Please note that the information in the article is provided for 2018. Today's development costs may differ significantly.
How much do Drupal development services cost? This topic interests a lot of entrepreneurs. Drupal development is considered to be rather simple in comparison to using more advanced tools. Along with that, Drupal websites are capable enough to handle different tasks and issues as well as be attractive for visitors.
Developing a corporate website is a serious step in growing your business. Once you enter the online market, your income and popularity can increase considerably. Thanks to its features, Drupal is a very good choice for those new to online business. We will present some expert opinions to answer the question "How much does it cost to build a Drupal website?" In addition, we will highlight the useful details you need to take into account before implementing your idea with Drupal.
Cost to Build a Website Using Drupal: Basics
You need to have a clear vision of the web development process. First, to understand the factors that constitute the cost of Drupal development, and second, in order to avoid the possible mistakes. Your reputation depends on it, your business and profits depend on it, so this topic is crucial.
Drupal is one of the most popular CMSs. Some experts consider it not a CMS per se, but a complete CMS framework, to be more precise. Drupal’s popularity is mainly due to the enormous number of modules that extend its functionality. As Drupal is an open source tool, the Drupal community has made a huge contribution to its development and created tons of amazing modules that cater to the most specific customer needs. No matter what you need–a small blog or a huge enterprise solution, Drupal and its extensions can satisfy the demands of any business.
But let us return to the topic of the cost of creating a website. More than anything, we should stress the point that Drupal is a FREE tool. Any interested user can download it from the original website, along with some highly useful and convenient Drupal modules.
But clicking the "Download" button does not mean getting a market-ready solution for your business immediately. Website development takes time and effort, and the very first step you need to make is analyzing and understanding the needs of your business completely. Based on the results of an in-depth analysis of the required functionality for your site, one of the following two approaches to development can be employed.
Drupal Website Development: Correlation Between Cost and Effort
The fact that Drupal is a free solution adds to its attractiveness. But “free tool” does not mean "free development". And how much you will need to spend for a perfect Drupal solution depends on the complexity of your project.
If you strive to build a simple but good-looking website, we highly recommend you to go to Drupal.org, click around and try to deal with the stages of development by yourself.
The three steps to developing a Drupal website by yourself:
1. Choose a Drupal theme
2. Watch the tutorial video
3. Implement the idea
If you need extended customization features, you may require a paid theme. Their prices vary from $25 to $250. Most crucial are getting a hosting provider and choosing a domain name. Unfortunately, using a basic template can guarantee only basic functionality and default features. Moreover, these pre-made solutions were created to cater to other entrepreneurs’ needs. And each business is unique.
If time is important to you and your business requires complex functionalities to be implemented, hiring expert Drupal developers with diverse experience in customization can be the right choice.
Who Can Help You With Drupal Development and How Much Might It Cost
The cheapest scenario we reviewed above cannot cater to medium or large-scale enterprises. If you have a strong goal to expand your business, reach your target market and succeed, you definitely need to do more than simply download the Drupal packages.
What's next? Custom Drupal development is the best answer. A skilled and experienced Drupal developer has the ability to customize the website in a way that will attract customers and bring profit. To get a perfect solution from scratch, you'll need to build a cooperation with a team of professionals: Drupal developers, creative design specialists, attentive QA engineers, and a responsible project manager.
But how do you find these specialists? Here we come to the first of two approaches mentioned earlier–hiring an in-house development team. This way is quite difficult, time-consuming and expensive. Just imagine how much time you would spend posting job descriptions, interviewing, rejecting, and starting all over again. Another option would be outsourcing the project.
There are three main reasons why development outsourcing is a good choice:
Shorter timeframes
A short message to an outsourced development agency brings you one step closer to your goal. A few seconds can define your project’s success.
Less expensive
Outsourcing the project creation to Eastern European companies is the cheapest way to get a quality software product.
Market-ready solution
A team of experienced specialists will know what to do and how to create a great website. All you need to do is to describe your idea in detail.
In this case, the cost to build a website completely depends on the complexity of the solution you wish to get. It may slightly vary according to the level of expertise required and the type of developed solution.
Let us have a look at the types of the Drupal-based websites and development pricing:
Promotional Website
The Drupal CMS would be a good choice if you need a promotional website with the possibility to edit content. Based on a comparison of prices on the market, customizing the template will cost around $800-$900.
Company Website
Here we come to a more complicated solution. Websites of this kind usually includes different sections like "About", "Services", "Blog", "Contacts", and other similar pages. Prices start at $3,000.
Backend for a Mobile App
This is not a typical case, but Drupal may be useful for mobile development as well. Additionally, it is cheaper to develop a backend on Drupal in comparison to some new tools like Node.js. Prices start at $4,000.
E-commerce Solution
The most expensive option is creating an ecommerce website or a wholesale platform with Drupal as a base. This may cost a few thousand dollars, depending on your requirements. But the best feature of this type of solution is the unbelievable simplicity and convenience for both administrators and customers. Even a high-level solution like eBay can be developed using this CMS.
Obviously, ideas of varying complexities can come to life by using the Drupal CMS. Skilled specialists can provide you with the best web solution in the shortest possible time.
Summary
Drupal development can be your key to success. With the help of this amazing web development tool, you can implement a variety of different types of websites. Nevertheless, if you plan to create a complex solution like an ecommerce platform, Drupal, with its pricing for developer services, is still a great option.
The question of how much it costs to build a Drupal website completely depends on the development team and your own requirements. Keep in mind that it is important to find an experienced team to get a superior solution. Contact us to get additional answers to your questions, details, and a complete product in the shortest possible time and at a great price.