How Much Does Blog Design Cost?

What you'll get for your site design investment

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Before you pay anyone to design your blog or website, you should understand what services designers provide and which of them you need. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do you need a free or premium theme to be tweaked? If so, it would entail changing color palettes, inserting custom images, changing fonts, moving widgets, and modifying the theme's CSS stylesheet. This would provide a more custom look and feel for less money than what it would cost to design a site from scratch.
  • Do you need a completely custom blog design, so your blog looks entirely unique? This is common for well-established blogs or businesses but requires a detailed design from the ground up.
  • Do you need new features and functionality that aren't inherent in your blogging application? This advanced functionality typically requires the help of a developer who can work with the code that makes your blog run.

Your answers to the above questions may affect which blog designer you work with and how much the designer's services cost. Here are price ranges to give you an idea of what you should expect for your investment.

Keep in mind, some blog designers are more experienced than others, which means higher prices. You get what you pay for, so make sure you choose a designer who has the skills you require. Also, some designers are freelancers who charge lower prices than designers who work with larger design agencies or development companies.

Under $500

There are many freelance designers who will modify free or premium blog themes and templates for under $500. You'll end up with a professional-looking design that doesn't look exactly like other blogs. However, there may be other sites out there that look similar to yours simply because the structure of the theme is usually not altered for less than $500. The designer may upload some plugins (for WordPress users), set up widgets, create a favicon, add social media share buttons, and more.

$500-$2,500

There is a huge amount of design modifications that blog designers can make to themes and templates beyond simple tweaks. That's why this price range for blog design is so wide. This price range is also greatly affected by who you hire to do your design work. A freelancer may charge $1,000 for the same services that a larger design company provides for $2,500.

This mid-price range requires the most due diligence on your part. Create a specific list of what you want to be modified to the theme or template you choose, and ask designers to provide specific price quotes to match your requirements. This way, you can compare apples-to-apples when you receive quotes from multiple designers. It's also a good idea to ask for an hourly rate, so when additional requirements arise, you know upfront what you'll be charged to get them done.

$2,500-$5,000

At this price range, you can expect to get a highly customized premium theme or a site built from the ground up. Typically, the design will begin with an Adobe Photoshop layout, which the designer will code to meet your specifications. Additional functionality will be limited at this price range, but you can be assured that your site will look unique.

Over $5,000

When your site design costs exceed $5,000, you've either requested an incredibly customized site with a lot of added functionality or you're working with an expensive design company. If you're not looking for a site that has a lot of features that need to be built for your site, then you should be able to find blog design services that meet your needs for a lower price than $5,000.

Be sure to shop around, get recommendations, view designers' portfolios, and visit the live sites in the portfolio to test them out. Also, take the time to talk to each designer before you agree to work with them, and always get multiple quotes to compare pricing.

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Gunelius, Susan. "How Much Does Blog Design Cost?" ThoughtCo, Dec. 6, 2021, thoughtco.com/blog-design-cost-3476207. Gunelius, Susan. (2021, December 6). How Much Does Blog Design Cost? Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/blog-design-cost-3476207 Gunelius, Susan. "How Much Does Blog Design Cost?" ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/blog-design-cost-3476207 (accessed March 28, 2024).