Cost of Website Design in Ghana
Determining the cost of website design in Ghana can be a simple but a challenging exercise. Whether you’re a business owner or IT Manager or Website Manager whose task is to draw up a budget for your company’s website design and development, you’ll have to consider certain factors. Kindly visit our website design package price or cost indicators aimed at the Ghanaian market. Go to- https://foundationsdigitalafrica.com/ to see how much does it cost to develop a website in ghana.
In this article I’ll attempt to answer how much it would cost to have a website designed and developed for your business. Based on the number of years spent in the web design industry and also on our experience in working with a lot of client, we think it’s fair to say that we have a good grip on what we would be sharing. However, it would be good to compare notes and research further if necessary to confirm what we say.
I would go straight to the point. The cost of a web design in Ghana is not straight forward as calculating the cost of a laptop. Web design can be considered as a service and just as with any other services, a number of factors affect the cost. Whether you’re hiring a freelancer, a web design company or Do It Yourself (DIY) approach, you’ll have to consider the 3 main factors that influence the price.
- DOMAIN NAME AND HOSTING
- WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
- WEBSITE MAINTENANCE
Now these factors are further influenced by the fact that you’re company or individual wanting to
- BUILD A NEW WEBSITE
- REDESIGN AN EXISTING WEBSITE
- IMPROVE OR ENHANCE AN EXISTING WEBSITE
And also whether you are seeking to hire:
- A Freelancer
- Website design Company
- Or DIY Approach
Let’s get to business. Firstly, let’s consider what I call the technical cost factors which you can’t do without that is if you’re serious about owning your website and not a free website that sits on a subdomain or which you don’t have much control over.
DOMAIN NAME
Domain name refers to your website address or URL. This is usually www.yourdomain.com and it’s a way to uniquely identify your website as a resource on the internet. The common analogy I use often to illustrate this is phone number. Your phone number is unique on your phone’s network so people can contact you directly without any interference. Similarly, your website address let people surfing the internet locate your website without any interference.
What about “.com.gh” (for Ghana domains) or “.org” etc?
Basically they are top level domains (TLDs) usually the kind of business that you’re running determines the kind of TLD that you should aim at. Most business will be fine with “.com” TLD whereas non-profit organizations would aim at “.org”. There are times that the desired “.com” domain is already taken by someone and the preferred alternative is to choose a country level domain e.g. “.com.gh” or a different name. Choosing the right domain is whole focus on its own and probably deserves a post on its own.
Domain name Registration Cost between $8.99 – $100+(GHC 250.00)
| Domain Name | Cost |
| .com, .net, .biz, .org etc. | $10 – $16 /yr |
| New tlds: .agency, .fashion, .tech, .bank, .church | $25+ |
WEB HOSTING
When a website is completed, it needs to be published on the internet which is a collection of networked resources. These resources usually sits on computer servers all around the globe and it’s likely your website would be located on a server several miles away from you. The web space with it related software to enable you run one’s website smoothly is provided to you by an ISP or a Web hosting company is what is referred to as the Web Hosting. And usually comes at the cost per month. Depending on the needs of your website or your exact hosting needs, not any the kind of Web hosting Provider can support you. You may prefer Windows hosting or Linux hosting with Email hosting support. VPS and Dedicated Hosting and support for SSL can all get web hosting to be complex.
However for the layman, all you need to know is that a website must be published on the internet to make it publicly available to everyone and the accessible resource url is the domain and the web space or computer server space that would host your website is what is called the web hosting.
Again your specific needs affect the pricing or package that might be suitable for you.
Web Hosting Cost between $8.99 – $100+ (GHC 250.00 +)
| Web Hosting Package | Cost |
| Start | $4/mnth + |
| Medium | $10/mnth + |
| High | $15/mnth + |
You certainly would get very cheap and perhaps very attracting or best packages for the lowest pricing for web hosting which promises the highest quality web hosting services however you should be weary of Cheap servers as this would imply that the specifications of the computer servers on which your website is located and served to be public on the internet is slow and would certainly affect your business and website users. I’ll try to avoid cheap hosting due to website uptime or hacking among others.
WEBSITE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
Another cost factor to be considered in your website budgeting is the cost of the website design and development itself. What do I mean? Well on the computer screen, users are presented with interfaces that allows them to interact with the computer’s hardware and software. In the case of a website, that interface is the website’s pages which further contains links to other resources and sub pages within the website. These pages are going to be designed by someone who has knowledge about computers, design and human interaction with computers. So in essence the website design phase which is the graphical representation of what your website offers on the computer screen.
When a good job of website design is achieved, there’s a likely a mix of business and user needs translated into interfaces which enables the user to accomplish those needs.
A professionally designed website does include this phase as it is crucial part of the whole process. It involves a number of disciplines such as visual design, user interface design, information architecture, interaction design, etc.
As you can see it can be quite involving if you know what you’re after. For a number of people who wants websites, they don’t care about all the technical details neither do they have the budget to cover such elaborate methodologies.
It suffice to say that in such cases an estimate above GHC 1,000 ($250) is going to get a basic website design done whereas a budget of GHC 5,000 ($1100) is going to get a more corporate website design done.
The development of the website basically entails the “bringing to life” the static designed webpages making them response to user inputs or interaction such as clicks, performing a task, filling a form, etc. This also involves a number of disciplines such as programming, front-end development, etc.
The website developer or development team would usually use the right technologies and tools available to achieve these developments while at the same time maintaining best practices and web standard compliance.
DIY WEBSITE COST (between $4 to $60 a month )
There are website publishing platforms that allows you to design and publish your website by your self for a subscription fee. There is Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, Webflow, Shopify, Format, etc. These platforms provide an easy to use drag and drop with sophisticated features to building website. Most of have subscription pricing model, so how much you’ll pay depends on which one you’re opting for (check out their pricing pages). You could spend between $4 to $60 a month based on the plan that you choose. You should be mindful though that there are limitations to the level of customization you can do on these web platforms.
WEBSITE MAINTENANCE (SEO, ONGOING MARKETING)
Another major cost to consider which is often overlooked is the ongoing maintenance costs. People usually would want to get a website, pay for it and watch the magic happens. But it doesn’t work that way all the time. You’ll have to spend some considerable amount of time, budget and effort to really make a return on your website.
In today’s world where traditional marketing is broken and more and more people are resorting to finding their services and products online, you’ll have to match up the users or potential customers otherwise you’ll be left behind. This often means you’ll have to invest in your website by engaging a search engine optimization expert or agency to implement SEO strategies that will drive qualified traffic to your website and convert visitors to customers.
Another dimension is the updates to your website designs or layouts as you see what works and what doesn’t in the real world. Again a lot of business websites have gone silent on this one.
Ideally the website usage statics and feedback from users should be considered and appropriate measures taken to improve upon the website or by removing sections that stand in the way of users.
The costs estimates for website maintenance ranges from GHC 1,500 ($350).
For potential customers in Ghana who are looking into the topic of the cost of website design in Ghana, you can visit our https://foundationsdigitalafrica.com/pricing for our web design packages and price indicators aimed at our Ghanaian target audience. If you are searching for one of the best web design companies in Ghana to work with, do not hesitate to contact us.
Reference: Kava Team (2019) ‘Cost of Website Design in Ghana’ Kava Ghana https://kavaghana.com/blog/cost-of-website-design-in-ghana-updated-2019 (19/05/2021)