This is probably one of the most controversial posts I might make. But this question has been coming up with alarming regularity in one form or the other. Typical questions such as:
Such questions in one form or the other are regularly asked of web designers all over India.
Normally a web designer will try to justify his cost on overheads (or lack of them) or quality or some such parameter. But always the client will choose the cost which is most comfortable to him no matter what he says initially. After all India still remains a very cost conscious web design market.
It follows a very typical pyramidal form with a lot of low cost vendors at the bottom and the high flying boutique firms and high brow ad agency subsidiaries at the top.
So here's a quick primer on what you could expect from each level and type of agency you engage for your work. These are of my making and not necessary any standard.
Ad affiliated web agencies | Web design boutiques | Freelancers | Mid-level marketing firms | Small scale software companies | Web Hosting/ Hardware Cos. | |
Share of web design market | Very small | Large | Large | Large | Medium | Medium |
Quality of work | Excellent - Good | Excellent - Good | Excellent to Poor | Good to Average | Average to Poor | Average to Poor |
Reliability | Very reliable | Quite reliable | Extremely unreliable | Quite reliable | Somewhat reliable | Somewhat reliable |
Cost of work | Extremely High | High | Low to High | Medium to High | Medium to Low | Low |
Staff Sizes | 10-50 persons | 5-150+ persons | 1-5 persons | 5-50 persons | 5-25 persons | 5-25 persons |
Technology Use | Excellent | Excellent - Good | Good to Poor | Average | Good | Good |
Marketing Savvy (On behalf of clients) | Excellent | Excellent - Good | Average | Good to Average | Poor | Poor |
a. Ad Agency affiliated / Ad agency subsidiaries:
b. Mid-level to Upper level boutique web design firms:
c. Mid-level Marketing Firms:
d. Freelance Web Designers:
e. Small Scale Software Companies:
f. Web Hosting Companies / Hardware suppliers:
Situation | Go with |
Image is important, money no object. | Ad agencies, boutique agencies |
High expected earnings directly or indirectly from the site. | Ad agencies, boutique agencies, marketing agencies |
Time is of the essence. Speed is required. | boutique agencies, marketing agencies |
Budget is very tight | Freelancers, marketing agencies |
Budget is extremely tight, cannot afford much | Freelancers, web Hosting, Hardware/Software cos. |
Don't really care how the website turns out, just want it done. | Freelancers, web Hosting, Hardware/Software cos. |
I usually recommend the following factors for choosing an agency if all things are equal:
The wide range of pricing and options are primarily due to the low cost of entry into the web design industry. A guy sitting in his bedroom with a laptop can also tomorrow declare himself to be a web designer. However, businesses will always require top quality professionally run firms such as ours to deliver tomorrow's websites. We will cost fairly and proportionately to the work. As always its up to the clients.
Cheers,
Ron