. Website Logo Design – US $ 75 to 250

2. Brochure Website (around 5 to 7 static pages) – US $ 450 to 750

3. Content Management System Based Website – US $ 950 to 15,000

4. Classifieds Website – US $ 2,000 to 5,000

5. eCommerce Website – US $ 1,250 to 4,000

6. Social Networking Website – US $ 15,000+

7. Niche Classifieds Website – US $ 2,000 to 5,000

*As evident from the above, the price of a website project will always vary greatly. The only way to accurately determine the price is to calculate the time that will be consumed based on well defined requirements.

Similarly when clients want work done by the hour, the rates for our web designers and developers range between US $ 10 to 15 per hour.

The most cost effective option for large projects is when clients hire dedicated resources from us. The price per individual is roughly between US $ 900 to 1,200 per month. This option is however only advised for clients who have the time to supervise and manage the project on their own.