Key takeaways
- There are 3 reasons to delegate design to an outsourcing company: save time, release a web app on schedule, and don’t worry about maintaining staff.
- An in-house team can create great design, but it will cost plenty. Outsourcing is cheaper and quicker than managing staff yourself.
- Outsourcing web design costs from $5,000 to $10,000.
4 reasons to outsource web design
Outsourcing web design can benefit any company, be it an ambitious startup, a small business operating locally, or a major corporation. Common reasons why it’s good are concerned with saving resources, handling designers, addressing staff’s weak points, and helping release a product on time. Let’s take a look at them in depth:
Save time and focus on scaling the business. You can leave design and web development to professionals who’ve done this many times before and concentrate on metrics. In the beginning stages of the project, you’ll need to spend some time discussing specifics, deadlines, and your business idea. But after that the company kickstarts design and handles it itself. Whether you want to check on the state of the project or come back when the job is finished, the choice is yours.
Don’t worry about hiring and maintaining more staff. One of the main benefits of outsourcing website design is that training and finding staff is not an issue. If you opt for building a design team from scratch, you’ll need to find designers and developers. If you’re the owner, you’ll either have to oversee them yourself or hire a separate project manager. This can take months.
If you outsource web development and design, you’ll get a team of professionals without worrying about paying their salary. You also won’t need to think about covering their taxes, finding an appropriate office space, and providing insurance.
If you already have a team — address your weak points. It’s easy to add more employees if your project requires it, e.g. if you need to seamlessly integrate more web pages into your web app. An outsourcing design agency can allocate some of their designers to help with your web app. This way, onboarding newcomers and tracking their work yourself isn’t necessary.
Release web-products on schedule. With an adequate design company, you can outsource web design and roll out your product on time. Thanks to skilled web designers and developers familiar with your niche, you can be sure the development process goes smoothly — from creating UI/UX design to making the website and fixing bugs.
Outsourcing vs outstaffing vs in-house team
Let’s briefly examine what differentiates outstaffing, outsourcing, and in-house teams — and what option is best for your company.
| In-house teams | Outstaffing | Outsourcing | |
| Maintenance costs | High | Lower than in-house teams | Lower than in-house teams |
| Onboarding staff | Yes | No | No |
| Operating effectively under time constraints | No | Yes | Yes |
| Fully delegating a project | No, you’ll have to guide your team and track their progress | No, it requires additional management | Yes, designers can make it from the ground up |
In-house teams. In this scenario, you bear responsibility for creating a team from scratch. You’ll have to find designers yourself — by contacting them or posting a job listing. Either way, you’ll have to parse through hundreds or more web designers to find the ones that fit. Assembling a team of 5-7 developers may take approximately 4-5 months. After that, you’ll have to think about paying salaries and supporting team cohesion.
Outstaffing. It works best if you already have a team of experienced designers, but their hands are full. If you have an idea for a web app, but none of the specialists have either time or skills, outstaffing can help. You “rent” web designers from an agency to help you make a product.
If you’re under some time or law-related constraints, outstaffing is more effective than flat out hiring a designer. Especially if you have a strict number of employees which you can’t exceed, or your deadlines are looming and interviewing new staff is not an option. A designer acquired through outstaffing will seamlessly weave into your work processes and create a solid look for the web app.
Outsourcing. In this case, you hire an agency and delegate the entire web design process to them. The outsourcing company lends its experience with a wide pool of niches and time to your business. The only thing you can do in this case is check on the progress from time to time.
It’s cheaper than hiring an in-house team in the long run, especially for startups and small businesses. You hire a company for a singular task for 3-4 months — after that, you can extend your agreements or part ways. You also won’t need to maintain an office space or some hidden course — it’s done on the agency’s end.
If you want to create a web app for your business, we recommend sticking to outsourcing or outstaffing — especially if it’s a one-time deal and you’re not affiliated with web design or other similar niches. It’s cheaper than paying salaries and workplace benefits, and it’s quicker, too.
How to outsource web design
If you’re not sure how to go about outsourcing design, we can help. We’ve compiled a list with several steps — they will ensure that you can easily outsource web design:
Conduct project analysis and research the market
Think of the web app you want to build — and its primary business goal. What will you achieve after putting the web app live? Consider your target audience, analyze their needs and preferences. Don’t forget about your competitors — choose a couple of web apps that you like and think about the details that make you adore them. All of this will help you later on — when you’re explaining your goals to outsourcing companies.
This is the step where you get to decide an approximate timeframe and budget. If you have no idea how much resources your project may take, don’t hesitate to contact us in the form below — we’ll calculate the price and the timeline for free.
Find a web design outsourcing company with a great portfolio
There are 3 factors that help separate a quality web design outsourcing company from fraudsters: relevant experience, reputation, and transparency. Let’s take a closer look at them.
Relevant experience. Great contractors collaborate with many companies from different niches. You can find out whether the company has the skills to help you by looking at their portfolio. If they have cases which are similar to your request, there’s a good chance they can create good web design for you.
Reputation. To see if an outsourcing company has a valid track record, check out their reviews. More often than not their clients will note relatively similar qualities, good or bad. This will make it easier to understand the bigger picture — where an outsourcing company excels, and where it falls short.
Some companies showcase video reviews. It’s a good way to bolster your reputation — such reviews help build trust
Transparency. When it comes to negotiating or explaining web design, agencies like this will try to explain it in the clearest language possible. Their job is to provide every possible option and make sure you understand how they work. These companies won’t keep you in the dark about deadlines or number of specialists working on the project. With this info in mind, you can rest easy and focus on other affairs.
Sign an NDA or other contracts if you need to
Before beginning a partnership with an outsourcing agency, you can request to sign a non-disclosure agreement. If you do it, an agency won’t be able to share any information you consider sensitive. It can be investors’ names, personal data, financial information, and marketing strategy. It’s a very commonplace defense against leaks, and it ensures you’re legally guarded in case your contractor shares unwanted info.
It doesn’t matter what type of company you are — a small online shop or a major corporate learning platform. If you sign an NDA with an outsourcing company, their lips will be sealed — and you’ll be able to protect the integrity of your business.
NDA’s aside, you can also apply for a patent, especially if your product is unique and has no known competitors. And if you’ve got a branding strategy and you’ve figured out what user interface you want, you can trademark your creation. If any other outsourcing contractor violates your rights and steals your work, you’ll be able to sue them and win every legal battle related to copyright and privacy. It’s a good step to take if you’re a “rising star” type of startup — you’ll be able to protect your business idea and everything associated with it from thieves and scammers.
How much does outsourcing web design cost?
The price of web design depends on many factors — including the timeframe. At Purrweb, our estimate varies from $5,000 to $10,000. Other outsourcing agencies may have a different figure in place.
Our cost is calculated based on requirements a project may have. We’ll discuss them in depth a bit further below.
Factors that influence web design cost
Whether you’re making a web app for selling a course or a corporate educational platform, web app design price is calculated in a similar manner. There are 3 factors at play: type of web app, the project’s complexity, and time of design. Here’s a detailed explanation for each of them:
Type of web app
No two web apps are alike. A simple landing page made for gauging whether the product is valuable costs less than a marketplace with hundreds of pages. Usually, web apps are categorized into 4 types: websites, SPA, MPA, and PWA. Let’s examine them:
Website. They come in many different forms, but most common websites act as a single page — e.g. a landing page. You can’t go to any different page on websites like these.
Gmail’s “about” web page serves as a good example of a website. If you want to see new content just scroll. Every relevant piece of media or text is located on a single web page: if you want to find an FAQ block or a button which helps you create an account, it’s already there. No need to go to a different web page.
In the case of Gmail, all useful content is placed on a single page
SPA (Single page application). It works like a landing page, but with a few exceptions. All design elements remain mostly unchanged. It renders new content piece-by-piece and only when you reach it — typically by scrolling down.
It works fast and it’s easier to design — specialists don’t have to be consistent across multiple webpages, just a single one. But SPA’s are prone to hacker attacks, so developers have to be cautious to provide extra security.
Twitter works like an SPA. You stay on the same page no matter what you do. If you want to see new tweets, you can scroll down to see them without closing the web app.
Twitter web app
MPA (Multi page application). Web apps like these have different web pages and links. You can switch between them to see different content. It’s better for web apps with a lot of content — no need to scroll for 2 minutes to get to the desired section.
Imagine you made a payment. In the case of an SPA, you’d get a pop-up — a little confirmation window. You’d stay at the same web page you browsed. But if you did that in an MPA, it would redirect you to a separate web page with different content.
Our website works like an MPA. You can switch between different pages to see services we offer: e.g. one for cross-platform development, the other for MVP creation, etc. Each of these pages has its own unique content — if we would put them on a single page, it would be too long and load too slowly.
Our main page has every important bit of info about the way we work. You can leave this page and go somewhere else — e.g. to a portfolio page
PWA (Progressive web application). This app acts as a hybrid of a web app and a mobile app. It’s typically a multi page app which a user can install onto their smartphone. This way, they can later access it offline.
PWAs load fast and work on many devices. Companies choose it to be more accessible and reach a broader audience. It can re-engage the users by sending them notifications like a regular app, and it works with SEO. Developers can also integrate HTTPS protocols into a PWA — with this, they can make it more secure than an SPA.
One example of a PWA is Flipboard magazine. It’s a web app that also adapts for mobile users — users can check out their favorite stories and follow authors they love.
Flipboard works smoothly on any device — from smartphones to tablets and computers
The project’s complexity
This mostly refers to the complexity of design elements. If a web app is filled with animated elements, it will take more time to create good design. This drives costs up.
Here’s a table demonstrating what separates cheap, uncomplicated design elements from the expensive ones:
At Purrweb, when talking about different complexity of design, two projects come to mind: iZumator and Biogeek.
iZumator is an online learning platform — with it, users can create and complete courses. Our client wanted us to gather inspiration from Airbnb. Other than that, we had to create design from the ground up. We compiled a moodboard, selected fonts and colors. Our designers also created some icons from scratch.
iZumator course selection page
Biogeek has a neutral design. We chose a commonplace grotesque font and colors associated with the healthcare industry, like turquoise. It also has a standard layout.
Biogeek calendar
Time of design
This factor is a continuation of the other two. Generally, if the website is more complicated, it takes more time to develop and design it. More often than not outsourcing companies work by hourly rates — they calculate the cost of the project according to that metric. And if a website has a lot of pages and elements which need to be designed, it will take more time to execute and cost more.
At Purrweb, we estimate how much time design may take before we begin working on the project. Our business analysts will take a look at how many web pages need to be created. They do this keeping UI/UX design principles in mind — like mapping out a user flow. Also, they take project management into account. This timeframe is then multiplied by our hourly rate.
