A Guide to the Cost of Web Design and Development Singapore

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Published by Novatise on February 23, 2020

Web Development in Singapore

So you are a Singapore business owner or an aspiring entrepreneur and you are looking to get a website design and built from scratch, but you don’t know the head or tail of it. People who are not in the IT space can have a hard time in understanding the cost and requirements of a web development project.

Coupled with the facts that there are no longer any Singapore grants in for local companies to tap on to revamp or build a website for their business, one has to extra careful and selective on setting a budget for your grand plan.

How much it cost for a Website Design and Development in Singapore?

What we have here is a thorough guide for develop cost you should expect in 2018 that shows you the scope of the work and the cost it will take for such work. This is to give you an idea of where your project will fit in.

There are a host of factors which determines the cost of the website and here are some common generic ones.

Cost to design a website in Singapore

• How big your company is
• The number of pages you are looking to create
• If it’s a simple website or a dynamic website
• If you want a custom design or a theme
• If you need an E-commerce integration
• If you need a back-end with user logins
• If you need a web application with many database and logic features

All these play a major role. Now breaking down this even further, let’s see what kind of business needs what website and how much that will cost

Singapore Website Design & Development Price

1. An Informational Website with the Basic Features

Generally for companies like a Singapore business listing site, they don’t need a lot going on in terms of functionalities. It should be highly informational. If for the real estate company, high quality pictures of their properties, addresses of their properties, description of the properties in terms of location, quality of construction, amenities and also information on who to contact.

For a lawyer’s website, you might need basic information on the years of experience, the filed they specialize in, the size of the team, the qualifications of the lawyers and more.

For a food business like restaurant and or cafe, a 5 page website is more than enough.

If you surmise the scope of the project, simple website design Singapore will have a 5 to 10 pager with the following features.

• A blog to talk about real estate trends or legal trends
• Comments and reviews on the blog
• Contact form to get in touch
• Database login for the company
• E-mail Subscription
• Bookings for Appointment
• Hosting and E-mail set up

A website like this will come in the S$2,000 to $10,000 range. The range is wide because of the level of detailing and functionality the website owner needs. Above does not include cost for website copywriting which usually is the key element to web design and development.

Here is the article which describes the gist of having proper content for your site architecture.

2. An E-commerce Store

E-commerce stores are a lot more complicated than static websites. They require a high level of customisation and fluidity because there are a lot of things going on. Here are some of the features that’s expected in an Ecommerce store.

Customer log-ins and account management that shows their past orders and shipping details
Setting-up of Product section – This can be 50 products or 5000 products
Images uploading
Pricing + Shipping and Tax information of the product
Customer Reviews and Testimonial Section
Cart functionality
Product page description and more

An e-commerce store is complex and depending on the feature sets and the number of listed products, it can easily range from $5,000 to $50,000 SGD. Imagine the cost of hiring a local photographer to take 100 products with white background. After which, website builders have to get hold of content for each of the products listed on the website. These costs add up to a listing fee of $20-$30 easily and if we are talking about 100 products, this is a cost of $2-3k.

Yes we know Shopify does all theses job well but the fact is you will need to DIY or hire someone to set it up for you. Taking into the fact about someone planning, someone validating, someone executing, all these are the necessary costs to the add up. Check up their prices HERE. Good thing is they charge 3-3.6% = 50c fee as compared to Paypal fee of 3.9% + 50c.

3. A Community

Community websites are gaining massive popularity and every website owner these days are intent on creating their own Tribe. A website like this will have features for

• Creating a discussion
• Enabling Account Sign-ups including Avatars
• Option for commenting and uploading images and URL’s
• Maybe a points system for Gamifying the experience

A website like this would cost around $15,000 to $50,000.

We used to love about setting up forums but however it seems a outdated way of communication when Facebook Groups overtake the ease of communication.

4. Creating a Webapp (Ex: Fiverr or Airbnb)

A web app is the most complex of all. Depending on the kind of work. Not all web apps are the same. For example, a site like Airbnb is totally different when compared to a Yelp sort of a website. So let’s breakdown for web apps.

• A Marketplace Website

A marketplace model is one of the most lucrative business opportunities around in these times. It generally involves 3 parties. Taking amazon as an example, There is the buyer, there is the person who lists the product and there is Amazon itself.

Examples of such sites: Fiverr, Themeforrest, Freelancer.sg

There are multiple log-ins, options for uploading products, comparisons etc. A marketplace would cost around $50,000 to $300,000

• Listing Site

A listing site like Yelp involves uploading hundreds and thousands of restaurants, but the company itself upload these listings including the images etc. A strong review and rating system is required. An algorithm which puts together all the ratings and gets the right number out is important. This can range from $20,000 to $50,000

• A Custom Software

Say you wanted to build your own Basecamp like application. This involves a complete customised solution. This has to be built from scratch and all the features that’s required. A custom Web App definitely needs a programmer who is strong with logic and algorithms. A project like this can take up to a year to develop and we are talking about a lean team which comprises of a Project manager, a Front end developer and a Backend developer, not take into consideration the cost of designing fees.

This would easily cost $250,000 and more.

To summarise

Web Design and Development Rates Singapore

A business website would cost S$2,000 to $10,000

An E-commerce site can easily range from S$5,000 to $50,000

A community website would cost around S$15,000 to $50,000

A web app custom built application S$50,000 and more

So how to find the right Web Developer?

Now you have all this information. How do you know to choose the right company for your website? In the past we received large number of enquiries on starting a tech startup with so many people are so lofty about their ideas, not knowing the cost of development. If you are an entrepreneur, we do suggest you finding own CTO and build your own team. From there, start raising funds when you have a good validation model.

The first step is to do a bit of Google research and figure out what people are talking about the Development company. Also, depending on your requirement, it makes sense if the digital agency has built a similar application to yours. Especially, if it’s a web application, you don’t want novices handling your website.

The right web development agency also has a very clear-cut plan in terms of the scope of work. They are able to break all modules down and assign a timeline for each module. This shows they know what exactly is required and how much time it’ll take.

A good web design agency is also good at one thing. Understanding your situation. They aren’t in a hurry to just get on with it. They try to understand your business, you needs. A lot of them also send out questionnaire’s for your team to fill out. More so, you need your web developer to understand the logic of Local Search Engine Optimisation, in particular Singapore SEO.

If your on a budget and would like to create a FREE website, you can refer to the video below.

Above are cost of hiring a design and build agency, lets take a look at the cost of hiring your own team in Singapore.

Hiring an Own Team Vs Hiring an Agency in Singapore

So there are two ways to go about building your website. You can hire your own team or outsource the development work to an agency. Let’s cover the pros and cons of both

Hiring an own team

Many well funded companies take this route because, they have the financial capability to hire a team and they believe that the team that is created the website would know the product in and out.

The Reality

Hiring isn’t easy. From lower level managers to CEO’s. Everybody needs to be hiring all the time. In fact, it’s been suggested 30% of a managers time should be spent on hiring. Attracting talent is not child’s play if you are not a big brand name. Especially because of the competitive hiring landscape and the fact that employees expect perks of all kinds, it’s difficult to bring in talent and retain them.

The cost of hiring involves

Promoting jobs on Linkedin
Getting subscriptions on Job sites
Cost per hour of the team that is hiring
Time spent on actual interviews.

All these tasks in themselves will go to thousands of dollars. It is said, to make a good hire, interviews with at least 5 to 6 people on average is conducted. To hire 5 people, interviews with at least 30 people should be conducted.

Having said this, To build a website from scratch, the following people need to be hired.

A web designer
A web developer
A copywriter
A project manager

Hiring a web designer

Hiring a web designer is subjective. It’s all about taste. Their basics of using the design software can be learnt, but designing capabilities needs taste and is mostly innate. To get a designer who is good and can handle a web design project from scratch would range from $2500 to $5000 a month.

Web Designer Cost : $2500 to $8000 a month

Hiring a web developer

A web developer is the core of the project. If he or she does not do the job well, it’s the end of the project. Gauging the capabilities of a developer is really hard and the person interviewing them should be highly technical. A developer can make a site work, but still not do a good job(Site is low, errors etc).

So hiring a good developer takes a lot of time and will set you back at least $5000 for a good one

Web developer cost : $3000 to $10,000 a month

Hiring a copywriter

A website does not make money or convert customers without copy. Strong copy leads to sales. A good copywriter is a must for a website to be able to sell the vision, attract customers, get customers to click on contact forms etc. A good copywriter would set you back a minimum of $2000. The good ones come for nothing more than $3500.

Copywriter Cost : $2000 to $5000

Check out: Outsourced Writing Services by our Sister brand Writise

Hiring a project manager

All these functions are tied together by a project manager. This person is responsible for the project and make sure all the functions are working properly and the project is on time. This person needs to be an expert generalist. They need to understand development, design and sales. A good project manager is not cheap and will cost a minimum of $4000 for a young professional and a person with experience of 4 to 5 years will cost somewhere around $6k to $7k.

Project Manager Cost : $4000 to $15,000

Total Cost of Own Team on Average Payscale: $25,000 a month.

Data source: Jobstreet

Hiring an Agency

As mentioned above, an agency is a one time fixed cost with tight schedules worked on milestones and deadlines. There is no cost of hiring or managing.

Any delay in the project, the cost is borne by the agency. The trouble of hiring top quality talent is left to the agency who already have skilled talent at their disposal.

After the project is over, you don’t have the continue paying a salary for an agency.

Web Design and Development Process

If you’ve wondered what the process is for creating a brand new website, then here’s a checklist you can follow that can help you.

#1 — Requirements of the Website

The first step to a web design and development process in Singapore is to get the full fledged requirements. A simple outline of the requirements, references of samples websites and other things you need to discuss with the development team.

#2 — Number of Pages

The number of pages on a site definitely decides the financials of the project and discussing the number of pages internally with your team before hiring a web development agency will really help in setting the budget. If you don’t know the number of pages before the project, then this could impact the project from a time perspective as well.

#3 — Features and Functionalities

This is the most important step in the development process. You need to figure out the features and functionalities required for the site before you get to the development process. This requires the help of a person from your team who can create mockups and understand the functionality. One who can pull up references and give a flow. Most web development agencies will help you with this process as well.

#4 — Technology Stack it will be built on

One of the most important things before you embark on a web development journey is to understand the tech stack that is going to be used to build a website. Is it a CMS like WordPress or will it be a custom development using Ruby?

This decision is very important early on to understand the cost of future maintenance. This is a super important step that needs strong technical chops to foresee the future requirements of the business.

#5 — Design and Style of the Website

The look and feel must be discussed as the end user’s satisfaction depends on that. The design of a site is not only about how good it looks, but how well it works. This is very important.

Frequently asked questions regarding Web Design and Web Development Companies

What is the turnaround time for a web development project?

An average web development project takes about two weeks. But larger projects can go up to 3 months.

Are the websites built from scratch or are themes used?

Websites are built from scratch. If a theme is used, then the prices are way cheaper. You can ask your web developer if they are using a theme and what platform they are using.

Are images part of the cost?

Images are expensive and are generally not part of the cost. A website will need at least 10 images to start off. It will cost about $100.

Are content writing and part of the web development project?

Copywriting is a separate skill and isn’t part of the web development project and it has to be treated separately.

Are charges by the hour or by the project?

Check with your web developer if your projects are by the hour. Generally, projects by the hour are much more expensive.

Will the website be mobile friendly?

Modern day web developers optimize their website based on responsiveness and this will be generally added to the cost.

Conclusion

That explains for the web development and design charges as a whole in Singapore. 🙂

A new website needs absolute marketing hacks to help you make money. Check out what Novatise can do for you.

Novatise

We help SMEs in Singapore to create digital solutions to increase sales and productivity. At Novatise, we work in a lean environment as such, no sales person is involved.

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A Guide to the Cost of Web Design and Development in Singapore 2020