What level of design to expect for about $2-3K

[thexchange]

Hey everyone...

Just trying to get a little feedback. Our church has used a Design and CMS company called Elexio for the past couple of years. Their CMS is very user friendly, but I feel like their designs leave a little bit to be desired.

Don't get me wrong...they aren't bad by any means...just trying to take our church website in the direction of a web 2.0 look. I've done as much research as I know how...

So I'm curious...what level of design can we expect in paying a few grand up front and hosting/support fees monthly of about $100 or so???

Can you provide some examples?

Here is our current site

http://www.newcovenantcog.com

We would like to move toward something that looks closer to this...

http://www.cathedralofpraise.org

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[LeAnn B]

I can set you up with Joomla for a LOT cheaper than that. Maybe not as fancy as the second link you posted but better than the first. Check out our website, while it's still only a template I think it looks good and like I said, a lot cheaper. PM me for details.

[Tony Kanago]

For that kind of cost, you can get some amazing professional design done - plus you shouldn't have that kind of monthly upkeep cost. On a site like the second, I'd generally bid it about $2500, and the same goes for a lot of the people I work with frequently. I just sent a note to my graphic designer to see what he'd rate the graphic side of that, and then implementation/connection to some kind of software would be under $1000 likely.

I'll update this when I find out.

[greg4god]

If it is mainly the look of the site you feel needs to be more modern, have you inquired with your current company how much they charge for a "re-skin" of your site.

Hosting a Joomla/Drupal/Other open source CMS site based on what I can see from your site (assuming the signin section is for just editing content and things like the calendar), you could easily find hosting for under $20 a month.

-Greg

PS, LeAnn, great site!

[LeAnn B]

Originally Posted by greg4god

PS, LeAnn, great site!

Thanks but I really can't take a whole lot of credit for the look, it is a template after all. But it's the most modern one I've seen for Joomla yet.

[thexchange]

Originally Posted by greg4god

If it is mainly the look of the site you feel needs to be more modern, have you inquired with your current company how much they charge for a "re-skin" of your site.

Hosting a Joomla/Drupal/Other open source CMS site based on what I can see from your site (assuming the signin section is for just editing content and things like the calendar), you could easily find hosting for under $20 a month.

-Greg

PS, LeAnn, great site!

Thanks Greg...
Yeah...Elexio wants about a total of about $3,300 to redo the site and add a 'skin' to the youth area of the site.

I just felt like we could do better. The features we need to be able to update are
Content
Rolling Flash Slide Show on Front page
Video
Sermon Audio
Podcasts
Calendars
Also, be nice to have a social utility...

Asking a lot I know...

[thexchange]

Originally Posted by Tony Kanago

.

I'll update this when I find out.

Very interested Tony! Thanks for the input...

[AlexH237]

Originally Posted by thexchange

Thanks Greg...
Yeah...Elexio wants about a total of about $3,300 to redo the site and add a 'skin' to the youth area of the site.

I don't know all too much about web design (just a little bit) but that sounds way expensive.

[Lucas]

Depends how it's done.

That kind of price seems pretty average to me.

[thexchange]

Yeah...I'm not saying that Elexio is extremely unreasonable at all. Just wanted to get a different perspective on the design, and your opinions...

For example...

www.powerfulchurchwebsites.com is willing to do custom work for about $1,600. Their price includes a landing page, skins for the children's area, and a seperate youth site design.

It won't be 'unbelievable'...but will look very good...probably along the lines of LeAnn B's.

[kick-ice]

That monthly fee is pretty close to normal for what you are looking for. You need a hosting provider that has solid experience with web design technologies and how to leverage them for your needs. The type of CMS is actually not as important, however I do suggest going with a provider who has a lot of experience working with whatever platform they host on (yes there are some that simply provide hosting space and a graphic front end to manage your content - providing little or no assistance in the technical realm). Send me a PM if you would like some input on a provider.

[dayfalljesse]

GRRR....my browser just closed and I lost 10 minutes of writing...

Anyways...

HELLO! First time poster, found the site looking for info on ProPresenter 3. Glad I did.

Anyways, I couldnt help joining this dialogue.
As a website designer for 7 years professionally, I must say that $3300 is ridiculous for what you are wanting. I agree with the other user - I would be around $2000-2400. But, I would disagree about Joomla; I have been using it for 3 years as the base for my sites, and I just cant do it anymore. Its not an easy CMS for an end-user to learn, and requires to much maintenance to stay secure. I would recommend Wordpress as the platform for a site like yours - it is perfect for the "average-joe" website owner, as updating is dummy-proof. Its just plain easy to use, easy to design for, and has a wonderful backing community; plus its open-source and free! So it deadens the software/implementation costs.

Here is our current church site, running Joomla; I cant post urls yet, but google VCommunity.
And to see the wordpress, pre-content, work in progress site - add /wordpress after the .com.

Next, I cant possibly imagine a monthly fee around $100...for any reason, on any level; unless you were an enterprise company needing lots of support and maintenance. Hosting that accomodates a regular church site with a CMS, plus all the space, bandwidth, emails, etc you need shouldnt cost any more than $15 a month - please dont believe anything else you hear; i could show you first hand. Heck, even if someone didnt order the service from me, I would show them where to get it because anybody that is charging (this is fro Powerful Church Websites) $50/month for 1500mb space and 15g bandwidth is getting away with murder. Seriously.

Now, basic support (read: not on-call), should be included with any good, honest web designer. I wouldn't be updating your site for you, but if you had a question; I could and sure would answer it. The more the end-user can be educated to take support and maintenance off my hands, the better!

So anyways, thexchange, dont settle for rip-offs like those kinds of churn & burn factories. If you want to talk about web design, I'd be glad to dialogue further, but I had to shed some light on this; I cant stand to see companies, especially "christian" ones, taking ridiculous advantage of the less-educated, average web consumer, offering standard services at inflated prices just because of the tie to ministry. The same exact thing happens in the wedding industry. Burns me up.

Ok, /end rant.

Nice to post and meet some of you!