Development Services

At Castorid, we see Web Development as the combination of two separate processes, Web Design and Web Programming. Web Design is the process of creating the look of your website, from colors, to art, to the arrangement of elements on the screen. Web Programming is the process of creating the computer code that makes the website work, from content management to shopping carts.

Web Design

Our philosophy of Web Design is that your website's appearance should reflect you, your organization, or your company. We won't try to convince an insurance agency that it needs a rock band website, or the other way around. We value your input about the look you want, but won't hesitate to offer advice based on our experience.

We charge a flat fee of $250 for designing your website. This includes the cost of any stock photography that is used and/or any time we spend visiting your company or organization* in our efforts to match your site to your style. If major reworking is required to achieve a design acceptable to you, we will charge an additional fee of $50. Should you decide not to accept our design (or design revisions), we will refund half of all fees. Once the design is completed and paid for, it is yours even if you choose to take your web programming business elsewhere.

Web Programming

The type and extent (and thus cost) of turning an accepted website design into a functioning website depends on what kind of website you need. Here is our break-down of website types:

Static.

This is the simplest kind of website. It presents a constant package of information to visitors. This type of website was very common in the early days of the internet, but has become relatively rare over the last several years. This sort of site may be right for you if you don't expect to make large changes to your website's content and you expect to make small changes only a couple of times a year. Static websites may be good choices for academic faculty, for example. (Castorid's founder and chief developer holds a Ph.D. and is thus very familiar with the needs of academic faculty webpages.) They may also be appropriate in cases where the website will be hosted under circumstances where an outside consultant (such as Castorid) is not allowed access to the server.

Because of their simplicity, static websites can be quite economical. We charge $100 for the first page of a static website and $25 to $50 for each additional page.* Since static websites are intended for cases where changes are infrequent, ideally you will be able to make such changes yourself (we will provide detailed instructions on how to do so). If you want us to make such changes instead, we charge $60 per hour (minimum charge $15).

Editable.

An editable website is essentially a static website with a Site Editor webpage that allows the site owner to easily make changes to the individual webpages. The Site Editor keeps track of webpage changes and allows you to easily switch back to previous versions. Editable websites are recommended for clients who need relatively small websites (typically one to five individual webpages) that need to be updated or otherwise changed fairly often. The public portions of Castorid.com (that is, everything outside the client-login area) are maintained as an editable website.

If we design your website, we charge $100 for the editing capability in addition to the charges for the design and static website implementation (see above). Fees for converting an existing website to an editable site begin at $200.*

Content-Managed.

This is the type of website we specialize in at Castorid. A content-managed site is a larger and more powerful version of an editable website. It has a design framework common to most if not all pages of the site, with one or more content areas which are filled in with the information appropriate to each page. Content managed sites include everything from blogs to corporate websites. As the site owner, you have a Site Manager webpage that you can log into to manage the website. From the Site Manager webpage, you can change the content of any given page, create new pages, control user accounts (if your site has them), add or remove news stories, maintain a calendar, and so forth. None of this requires any knowledge of HTML or any other web technology (though such knowledge can be helpful), just the ability to point, click, and type.

Content-managed sites require a substantial "back-end" — webpages in the Site Manager system that are seen only by the site owner. Because these pages are typically much more complicated to program than the "front-end" pages visible to all users, content-managed sites are significantly more expensive than static websites. We charge a minimum of $500 for the programming of a content-managed site, in addition to the charges for the basic website design. If your site has a wide variety of page types (the number of actual pages is less relevant), the price will be higher.* Unlike with Editable websites (see above) we do not charge extra for conversion of existing static sites to content-managed sites.

E-commerce.

An e-commerce website is simply a content-managed site that includes the ability of users to make online purchases. Due to the extensive security-related issues, product and order database management, and overall complexity of e-commerce sites, they typically cost at least twice as much as a similar content-managed website that lacks e-commerce capabilities. Because e-commerce sites tend to be very distinctive in their exact needs, we recommend that you discuss your proposed website with us and get a customized estimate.*