How Much Does a Website Cost in Singapore?

• Simple website design can cost up to S$50/month if you handle it yourself.
• Depending on its features, a medium-sized site with advanced functionality can cost from S$15,000 to S$25,000.
• For Custom Portal development, you will have to plan in phases. Think S$30,000 onwards to S$100,000++

When it comes to the real costs of building a website, in Singapore or anywhere else in the world, for that matter, answers will vary extensively. It’s not that no one in the business knows how much your corporate site is going to cost; it’s not even that they want to conceal that information from you. It’s just that, as would be the case with a house or a bricks-and-mortar store, the costs will widely vary based on your needs, budget, and desired features.

Take a look at any specialized website builder on the Singaporean market. Chances are you might come out confused as to how much building a website actually costs.

A simple static website that is less than 10 pages can be designed by students for maybe S$1,000.

A web design firm however has access to a bigger team with broader skill sets. As such they can quote anything from S$5,000 to S$100,000 for a web portal, depending on the man-hours required to develop it.

So, how much does a website actually cost in Singapore? It all depends, really—both on the size and aims of the website, as well as on the per hour cost of the agency designing it. For the purpose of the article, let’s presume you choose to work with web designers who charge USD$100 – USD$150/hour. If you want a good website, you should be willing to pay the price of working with the very best. Now that we got the matter of pricing out of the way, let’s take a look at the different types of websites available out there:

The costs of designing a basic website

You might be an artist, architect, or freelance writer who needs an online portfolio. Conversely, you might be running a new startup or local company. Basic websites can usually fulfill the needs of an individual professional or small company. Here’s how much they cost:

·        Do-It-Yourself website design: free to S$50/month

WordPress is the world’s most popular website hosting platform and many of its free themes are customizable.

Image source: WordPress.org

Let’s face it: this is 2015 and you might choose to build your own website from scratch, using one of the many great free tools, platforms and resources out there. WordPress.org needs no introduction, but if for some reason you were not yet aware of this, do know that it’s not just for blogs. You can actually use the platform to code, host, and customize rather complex websites, for next to nothing in terms of costs. Then there are other sites, like Wix.com, Designly, or SquareSpace, which offer a wide range of superb templates and themes.

On the upside, by using one of these sites you’ll be saving a ton of money. On the downside, there’s only so much you can do for free, in terms of functionality. If you want a site that can measure up to a professionally designed one, you will need at least a basic grasp of coding and graphic design. You can choose to spend time to educate yourself in these areas, or you can choose the more professional variant, listed right below.

·        Website designed by professional developer: S$5,000 to S$20,000

Fruute is a cookie baking and delivery company with a simple, yet streamlined website design

Image source: Fruute.com

The most basic websites designed by professionals will act in the same ways that a portfolio or showcase do. They’ll be your virtual business card, shop window, and advertising brochure. They will ensure that when people run a search of your brand name, they don’t come up empty (that is, of course, if your presence is at least basically optimized for search engine queries).

Insofar as functionality goes, basic sites designed by developers, which typically cost in the S$5,000-S$20,000 range will do one or several of the following things:

• host a blog where you post news and industry-related informative articles;
• link to your social media profiles, allowing you to engage in a dialog with clients or prospects;
• host a simple online store for direct sales;
• allow you to edit and update pages in real-time.

Most basic websites are not managed through complex CMSs (Content Management Systems), which means there’s only so much information they can accommodate. It also saves you the costs of hiring a designer to cook up a tailored CMS for you—however, if your business grows, you will want to consider such a solution. In the meantime, make sure the code is well-written and withstands usability tests prior to the website’s live release.

• Check for other sites that use the same theme template; you want to avoid finding out there are thousands of other brands with a highly similar online presence.
• Have the developers install analytics tools for tracking website metrics.
• Last, but definitely not least, ensure that the developer you choose to work with can also handle SEO, because non-optimized content virtually does not exist online.

If the point of a basic site is to generate business leads, you will want potential clients to be able to find you by running a web search.

The costs of designing an advanced website with custom programming

·        For mid-sized companies: S$10,000 to S$35,000

The Singapore Association for Mental Health (SAMH) was established in 1968 as the first community mental health agency in Singapore with the aim of providing quality step-down care and rehabilitative services to persons with mental health conditions

Image source: SAMHealth.org.sg

Advanced websites are all based on CMSs. Developing such a content management system will cost some S$15,000 on average. Working with one will allow you to easily update website content, including text, images, video, and interactive media.

However, building an advanced website entails a lot more than this. It also involves:

• a lot of pre-launch testing;
• customized graphic design solutions;
• pre-written content, without which your website launch cannot effectively take place.

When selecting a web design agency to build an advanced site for you, here’s what you need to work for:

• the ability to integrate directories and/or basic e-commerce platforms into the site;
• integrated social media and blogging functions;
• search engine optimization services (also, optionally, content services);
• custom visuals and graphic design; its complexity will greatly affect the final price of the website, as Flash is generally more complex, as well as less affordable than other design elements;
• foul-proof coding in CSS and XHTML (or similar contemporary languages).

Beyond the website itself

·        Custom Portal Development: S$30,000 and beyond

sgCarMart – Singapore’s No.1 cars classifieds portal

Image source: SGCarmart.com

You may wonder what the difference is between this category and the one before it. To this end, it’s important to understand that nowadays, just about all advanced websites are based on custom management systems. What sets apart sites designed and programed for an SME and those created for larger enterprises is the very complexity of their CMS. A complex system of this kind can cost up to S$100,000, given the fact that its code was custom-written. What’s more, there’s also the issue of time, which we all know means money. Deploying a website of such ample proportions can take years, since its website likely comes with several complex CMS modules.

To conclude—yes, a website in Singapore can cost nothing, or it can cost a couple hundred bucks. However, you probably don’t want that kind of website for your company, if it’s in the least bit a serious venture.

For a more realistic approach, think of SS$10,000-SS$20,000 for a serious corporate website; SS$15,000 – S$25,000 for an ecommerce store with some level of customizations and SS$30,000-S$100,000+ onwards for any custom application development that involve a custom database design or custom modules.