Naturally, one of the first things people want to know is how much it will cost. Unfortunately, that is something we cannot tell you without knowing a lot more. If all you need is a basic Web presence to point people your way, you can be online for as little as $100. On the other hand, if you need a Web site with all the power and complexity of ebay, costs will naturally be higher.

Basic Web Development ... $20/hr

Active Content and Proprietary Technologies... $25/hr

Java and Advanced Technologies ... $30/hr

Development costs vary widely depending on the size and complexity of your site. The following factors are among those that affect cost:

• Number of Web pages
• Complexity of Web pages
  Complexity includes the amount of content and client-side scripting on the page. Unless you need something truly out of the ordinary, you can figure anywhere from $25 to $100 per page.
• Server-side scripting
  Server-side scripting is probably the most difficult to estimate ahead of time without knowing the details. However, in most cases, the scripting involves the simple extraction of data from a database and does not add much to the cost. In other cases, such as adding a forum to your site, require vast amounts of server-side scripting, but since such scripting is already written and freely available for use, a forum would add little to your cost unless you need customized graphics for it.
• Custom graphics
  Database seeding is the population of database tables with the initial information that your site need for it to be able to work. Depending on your site, this can be trivial to extensive. Since your database will probably require periodic maintenance, we recommend that you purchase Administration pages so that you can maintain them yourself. You may choose to do your own database seeding.

Recurring costs are those that continue regularly or irregularly after your Web site is complete.

• Domain Name
  Domain name registration is so inexpensive these days that it is hardly worth budgeting, in the neighborhood of $15 per year. But we mention it here just so that you know about it.
• Hosting Fees
  Fees paid to your host vary widely depending on the type of service you require. Factors that affect the type of service are the amount of server space you need and the amount of traffic your site needs to support. Generally, hosting falls into three categories:
  • Shared Hosting: You lease space on a server that hosts a number of Web sites. The hosting company maintains the server. Costs are in the range of $25 to $150 per year.
  • Virtual Hosting: Similar to shared hosting, except that you maintain your own server on the hosting company's equipment. Storage space and data transfer limits are higher. Costs are in the range of $500 to $1000 per year.
  • Co-located Hosting: You have your own server and maintain it yourself, but it is located at the hosting company to take advantage of their high-capacity Internet connections. Storage space is unlimited and you are billed for data transfer. Costs can vary widely from about $600 to $20,000 per year depending on your data transfer requirements.
  For most Web sites, Shared hosting is adequate. For comparison, this site uses shared hosting, costing about $110 per year.
• Maintenance
  Maintenance includes sundry tasks such as adding new items for sale, or changing prices and descriptions. Odds are, you will buy administration pages to do this yourself, but we can do it for you if you prefer.
• Modifications
  Modifications are changes to the design of the Web site, and is priced similarly to the initial site creation.

We offer a standard to 20% discount to schools and churches.

For the purpose of comparison, this site has nearly 100 pages, three javascript files, three cascading style sheets, and a few java applets and Flash animations. It uses both client-side and server-side scripting and a database, and would have cost about $4000.