Pricing for Magento E-Commerce site?

ryanjm

ryanjm

New member
Aug 8, 2011
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Boulder, CO
Hey all, just trying to get an idea of what I should be paying for an e-comm site that I need built. We're essentially making one to be able to dropship products that are made in the USA, and we're already successful affiliates for the company, but their site blows and so we decided to create our own e-comm store.

The issue is, we want to create a killer site and completely dominate this niche (which we've already started to do with our affil sites). Therefore we want a site that kicks ass and can grow as the company grows. All signs point to magento.

Pricing is the issue though: I've had two quotes now, one from a freelance guy for like $4-5k, and another from a very capable local company for around $20k. The site would only have 100-150 products to start, so my concern is whether the guy I pay $5k can get the job done, or whether spending the $20k for a team of people is worth the extra cost. I just feel like, unless Magento is the toughest platform in the world to work on, that $20k has a lot of padding. Thoughts?

Also, if any of you know some kick-ass magento devs that can do excellent graphical work, feel free to PM me.
 


ryanjm said:
Hey all, just trying to get an idea of what I should be paying for an e-comm site that I need built. We're essentially making one to be able to dropship products that are made in the USA, and we're already successful affiliates for the company, but their site blows and so we decided to create our own e-comm store.

The issue is, we want to create a killer site and completely dominate this niche (which we've already started to do with our affil sites). Therefore we want a site that kicks ass and can grow as the company grows. All signs point to magento.

Pricing is the issue though: I've had two quotes now, one from a freelance guy for like $4-5k, and another from a very capable local company for around $20k. The site would only have 100-150 products to start, so my concern is whether the guy I pay $5k can get the job done, or whether spending the $20k for a team of people is worth the extra cost. I just feel like, unless Magento is the toughest platform in the world to work on, that $20k has a lot of padding. Thoughts?

Also, if any of you know some kick-ass magento devs that can do excellent graphical work, feel free to PM me.
Click to expand...

Unless you're asking for some particularly advanced customization, I would think the $5k guy can handle it. I would ask to see his previous Magento work and see if you can get references from the sites he's worked on.

That being said, have you looked at OpenCart as an option? We're moving from Mage to OpenCart as the features it offers are more or less the same with less complexity and overhead.
 
$5K is easily enough. The $20K quote is just to protect themselves from unexpected change orders. You should find out what the scope of work is though, it may not include adding the products for you. Personally I wouldn't create a site and add 150 products for $5k
 
I build Magento themes and extensions. A quality Magento design will cost you $3k - $10k. Yes, Magento is incredibly complex. Hundreds of files. Agencies are going to charge you $15k - $20k. Go with the freelancer. Several of my clients opted for the agency and they're not worth the $20k... always missing deadlines and usually incompetent. Some agencies say they support Magento when they've only used Magento maybe once or never at all.
 
Well you don't really have to stick with Magento unless budget is not your problem, you can always try to look for cheaper solutions and other platforms such as ZenCart or OpenCart. I personally use OpenCart and enjoying using that.

Further, if you really wanna lower your budget further you can always go and pick a theme from markets like themeforest.com and then customize that theme as per requirement. This would not only lower your budget but will also get you an kick ass design.
 
I also think that you should go with the freelancer, maybe you can re-quote the price to 5-6k to gave the guy some motivation. :rasta:
 
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