# cost range of site



## felsinfeld (Feb 6, 2011)

Looking for very basic site for selling tees. I would supply all graphics needed, so just layout and the ecommerce part of it. Credit cards, paypal...but keeping it very simple. What is a ballpark price range to have a SIMPLE site made?


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## SeasonEnds (Sep 9, 2007)

This is not the type of question that I would normally answer. I think the cost of your site depends on what you define as simple. E-commerce can be a tough thing. If you are just looking for a basic site with a paypal button plugged in... I would say that you would be looking at a few hundred dollars. I would charge you somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 depending on how many pages you ended up needing. That would also include the design of the site. It all depends on exactly what you want. That price is just a ball park. You could probably get it done for less or for more, depending on which way you went and what you need.


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## Bbamseattle (Feb 9, 2011)

You can try to design it yourself, but for a custom design t-shirt graphic, it's going to cost you. You can try going to a local college and post an ad- that might give you a good price.


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## Fresh_Society (Apr 18, 2009)

Hey i personally would do it for $350 since i am a fellow Shirt designer with my own little business. I learned web design throughout the process of creating my shirt company. I put hard work into the websites and i even give you the html files and sources in case you want to edit them yourself in the future.


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## ekon (Feb 10, 2011)

I was thinking about my own online store as well but it's very expensive. I don't know how much is in your country, but i was talking to some guy and he told me that basic price for a webpage is 700$ and 3000$ for an online store. Still, i'm sure you can find someone who will make it much cheaper.


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## Verdikt (Feb 1, 2010)

You can use bigcartel.com. I think they let you post your shirts for free! I'm not sure about payments but it's really easy to use.

If you want your own website with your own address, you have to get a domain first. I would use godaddy or just host. Then get a shopping cart template (about $200-300). If you want to customize the template, you would probably need a web designer. There's some inexpensive web designers on Craigslist. Good luck!


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## Extrememgmt (Oct 22, 2007)

Like the others have said, a lot depends on how much you want. I have a retail site for my family business that sells a bunch of stuff, including some of my t-shirts. The domain name cost $13/year, the hosting is about $5/month and included an Opencart shopping cart. The rest I did myself, along with my sister, but the shopping cart is the main site. If that is all you need, that is fine. But if you want a custom site rather than a template then I had offers to design starting at $500 and going up to several thousand.

Ed


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## Recover Clothing (Feb 9, 2011)

It depends. My site costs only $7.50 a month. They can be very cheap to super expensive.


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## hmmTasty (Jan 31, 2011)

i made my site for $35, plus $10 pa for my domain hosting. But i put a lot of hours in, basic shop was up within 2 hours but rest took a little time. too get it made i would think its around $800 for a basic set up, from a junior designer.


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## trexart (Aug 3, 2007)

I used to try to do ecommerce sites for people on a budget. I learned very quickly that what might seem fairly straight forward at first, ends up taking lots of time. I won't touch an custom ecommerce site now for less than $5000, and that is for a simple one. In fact, I won't touch a website at all for less than $1500. 

Saying that, there are lots of options to get up and running for not too much money, you just can't expect to have a site just like one of the major brands. I always recommend hosted solutions, you can normally get a template made for not too much money. That way you get a professional site that maybe doesn't have ALL of the functionality you need, but has the important parts and also looks good. Big Cartel, Shopify, etc, using them gives you a professional site, but you don't have to pay any programming or setup fees. You might end up having to pay a monthly fee, but remember, this is how you are going to be making your money, I think it is worth it.

Unless you have someone close to you that can help with an open source solution, the hosted solutions are best for people who are starting up and don't yet have the funds for a fully customized shop.

Just a bit of a rant, I actually don't understand how anyone could do a website for really cheap. I mean even a single page website is way more complicated then a poster or a flyer. I mean you not only have to do the design, but it then has to be cut up and coded into something that not only looks good, but works in all major browsers, possibly mobile phones AND does well in the search engines.

Cheers,
Steph


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## Fresh_Society (Apr 18, 2009)

trexart said:


> I used to try to do ecommerce sites for people on a budget. I learned very quickly that what might seem fairly straight forward at first, ends up taking lots of time. I won't touch an custom ecommerce site now for less than $5000, and that is for a simple one. In fact, I won't touch a website at all for less than $1500.
> 
> Saying that, there are lots of options to get up and running for not too much money, you just can't expect to have a site just like one of the major brands. I always recommend hosted solutions, you can normally get a template made for not too much money. That way you get a professional site that maybe doesn't have ALL of the functionality you need, but has the important parts and also looks good. Big Cartel, Shopify, etc, using them gives you a professional site, but you don't have to pay any programming or setup fees. You might end up having to pay a monthly fee, but remember, this is how you are going to be making your money, I think it is worth it.
> 
> ...


Its really not that hard and its hard to get business in these times when you charge $5000 for a simple site. Just because the price is cheap does not mean the website will look cheap. Some of us are freelance designer paying college education and starting our own clothing lines so charging cheap is just charging enough for us to get by.


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## trexart (Aug 3, 2007)

I understand that not everyone has the money to spend $5000 on a site and I don't expect people just starting out to spend that. That's why I brought up the hosted solutions. I was only saying that if you are just starting out, and you have a limited budget, you shouldn't expect to get a fully customized shop, and I think that's fair.

We started out with t-shirts, I doubt I could walk into a screen printer and say, I only have $400, but can you do me a job like Ed Hardy. You have to fit the print of your shirts into a budget, the same goes with a website. 

Instead of trying to spend your budget on trying to get a custom site that most likely won't turn out great because you would have looked for the cheapest programmer/designer, find a solution where you can spend your money wisely. Don't pay for the programming, put your money into the design of a template.

Oh, and by the way, if websites "aren't that hard" no offense, but you aren't doing them right. They take multiple skills, from design to html/css plus most of the time programming. They are not simple.

Oh, and I said I charged $5000 for a simple ecommerce site, that is different then a simple site. I would do a brochure site for less if it were simple.


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## Fresh_Society (Apr 18, 2009)

OK maybe they are not the easiest thing in the world but if you like what you do such as designing it doesn't seem hard to me. I use adobe dreamweaver and things just flow allot easier and i am able to import scripts and codes easily. I've made basic ecommerce templates for when i was building my clothing website. But now i can use those basic templates I didn't use and create numerous elegant websites for just a price lower than $500 since the framework is done. 

You still get a dynamic website that can compete with other clothing websites. You also get your products on the web and you can start making money.


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## trexart (Aug 3, 2007)

Well, you just confirmed what I said...the people who pay you $500 for a site aren't getting a fully customised solution. You've created your own shopping cart solution, and based on that template you make designs around it. It is not fully customised.

I'm not sure how Dreamweaver is helping you program though. 'Importing codes and scripts'? That sounds to me like you aren't actually programming it. How is that custom?

There is nothing wrong with putting together your own website if you have the skills. There is also not a problem with offering an inexpensive solution, but I still believe that paying a monthly fee for a hosted solution that will give you product management, order management, shipping, credit cards, etc is better then an inexpensive home grown solution. You get a well tested product and a full online administration.

The only other good option is using an open sourced tool, but even that takes set-up time plus then the design of a template. At least with that, you can read documentation, etc and maybe set-up the open source cart yourself and then just get someone to help with a design. It can end up with more of a headache though if you aren't up to putting in the time.


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## Fresh_Society (Apr 18, 2009)

I agree. It also depends allot on the designer. Iv'e seen websites where people have paid over $1000 and are visually unappealing.


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## trexart (Aug 3, 2007)

Oh of course, that can always happen. 

The thing that makes ecommerce sites way different from brochure sites are that you have to do programming as well, it isn't just design. There are some people who can design and program, but they are a rare breed because it takes two completely different skills. In fact, they are almost completely conflicting skills.

I'm sure there are some people out there that can do both, but I can tell you from being a programmer and knowing lots of programmers, most of them are crap at design. Really, most of the time the two skills are split.


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## Recover Clothing (Feb 9, 2011)

Big cartel is pretty good for cheap also storenvy is good too


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## stevem98 (Mar 2, 2006)

wordpress with an ecommerce plugin is great, looks really clean and profession and its easy to set up, cost about $400 to set the whole thing up, if you can build a wordpress site, its easy


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## Jsheffers (Apr 8, 2010)

I run into this question every day at work. I work at a graphic design studio that specializes in web design and development. These prices your getting like $200-300 are if you want something functional with pay pal buttons no credit cards. Also for that amount of money you won't get a quality design and your brand will suffer. Invest some money especially if this is something you want to be profitable. I'd say at the very least $1,500.


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## camppos (Feb 18, 2011)

I do web sites for a living, for an online store I charge $850 I use open source software (wordpress is open source too). It won't take me a lot a time to setup and design the site, that is why I don't charge a lot to my clients and that's why it should not cost your more than 1000 for somebody to help you setup an online store.

Im just starting to learn about t-shirt business and came across this post. I just want you all to know that you can get a good site for a modest price. Look for a freelance person like me, also I have an example of the work I do but won't post the url since it's against rules, for those interested send me a message... hope this helps =)


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## foot print (Jun 2, 2010)

Everyone has a different budget and different ideas of what looks good and bad...so with that said beauty is in the eye of the beholder.... Can you imagine how boring life would be if we all had the same taste.


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## Daresha (Mar 3, 2011)

Hi, Do you design sites for others for hire?


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## Posylane (Mar 3, 2011)

I know several custom sites with the ability to take custom orders that cost $12k-27K. From that you have a real webstore.


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## hiGH (Jan 25, 2007)

go with bigcartel... you have nothing to lose and everything to gain..  .. you get the point.


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## Robertino (Mar 9, 2011)

I'm looking at either PestaShop or Magento ecommerse systems - what will you say about these two?
Anyone has experience?


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## Posylane (Mar 3, 2011)

I don't know PestaShop but we use Magento. Magento is a good platform choice.


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## Robertino (Mar 9, 2011)

Thanks man. It is good, but it seems big


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## Vanguard (Feb 17, 2008)

I've been a successful designer for years but I never got into programming. I found a great software called ''WebPlus x4'' from Serif. It's a web design program that functions like Illustrator or Corel Draw. It's really easy to use. You design the pages and it writes the code. You can easily add videos, photos, e-commerce, blogs, contact links, etc. It's on sale now on their website for only $69! I don't work for them, I just love their software. I designed a killer website for myself and I've done sites for other businesses. They give you templates or you can start from scratch. Businesses that charge $1500 for a website are the reason I'm so busy. Thanks guys!


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