You are a businessman and an entrepreneur. You work on an exciting new idea and want to share it with the world. So you contact specialist to develop a web site for your business. But since you are not an expert in web development, you have no idea what opportunities there are. Or which will be the most effective option to represent your business. In order for specialist to answer the question “How much does a web site cost“, you need to know what types of web sites you can have. And then decide for yourself what suits you.
1. Informative static web site
- Personal vCard web site
If you wish to be know as a name and you want to show your skills and portfolio in a creative way – this is the type of web site for you. Simple, elegant, containing only the most important information.
- Business web site
If your company is high specialised in a specific field, where there aren’t many daily changes in the services or products you offer, a static business web site is the option for you. Web developers style it once with the information you provide and it stays static until you contact them with ideas for change.
2. Informative dynamic web site
A dynamic web site is considered a web site, which allows the company to make changes without the need for web developers. This means that you, your employee or sometimes even your users can upload a content with the help of a user-friendly interface. Such interface could be a popular Content Management System (CMS) or a personalised one.
- Using popular CMS
The most often CMS platform is WordPress. It started as a blogging platform, but in the past years it has developed an extremely well and offers a variety of options. The advantage of WordPress is that it is open-source and is free. It is easy to integrate into themes (designs). There are a variety of plugins available. Many of it’s functionalities are structured in a SEO-friendly way.
- Using personalised CMS
The personalised CMS has its advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages are that it costs more money and take more time to develop. Usually there aren’t plugins for them. The advantages are that you can customise it according to your needs. You would not have unnecessary files to cram up your server, so your site would probably load faster. Personalised CMS means that the system is closed, which should mean it is well protected, because no one know how it is structured.
3. Blog
The blog looks like a mixture between a personal web site, but with a dynamic content. Usually there is an “About” the person page. But the focus is not so much on this page as it is on the relevant posts this person publishes. More often, though, it has become a practice for companies to implement a blog on their corporate web sites in order to share useful information with their users. This way they increase their visits, maintain the customers interest and eventually gain more profit.
4. E-commerce – Online shop
There isn’t much to explain here. Most of the internet users have already hear and used online shops. E-commerce web sites use the same principle as the physical shops. You go in, like something and you buy it. The only difference is that the goods are delivered to you. Many of the online shops do not have a physical store and the only way you can own something they own is to buy it online. This may not be such a bad thing, because in this business model, the shop owner reduces the costs of maintaining a physical shop and staff, which may lead to lower prices for goods.
5. Personalised platform with logical functionalities
Personalised platforms with logical functionalities may sound very serious and scary, but these are actually the products of the most creative ideas. When you have an idea, which could not be realised by standard solutions offered on the market, this is the type of platform you will make for your business. Years ago, the first social network was considered such kind of platform. But with time many have copied its model and social networks aren’t considered as an innovative software. The process of creating a such web platform is the following:
- You have a concept for an innovative idea in your head.
- You consult with a specialist to see whether there is a technology that could realise the concept
- The specialist reviews current technologies available and gives you an answer
- If the answer is positive, you continue to develop the idea. You write a functional specification and web developers start to create a prototype. After that you follow the steps of the product lifecycle management.
6. Web based software / Web app / Web product
These are usually software products that were earlier available for desktop, but with the power of internet and cloud technologies, they have found their way in the world wide web. The development of such products often takes multiple specialist and years of programming, testing and fixing. Examples could be:
- Hotel Management Systems
- Accounting web based software
- Property portals
- Online banking
- ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planning)
7. Web game
Many of you know what web games are and have played them in some form. They can be simple trivia games or games with separate missions. There are even more complex games with multiple levels, personalised characters etc. All of them could be single player or multiplayer games. The time to develop a web game depends on the type of game. But it may vary from months to years.
If you wish to represent your business properly, to create an e-commerce or have a great new innovative idea – contact us and we will help you develop it.
