People needed to create web application!

mrak

Okay so here's the story - I'm a programmer who used to do websites, etc on the side back in the 90's, but since then I sort of got lazy/busy so I just stick to the day job and more low level programming (plus my graphic design skills aren't really up the the job these days).

I'm kind of out of touch with the web design industry in ireland these days.. and a friend came to me asking if I was interested in doing them a website - I'm not really, so have you guys got any advice I can pass on:

The high level requirements are for:

1. commercial web application
2. payment facilitated by paypal or similar
3. will need a database for inventory and CRM purposes (prabably with some security)
4. Probably the "initial setup" steps like getting server space, registering domain name, etc will also be handled by whoever takes this on

Pretty bread and butter stuff on the face of it (pending requirements of course) - are there any reputable companies that you guys have used to do something similar? A reputable company can be anything from a 1 person shop with a good track record and some good sample sites of their work on the public internet..

Not sure if this is the best forum to post this at - there's a lot of boards at this site...

Thanks in advance!

GoneShootin

I'd be more than happy to take it on myself. And I'm sure you will find many more here that will say the same. PM if your interested.

To answer your question though, picking the right company to run with the project is often dependent solely on the requirements. I'm gonna say something now and forgive me if I step on any toes.

What I have found is that many (not all) web design companies rape you when it comes to hosting and domain management. You get charged silly prices for hosting and domains, if indeed you use the one company to handle all that.

On the flipside, you may find a hosting company, who be definition would be more competitive in that area, but may not have the people on board to design the look and feel of the site to the clients liking. If your client is looking for a highly customized and uniqe site you will most likely *have* to go down the graphic design route, and then perhaps go someplace else to get the best deal on hosting/domains.

I dont know of many webdesign companies as I dont deal with any, but I could point you to some good value for money hosting companies with good tech support. The likes of blacknight, hosting365, myhost.ie, dbahost.ie, etc etc etc.

rsynnott

Shop around, get a few quotes. Some people charge silly money. And you'll be glad to hear it's gotten a LOT cheaper since the 90s... Back then, if you wrote some CGI, they had a special Nobel Prize, or something

Ph3n0m

Ok well I shall make a point about certain web design companies/people - my brother approached me querying a quote a friend of his got for the following

5 pages
Single .com

The quote his friend was give was near 700 euro inc VAT - now I must add that all the 5 pages were to contain were 1 logo, 1 extra image and text.

Now to me, that just plays on the ignorance of some people - especially in this day and age, and luckily I was asked my opinion and it was simply

Shop around or go by word of mouth.

I do find however that unless the site is of gigantic proportions, etc - the large design companies will not touch them

heggie

Ph3n0m wrote:

The quote his friend was give was near 700 euro inc VAT - now I must add that all the 5 pages were to contain were 1 logo, 1 extra image and text.

Yeh sounds alot for what it is, but keep in mind that clients change their mind, so maybe theres 150 - 200 euro worth of work in it, if you friend changes his mind about the design the company have done for him a few times, should they absorb the cost? thers lots of factors in pricing with graphic design other than the finished product

Ph3n0m

Yeh sounds alot for what it is, but keep in mind that clients change their mind, so maybe theres 150 - 200 euro worth of work in it, if you friend changes his mind about the design the company have done for him a few times, should they absorb the cost? thers lots of factors in pricing with graphic design other than the finished product

That would be true if there was anything to change - like graphic design,etc - but the job was so bloody basic there was nothing to change - no strange layouts of text. Logo was already provided as either a flattened or unflattened psd. Background colour of all pages to be white, navigation kept a minimum. Basically think of a site with nothing more then just text and one image per page - now a site like should come nowhere near over 600+ euro.

If there was something to design, then yes I would agree with you to a certain extent but for what is basically a brochure site with more text then anything else - that price is near next to extortion

heggie

yeh i guess, sounds like they just didnt want to do it tbh