Content Management System Price Guide
A Content Management System (CMS) should give you the necessary tools for creating, managing, enhancing and extending your site. Before purchasing a CMS, check whether it is built for a .NET framework and Microsoft SQL Server database, as these may be faster to render than competitive scripting (php, asp) based solutions.
When looking for a CMS, you may find that different software programs are designed to manage different elements of the content of your site. The content that you may want to manage include product specifications, prices, features and benefits, product illustrations, product categories, special promotions, terms and conditions, privacy statements, FAQs, logos, press releases, site navigation links, contact and ‘about us’. You may also want to be able to ‘go live’ and ‘expire’ whenever you want.
Prices for a functionality rich web content management system start at around £50. In addition to CMS costs, you may wish to purchase further features for your site. You can find a news feature for £10, which allows news items to be displayed on your website. Single level navigation can be found for £49, two level navigation can be found for £64, two level navigation plus a search engine can be found for £94, two level navigation plus news and search engine is around £104, and second level navigation is £15. Search engines are around £30, a search engine and source code is £99, CMS with two level navigation and news is around £74, three level navigation CMS is £79, SEO (giving the ability to edit the page title, description and keywords from the CMS console) is £25. All of these prices are exclusive of VAT.
Companies can help you integrate a content management system into your current website or build it as an integral part of a new development. Prices can vary depending on whether you chose an ‘off the shelf package’ or a bespoke development that is tailored to your business requirements, intricacies of your application and hosting environment. An ‘off the shelf’ package can cost anywhere between £700 and £2500, whereas bespoke developments vary between £2500 and over £5000. These prices do not include VAT.
From £495 including VAT, you can find a fully functional website with up to 3 pages designed and developed, an email address, website domain name for one year, website hosted on secure servers for one year, an additional option of in-page editable content, and site optimisation for search engines.
From £995 including VAT, you can find a fully functional website with between 4 and 8 pages designed and developed, website domain name, website hosted on secure servers, 3 email addresses for you and your colleagues, an option of in-page editable content, a contact form for customers to contact you directly through your website, and site optimisation for search engines.
From £1995 including VAT, you can find over 8 pages designed and developed, website domain name, website hosted on secure servers for one year, 5 email addresses, and optimisation for search engines. Additional features to this package are a contact form for customers to contact you through your website, an updatable news ticker that allows you to manage news articles on your website, an online shop and email shots.
You may have to pay a further £120 for domains and hosting renewal fees on an annual basis. You can buy this from same company as your CMS, or alternatively you can buy it from a third party.
Instead of buying your own software and having to keep it up to date, you can rent the software and hardware from a company. The advantages of this are the software updates, file storage, security, backups, availability, performance and computer hardware are all looked after by the company you rent from. The only thing you need is an internet connection and Internet Explorer.
You can find website design, CMS setup and training from £495 plus VAT, and ongoing costs are around £30 plus VAT per month. These prices are higher than ‘click and pick’, however, they are much lower than an ‘enterprise’ CMS.
Prices for a CMS that includes unlimited website updates, unlimited UK support by telephone (local rate), email and screen sharing, web hosting and simple visitor statistic are around £30 per month for 5 pages, £40 a month for 100 pages, and an additional 100 pages are an extra £10 a month. These prices do not include VAT. Installation can take up to three weeks, but most companies can deliver sooner than this if you are adhering to a tight timescale.
Although content management systems are portrayed as a fast and simple way to create content they are not always as cost effective as originally thought. Hidden costs of CMS include the cost of training, quality, functionality, redundancy and flexibility, and commitment. All of these ongoing costs can add up, so ensure that you define what you need now and what your future needs will be too.
