Reasonable Cost to Get eCommerce Website Developed & Managed?

scotty on 26/01/2015 - 23:21

Hi OzBargain,

Not really my own question. One of my old colleagues whose brother is venturing into the world of eCommerce. Since I finished up my old job & started this "OzBargain" thingy, he thought that I might have some experience in setting up eCommerce websites… which I actually don't. Basically his brother got quoted (by a media/web design company in country NSW) this:

  • eCommerce website development $16,500 using WooCommerce platform (including theme, setting up category/products, integrating with payment gateway & AusPost, documentation + training)
  • Logo design $1,650
  • Domain + Hosting + SSL $800/year
  • Site maintenance $2,640/year (including WordPress/WooCommerce updates) + $110/hour additional word if required
  • Email marketing integration $2,500

Well. I'll say it again that I have no idea how much they usually cost in the market, however it does seem to be very steep. Domain & Hosting is probably something I'm more familiar with, and the quote is pretty much rip-off MelbourneIT price. However the rest of the package — is it reasonable?

Personally I'll probably get cheap .com.au domain (less than $25/2 years), forward the email to a Gmail account, logo designed by DesignCrowd or 99Designs, shopping cart hosted by a SaaS (Shopify, BigCommerce, etc). However my old colleague's brother might be technical illiterate and require a bit of hand holding. What would you do if you are in that situation?

Internet

Comments

  • NeggerOfDeals on 26/01/2015 - 23:29
    +1

    Holy… shit…

    I'm in the midst of building my own eCommerce website with free software… I can't speak for the AusPost part, but it wont be worth that much. I'm not saying go with them, but GoDaddy offers a 'free' SSL certificate on certain plans. No bloody way should web hosting cost $800 a year. I could go on, but I just want to say; wow, no bloody way. That's just over $24,000. No way a website is worth half my yearly wage.

    • dr on 27/01/2015 - 12:13
      -1

      You are underpaid!

      How much do you think is worth paying for the hosting for an income earning eCommerce website? Bear in mind things like availability, security, data retention, backups etc…

      • NeggerOfDeals on 27/01/2015 - 12:49
        +1

        Underpaid? I'm a casual that works 20 hours/2-3 days a week by choice.

        For $800 a year, I would learn how to do backups myself. You can find business grade hosting for $15AUS a month.

        • dr on 27/01/2015 - 14:05

          You said 48K as a yearly wage, without specifying that it is not a full time job, thanks for clarifying now it sounds more reasonable.

          And wrt to hosting and learning how to do backups don't you think that is the same thinking that company offering the service used (hosting via 3rd party $xyz difference to $800 convenience of not having to learn how to do backups, worry about techical details and spend time actually making sure that everything is working, up to date etc..)

          Please share the link for business hosting for $15 a month?

        • NeggerOfDeals on 27/01/2015 - 17:40

          $800 is yearly. Learning how to do backups is something you learn once. I'm with Prompt Web Hosting and they have a $15 business plan: https://www.promptwebhosting.com.au/business-hosting/

        • dr on 27/01/2015 - 18:03

          @Dagmar: Person also learns accounting once, making bread once, changing car's oil and spark plugs once… does not mean that everybody wants to do it or should do it. I guess you wouldn't want to save ~$300 per year by doing your own haircuts? ;-)

        • NeggerOfDeals on 27/01/2015 - 19:29

          You're comparing apples to oranges. Shaving your own head is completely different from backing up data on a computer.

        • dr on 27/01/2015 - 20:06

          @Dagmar: You are right I'm comparing apples to oranges trying to make a point, but is seems that my point is flying over your head. What is an apple to you (web server administration including backup/restore) might be an orange to a hairdresser who might do haircut blindfolded with both arms tied behind his/her back - and vice versa. And in this case we have no idea if the person starting above mentioned ecommerce business is a hairdresser trying to introduce hew fancy line of haircare products to Australian market. Something that looks simple to you might not look simple to other person. My point is although we are all ozBargainers here we should not devalue service in our own area of expertise. That kind of thinking is leading to mentality that any kid with a computer can develop business website for a few hundred dollars - they can because they live with mum and dad and do not have overheads normal business have, nor they provide prefessional service and support 24/7 once the website is deployed.

          Anyway I rest my case, others convinced me that you can have basic business hosting for less than $400 per year but you haven't that average Joe who can use ms-office/e-mail/facebook should do web server administration in order to save few hundred dollars per year.

          Cheers

  • pinchies on 26/01/2015 - 23:59

    Seriously, I have done all the above for 2% of that total cost before. Sure, it was a bargain price for a mate, but I'd do it again for not much more. I think you're spot on with your summary at the end of your post. Most of the work is just plug and play, install this and setup that - the actual time it requires is not a lot if you're happy to settle for a premade theme. That quote must come printed on gold leaf…

    • scotty on 27/01/2015 - 01:38

      Thanks.

      I think there's a difference between mate's rate and the quote you get from a local design firm. I know the price seems ridiculous when you know how much some of these items actually cost and where to find cheaper alternatives. However I'm more interested to know whether this kind of price is typical from a design firm.

  • Cheap Rich Guy on 27/01/2015 - 02:07

    A big retail company like Myer, DJ's or Woolies would consider that quote cheap. It still does sound like a price targeted for a business with a fairly extensive range of products.
    Which company quoted that price, if you don't mind me asking?

    • scotty on 27/01/2015 - 11:49

      Probably won't reveal the company. A small boutique shop in regional NSW and from their website it seems they are working in a residential house so could be a one man shop.

  • kings36 on 27/01/2015 - 09:01

    I think all prices above are about double of what they should be.
    It does depend quite a bit from firm to firm though what you are getting but being wordpress/woocommerce you are paying for labour only!

    Only the hosting and SSL will cost about $400 a year for quality stuff.

    I have a small web development company and I would charge about half.
    This would get less if the client can insert all products, writes content etc etc.

    It really comes down to how much you are comfortable to do yourself and get professionals to do the rest.

    Hope this helps

    • dr on 27/01/2015 - 12:11

      Can you share the details of that hosting company for $400 per year?

      • [Deactivated] on 27/01/2015 - 12:59

        umm… like most hosting companies other than Melb IT?

        • dr on 27/01/2015 - 14:08

          umm… link please? :-) Bluehost doesn't count, shared hosting on hostgator doesn't count either, hosting that has unrealistic quota limits does not count either.

        • [Deactivated] on 27/01/2015 - 14:20

          @dr: So what counts for you? Aussie hosting?
          https://ventraip.com.au/web-hosting/
          https://netvirtue.com.au/economy-hosting
          http://www.netregistry.com.au/web-hosting/cpanel-hosting/

          heck, even digital pacific's most expensive business hosting is $349: http://www.digitalpacific.com.au/hosting/business-web-hostin…

          Mind you, these are not budget hosting providers ;)

        • dr on 27/01/2015 - 15:29

          @clse945111: Thanks a lot for the links, I see all those are shared hosting services, I must admit I have no experience with them and how suitable they might be for eCommerce type of hosting. My personal preference is to go with either VPS or dedicated server for income earning and business hosting and so far I used:

          https://www.digitalocean.com/
          http://www.hetzner.de/en/

          I used them for dedicated web based applications, very happy with both, but the prices are more than $400 per year and justifiable business expense in my case.

        • [Deactivated] on 27/01/2015 - 15:48

          @dr:
          Yeah it really depends on the size of the site, most sites are pretty small and shared hosting should be OK. For e-commerce I think business grade hosting should do, unless it's a popular one.
          I rent a little dedi myself and it's only $60/year, deal's finished though.

        • scotty on 27/01/2015 - 18:07

          @dr: There are some Australian VPS that are under $400/year.

          Domain — $25/2 years from VentraIP
          SSL — USD $8.95/2 years from GoGetSSL

          You can definitely manage a good business hosting for under $400/year if you do it yourselves. However for people who aren't familiar with managing their own servers, it's much better to pay for a good shared hosting than getting an unmanaged VPS. Thus I'll say @clse945111's list is actually better.

      • kings36 on 28/01/2015 - 11:47

        We use a Netlogistics VPS for a small amount of Ecommerce sites.

        https://www.netlogistics.com.au/cloud-vps/ starting from $1200 a year.

        That way we can provide enough ram for each online store as well as keep the cost reasonable.

        I find quick reliable support and Ram the most important factors when you buy hosting.

        For SSLs we use Trustico.

  • dr on 27/01/2015 - 12:25
    +1

    I too would go the route you suggested (outsorce logo design to 99Designs etc…) but there are people who have no idea how to outsource all those things or cannot be bothered with that and just want one stop solution to their problem (as this is just one of the problems/tasks that they need solved as part of running their business) - same thing as most of us we do not bother doing our own strata and title searches when purchasing a property but cough up around $1500 to conveyancer. :-)

    Nevertheless prices quoted seem to be high, I'm thinking even if person charged $100 per hour (and I thing that is a fair charge for business to business type transactions - car mechanics are charging $80 + GST on average) it is still 165 hours worth for setting up the the shopping cart itself - looks a bit much unless there is heaps of products that require manual entry. Charges for logo design and e-mail marketing integration seem steep too.

    My 2c worth.

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