Evaluating Your Budget: How Much Does It Cost to Redesign a Website

Time goes by, and nothing remains the same. Changes occur daily, if not hourly, on the world wide web. They are provoked by the trends dictated by the modern market. If you do not change, and do not show flexibility to meet the market’s requirements, your business is doomed to become outdated. Stability is not always good, especially in the web space. If you do not change the structure, functionality, and appearance of the resource, user interaction indicators will decrease. To keep pace with the times, you need regular updates and improvements.

Reading this article, you’ll learn how much a website redesign will cost and what are the factors on which this price depends.

The redesign is a set of procedures to change the graphic, technical, and/or functional components of a particular website. It enables the site to comply with the latest web programming and design trends, introduce new tools, functionality, and improve the ergonomics and comfort of using it. The redesign needs to be carried out regularly, every 2-4 years. The need to change your site design is justified by the emergence of new directions in every business sphere, the variability of the potential audience’s views and demands, and the market’s dynamic growth.

External and internal factors determine the need for redesign. You should change the design of your site in such cases:

• The need for SEO has arisen. Search engine optimization requires fast loading of the website and transparent code structure;
• High bounce rate and the click-through rate of the resource;
• Outdated design. If your site does not stand out from the competitors, then there is a simple solution – make it modern and stylish.

The emergence of new horizons for the development of the company, expansion or change of target audience, replenishment or change in the range of products offered.

Business owners usually care about analytics and metrics but completely forget about users’ experience and about the website itself as a whole. We strongly advise you not to change your site’s design without proper reason, as this often leads to a senseless waste of time and money. In the worst case, it will break the structure of the original site.

You can read more about a website redesign and reasons for website redesign in one of our latest blog articles.

The question “How much will it cost to redesign a website” is a bit like the question: “How much will it cost to build a house from scratch.” Many different factors must be included in the total cost of the job. Let’s take a look at some of the most critical factors that affect a website redesign cost.

Globally, the website redesign cost is determined by two factors:

The first is the number of hours spent on work. It depends on the size and complexity of the project.

And second is the cost of an hour of work for a specialist. It depends on the qualifications of the performer. For example, an experienced designer will create more than just a “beautiful” design that the customer will like. They will make the site user-friendly and easy to use. It will be easy for users to find the information they need, place an order or leave a request.

Design should be not only eye-pleasing but also convenient. You can make an attractive site that will be difficult to use. Visitors will leave without buying anything (and any commercial site’s goal is to promote sales).

Not all clients are willing to pay designers an hourly rate. It’s called a website design with a fixed price. However, the designer roughly calculates how much time he will spend on the project, which affects the budget.

1) Team

One of the most important factors in the website redesign cost is the team’s composition that will work on the project. Many different questions require a technical approach – for example, the experience of a marketer and an SEO is needed to know how to use psychological triggers in copywriting and images to improve website performance, build titles and keywords for search engines.

It would also be good to find a team that specializes in the service that your site offers. If you sell equipment, you need to look for a team that has experience with equipment sites. Each area has its nuances that others may simply not be aware of, but this does not mean that they have low qualifications – just a different vector of expertise. This is where the first stage of the prize is formed – the site’s topic and the team’s composition that works in this area.

2) The process behind the concept of “redesign”

Successful redesign requires more than just discussing the price and diving headlong into work – it’s a much more complicated process.

Experienced agencies always require advanced planning, including redesign goal setting, extensive brainstorming, strategy, projects, UI / UX testing, development, user testing, and more. Each of these stages requires brainstorming, discussion, modification, and ongoing customer feedback.

3) Functionality and integration

If your site requires newer advanced functionality such as a registration system, forum, or calendar, this will increase the overall price.

We would suggest making a list of all the features you need and what functionality you want. It will be easier for the web agency to determine the project’s scope and the associated costs more accurately.

If your site requires integration into your CRM, ERP, e-commerce, or any other third-party system, it will incur additional website redesign costs. Integration costs will vary depending on how the systems you are trying to connect are configured for interoperability. It can be as simple as installing ready-made chunks of code, or it can be as complex as building integration from scratch.

4) Who develops the content?

Content creation is probably one of the most time-consuming and essential parts of a website. This is what creates a powerful connection with users and builds your brand. Content includes the text of the website, the photos, and videos that are used on it.

Copywriting for a website is an art. It’s a tricky balance to effectively convey a message in your own words while maintaining inspiration, psychological triggers, and the assurance that the text will be read quickly and easily.

There is no point in buying a bunch of images and merging them. For an effective website, you need to decide on photo and video content placement to prepare this scenario before the redesign process.

Every business is different, so the cost of redesigning a website can vary widely. However, there are some general factors that will affect how much it costs to redesign a website.

The size and complexity of the website:

A small, simple website will usually be less expensive to redesign than a large, complex one. This is because a larger website will require more work to update, and may have more complicated features that need to be maintained.

The number of pages:

The more pages on a website, the more work will be involved in redesigning it. This is because each page will need to be updated individually, and there may be more content that needs to be created or updated.

The amount of new content:

If a website is being redesigned to include a lot of new content, this will obviously add to the cost. This is because more time and effort will be needed to create this new content, and it may also require additional design work.

The level of customization:

The more customized a website is, the more expensive it will be to redesign. This is because custom features will need to be created or updated, and may require additional coding work.

The timeframe:

The sooner a website needs to be redesigned, the higher the cost will be. This is because designers will need to work quickly to meet the deadline, and may need to put in extra hours.

The geographical location:

Websites designed by firms in expensive cities will naturally cost more than those designed by firms in cheaper locations. This is because the cost of living and doing business is higher in these places, and so designers will charge more for their services.

The experience of the designers:

More experienced designers will usually charge more for their services than less experienced ones. This is because they have more skills and expertise, and so can provide a higher level of service.

The type of design firm:

The cost of redesigning a website can also vary depending on the type of firm that is hired. For example, a large design agency will usually charge more than a freelance designer. This is because agencies have higher overhead costs, and so need to charge more to make a profit. Contact our Gapsy Studio designers and we will be happy to provide you with an estimate for the site redesign, you will be surprised, but the price-quality ratio in our studio is more than excellent!

From our personal experience in the web design industry, we have one important point to make. To save costs, customers themselves write content for their site. However, the client almost always underestimates the time and effort required to deliver quality content. This leads to long delays in the project or ultimately to poor results.

If you plan to create your content, start making it as early as possible, analyze the content’s structure and composition from the best-competing sites. Don’t underestimate how much time and effort you’ll have to put into content creation.

To get quality work, you need to go through the following steps:

1. Fill out the brief. In brief, the customer indicates information about the project, for which page layouts are needed, whether the development of an adaptive version is required, requirements for layouts, and requirements for work. Sometimes the brief is filled out together with the designer.
2. Preparation of a technical assignment.
3. Prepayment. Usually from 30% of the budget.
4. Prototype preparation. This is a schematic version of the future site’s design, which conventionally indicates where and how the site’s main elements (menus, buttons, forms, texts, etc.) will be located and how they will look approximately. When customers see a prototype, they get scared and think that this is a finished design. No – it’s just a preliminary sketch, usually black and white. Its task is to coordinate the location of the main elements on the site.
5. Rendering design. The design is based on the prototype. This is an already worked out color “picture,” which shows what the future website will look like.
6. Make edits and prepare the final version of the design.
7. Final payment for work.
8. Layout preparation.
9. Delivery of the project and transfer of layouts to the customer.

To find out in more detail how to make a website redesign step by step, you can read one of our last articles.

Now when you understand what factors affect a website redesign’s average cost, let’s talk more specifically in numbers. We’ve created this helpful chart to give you a rough estimate of what to expect from your website redesign.

The cost of a redesign will depend on two main factors:

• time spent on work (which, in turn, depends on the degree of complexity of the redesign);
• hourly rate of involved specialists.

How long does it take to redesign? As you can imagine, the time required is directly proportional to the complexity of the task assigned to the performers. In accordance with the complexity, sites can be divided into:

Simple (requires 70 to 200 hours):

• mostly static sites;
• no complex business logic;
• have a template look;
• small functionality.

For example a business card site, a regular information site.

Medium difficulty (requires from 90 to 300 hours):

• website redesign is a complex joint work of designers, marketers, analysts;
• the site consists of more than 10 pages;
• the site has animation;
• the site is full of complex graphic elements;
• the site contains content of different formats;
• the site has specific functionality.

For example a corporate website with the functionality of ordering or differentiation by customers and by type of request, with the integration of request processing systems.

Complex (requires from 300 to 700 hours):

• fully functional web application;
• special emphasis is placed on UI / UX;
• simple navigation;
• the operation of the application on different devices is important.

For example, a large online store, SaaS application.

The figure will vary. Only you can calculate the cost. Formulas for such calculations can be found on the net. You will need to consider:

• how much time will be spent;
• how much is an hour of your working time (or your designer’s working time);
• a time that will be “taken away” from your main activity;
• additional expenses;
• risks, etc.

This is the Gapsy studio price that we request for a website redesign. Let’s take an average rate of $35 as a basis for our calculations. Then, by some simple calculations, we get the following average result:

• Simple redesign – $2,450 – $7000;
• Medium difficulty – $3,150 – $10,500;
• Complex design – $10,500 – $24,500.

This is the kind of rate that is usually requested by companies around the world when redesigning a website. On average, it’ll cost from $ 9000 (simple redesign) to $25,000-30,000(complex) for you. The price will always depend on the amount of work done and the time spent on this work.

Notes:

• The website’s size is determined by the number of pages, wireframes, users, etc.
• This doesn’t include any custom integrations.
• There may be additional costs for stock templates, tools, stock photos, etc.

As you can see, the website redesign process consists of several stages. This is a laborious process and not an easy job. That is why it is crucial to find professionals in the design and get a quality result in the end. If your goal is to redesign the website and improve its user experience, then look at Gapsy Studio services and contact us for a consultation.. To make sure of our expertise, take a look at our projects on Dribbble and Behance for yourself. Our high-quality and functionally oriented projects will speak for themselves.