Reputable web design agencies?

Energize · 28 Nov 2019 at 20:06

I don't know if this is the right forum but I've currently got a photography based Eordpress website which I haven't really done much with for the past couple of years and want to build it up a little more, make it mobile accessible etc.

Now I can take care of the hosting side and domain names/DNS etc I just need a modern website built on whatever platform is best wordpress/umbraco etc. and some SEO done to try to generate more traffic, it's just a pet project so I don't envision it becoming a commercial thing. I will provide all the photographic content of course, I've got loads of stuff that I just haven't put on there yet.

Any advise would be appreciated. I would sort of be looking at spending £500 to £1000 to start off with.

Devrij · 28 Nov 2019 at 22:34

I hate to say it, but an agency isn't going to waste time on that budget (they're looking at £50-150k+). Maybe an independent contractor.

Ekim · 28 Nov 2019 at 23:03

For that sort of budget you are better off finding a CMS you are happy with and getting an off the shelf theme you can customise.

Deleted member 77746 · 28 Nov 2019 at 23:09

Energize said:
Now I can take care of the hosting side and domain names/DNS etc

If you can take care of this yourself why not a website? You will save money in the long run.

Devrij said:
I hate to say it, but an agency isn't going to waste time on that budget (they're looking at £50-150k+). Maybe an independent contractor.

nah no chance this sort of cost would be something like apple or amazon would need. These figures are way out and if any standard agency is charging this then they should be doing work for gov uk e.t.c

b0rn2sk8 · 28 Nov 2019 at 23:20

Something like Square Space seems like a fairly obvious choice for this sort of thing.

Pestilence · 28 Nov 2019 at 23:23

If it's purely hobby stuff then really SquareSpace or Wix would do the job.

But if you really want to go the whole hog, at that budget you're talking independent contractors who may be working straight off templates etc.

Deleted member 77746 · 28 Nov 2019 at 23:40

Heck use bootstrap there are millions of templates available. You could have something up within couple hours.

roccles · 29 Nov 2019 at 00:26

Check out Webflow as well or just update your WordPress site it's probably got more resources (templates , plugins etc) than any other site builder so shouldn't be hard to get design and SEO updated.

Then maybe spend your budget on advertising to try and grow traffic to the site.

Devrij · 29 Nov 2019 at 07:05

mrbell1984 said:
If you can take care of this yourself why not a website? You will save money in the long run.

nah no chance this sort of cost would be something like apple or amazon would need. These figures are way out and if any standard agency is charging this then they should be doing work for gov uk e.t.c

We had 3 agencies quote for our new website and not one of them came in below 80k (and that's with no ecommerce or anything). I'm not saying there aren't people who would make a site for less, but a decent agency isn't cheap.

Deleted member 77746 · 29 Nov 2019 at 11:12

Devrij said:
We had 3 agencies quote for our new website and not one of them came in below 80k (and that's with no ecommerce or anything). I'm not saying there aren't people who would make a site for less, but a decent agency isn't cheap.

That's stupid money! There is no way a website is even remotely worth above 2K for a non e-commerce I don't care what anyone says if they pay it then they are stupid.

They are pricing it at that high price hoping they don't get you as a client. If people pay it then they laugh all the way to the bank.

iamtheoneneo · 29 Nov 2019 at 11:20

mrbell1984 said:
That's stupid money! There is no way a website is even remotely worth above 2K for a non e-commerce I don't care what anyone says if they pay it then they are stupid.

They are pricing it at that high price hoping they don't get you as a client. If people pay it then they laugh all the way to the bank.

Were currently evaluating a website build thats in the region of 150K.
We had a previous website that was 25K, and have been in talks for another web portal that is at least 70K.

These are the going rates nowadays for sites that are built to spec from the ground up.

Deleted member 77746 · 29 Nov 2019 at 11:22

That's stupid it really is and anyone pricing who pays it is stupid! - A website can be got off the ground within an hour and customisation should take no longer than a week at most.

This thread should be probably in the HTML, Graphics & Programming area.
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/forums/html-graphics-programming.41/

Lopéz · 29 Nov 2019 at 11:34

mrbell1984 said:
That's stupid money! There is no way a website is even remotely worth above 2K for a non e-commerce I don't care what anyone says if they pay it then they are stupid.

They are pricing it at that high price hoping they don't get you as a client. If people pay it then they laugh all the way to the bank.

Doesn't that rather depend on what you want it to do and how much (if any) of it you want to do yourself?
Just sitting down for a face to face scoping meeting with an agency before any work is even done could easily burn through 2 grand.

Maccy · 29 Nov 2019 at 12:12

@Energize - here's a recommendation for you - https://monumentstudio.co.uk/

Company founded recently by a group of designers who were made redundant and went off to start up on their own, they'll take on any work and should be able to help.

GravyMonster · 29 Nov 2019 at 12:19

mrbell1984 said:
That's stupid it really is and anyone pricing who pays it is stupid!

No it's really not. Just because any hack developer can throw together a website doesn't mean they're all worthless. A properly designed site which is scalable, extensible and integrates with various external systems will not be cheap.

Going back to the OP, with the budget you have any decent agency will not really be interested. I'd agree that a good contractor would be best in this situation.

Deleted member 77746 · 29 Nov 2019 at 12:42

What a joke. It's all I have to say. Far to expensive.

Energize · 29 Nov 2019 at 17:58

Devrij said:
I hate to say it, but an agency isn't going to waste time on that budget (they're looking at £50-150k+). Maybe an independent contractor.

I've worked for a web design agency that dealt with some very large clients and they still charged an order of magnitude less than that for a basic website.

But yes, by no means am I only concerned with large agencies but some of the smaller businesses/contractors.

Ekim said:
For that sort of budget you are better off finding a CMS you are happy with and getting an off the shelf theme you can customise.

I did that when setting this site up, problem is I just don't have the time these days.

Pestilence said:
If it's purely hobby stuff then really SquareSpace or Wix would do the job.

But if you really want to go the whole hog, at that budget you're talking independent contractors who may be working straight off templates etc.

Even though it's a hobby I still want I website that I own, whereas with those sort of companies your website can vanish into the aether with no notice.

Teknobry · 30 Nov 2019 at 01:16

A friends family business runs https://www.nwdesign.co/

Drop dayle a message, have a chat with him about the specifics. He has a lot examples of sites he's built.