Going rates for website design and monthly maintenance?

[Flaxbee]

Almost every site I click on wants me to submit info for a quote...but I'm just trying to do a quick survey of the going rate for initial website design (esp. if fancier graphics are used, Flash, etc.) and then a monthly maintenance fee - for troubleshooting, upgrades, etc. (not simply hosting).

Any of the Lounge web gurus have $$ figures?

Or any ideas where I can get good info (w/o having to submit requests for quotes)?

Thank you!

[matcom]

1. you will HAVE to submit BUT....

stay away from companies that charge $xxx.xx per page. Someone should give you a price for the SCOPE of your project. that is how I always priced jobs to my customers.

the reason being is that the initial design (i.e. home page) ALWAYS is the most time-consuming with other sub-pages being essentially cut & paste (assuming straight HTML here). you also will want (assuming this is a business site) to get someone with SEO experience (which will cost more but keep it in mind). If you ARE concerned about search engines, you might want to dump the Flash (unless for a splash page)

just my $.02

[Flaxbee]

2. thanks, matcom...

I guess I'll look around some more then consider submitting requests...

[matcom]

3. if you have a site scope, PM me with it and i'll tell you what *I* would have charged

maybe that will help? (FYI I still do stuff on the side but really don't have the time these days for a new project so it would be totally for comparrison purposes)

[Flaxbee]

5. OK-

we're actually doing some fledgling work for a media group in Europe -- and will move on to doing more of their media marketing in the future b/c they want to expand in the US next year, but sort of as a get-to-know-you project we're doing their site design & trying to come up with some pricing. B/c it's a media group, they want snazzy flash movie shorts, etc... so a fair amount of work. Perhaps segue into IPTV stuff with their content, etc.

Once I know more of what they want I'll keep your offer in mind. Thanks again, very much, for replying.

[mainegreen]

4. Depends on the complexity of the project.

I've charged anywhere between $40 an hour up to $150 an hour.