The Development Platform
A Content Management System, or CMS is a pre-made platform that you can use to develop your website. It allows you to change and make adjustments to your website’s text, photos, and pages. Not every website design company has the same kind of proficiency with every CMS, and for certain platforms it might also be difficult to find developers. Accordingly the price for the developer will vary, alongside price to be paid for the CMS platform itself (if any).
Furthermore, your website will need to be hosted on a server. A number of platforms such as Wix, Shopify, and GoDaddy, Hostinger offer their own hosting services, meaning you can simply go on to build the website, and not have to worry about linking your domain to the server. This comes with its own disadvantages, however. For open-source CMS platforms or custom-coded sites, hosting services will need to be availed of, the price for which will vary according to your requirements.
User interface
There are a number of ready-to-use templates available no matter what development platform you choose. Opting for such templates not only reduces the time required for development, but also reduces the design costs of your website. However, this comes with a few disadvantages as well. Firstly, by using a template that’s openly available, you run the risk of having a generic looking website that is similar to many others and fails to stand out. Readymade templates also make future customizations very difficult. You might find it quite cumbersome to fit your brand’s specific image into a template.
Number of Pages
A website may consist of a single page or 100 different ones. In the case of an eCommerce website, each product or service will generally require a different page. Unsurprisingly, the cost of developing your website will increase as the number of pages increases. While it’s true that the number of pages can be mitigated by the CMS you use, you might still need to design and develop a few different page templates.
Animations and Motion Graphics
Owing to the latest advancements and benefits in frontend technologies such as Javascript, Angular, CSS3, etc. a lot can now be achieved in the field of animation and motion graphics within simply a web browser. Not all web browsers can accommodate similar levels of animation, meaning it is important to survey what kinds and versions of browsers the majority of your visitors are using before deciding on the kind of animations you wish to implement on your site.
Using of various services
- Chatbots– AI has been successfully used in chatbots to provide better replies, and have been proven to increase business sales. AI techniques such as data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and behavior analysis allow chatbots to communicate with precision and security.
- User Experience– AI has been able to provide a unique momentum in both driving as well as analyzing consumer behavior. Sites powered with AI can identify the customer’s needs in a better manner, as well as their behavior patterns, and thus allow you to shape the website in a much better way. Voice-based search options, similar to Siri and Alexa also used AI, and may be implemented to facilitate customer experience.
- Marketing– With the help of Machine Learning and AI, you can predict what your customers will search for next, what they do not like, and even what their ideal time to shop is. Such information can prove to be invaluable when making marketing decisions.
Cost of plugins
- Cost of Plugins and APIs– Almost every functionality you can think of is probably already available as plugins and modules in open-source CMS platforms like WordPress. While they are often free, sometimes the full range of their capabilities are locked behind paywalls. Occasionally, the best plugin available for a certain functionality will not have a free version. They will further have to be configured into the system and then customized according to the site’s requirements. This can certainly cause a rise in costs.
- Other Interactive & Database-driven Functionalities– Occasionally, you might require functionalities that will need to be custom made. Maybe you want a specific thing to happen when a user interacts with a certain part of your website, or maybe you wish to create a specific kind of database for your site, and you find that there are no such plugins available on the web. In such cases, the functionalities will need to be created by the developers themselves through coding. This requires time and skill, and can significantly affect the cost of your website. This is important, since there are various technologies available, and you must only choose the best technologies for your website.
