You most likely arrived at this post because you are in the process of putting together your eCommerce site plan. Or maybe you are

a new developer and you are not sure what to charge. Or maybe you are one of the many who purchased a site for a couple hundred bucks and need to start over. No matter who you are and what stage you are in you will wonder about total cost.
The first step when buying a Magento site is talking to Magento developers and receiving proposals. From Denver to India you will find hundreds of developers- so make sure to look at Magento’s website for certified Magento developers. We suggest that you get at least five proposals. You will find that while the prices may vary many other items do too.
Orange Collar Media has been a Magento Gold partner for nearly three years. Most of the team here has been developing and designing websites for over 10 years. Other than, “how is the snow in Colorado this season” the number one thing we get asked about is price.

“How much does it cost to build a Magento site?”

First let’s go over some facts

1. You will get a low cost  for developers off shore. Note: You may never receive a site in full. The quality and longevity of your site will suffer.
2. You need to have a budget & scope. If you do not have a range of spend for your website, it will be hard to give an accurate estimate. Magento sites can range from literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. If your scope is defined, the budget can be accurate.
3. Retail stores can cost over a million dollars to run between store location, employees, product, etc… an eCommerce site costs much less than that and has many times generated more revenue than the physical store location.
4. You need a well-made website to be successful.
5. You need a company to act as your partner to give you up to date information about Magento and the eCommerce industry.
6. Magento is a php app on a MySQL data base. Developers who fully understand php are rare, developers who understand php and Magento are like a unicorn. Certified Magento developers are worth the money.
Let’s get to it- What do Magento sites cost? (Note- prices here are average- request a proposal for an actual bid)

Basic Magento Website: $15,000.00- $25,000.00
This option is for companies who are moving from a hosted platform or starting up from scratch. It’s an affordable way to move to the

Magento platform and grow your business until its ready to be upgraded to the Magento Enterprise platform.
• Under 10,000 skus
• Simple design or template
• Magento Community Site
• Only uses Magento functionality
• No integration with back office systems
• Easy to use CMS
• Price range is based on functionality requested in design.
Custom Magento Website: $25,000.00- $60,000.00
This option is for companies who are already established on another platform, or are starting up with a little funding. The Custom Magento route is a great way to go to be on a sturdy platform for years to come. This is an investment that will last for a decade or more.
• Large Amount of Sku’s
• Custom Design
• Magento Community Platform
• Integrations with back office systems
• CMS
• Extensions need to be implemented
• Testing/ QA
• Migration to host
• Items that will increase Price:
o Custom attributes need to be created for products
o Customer Groups
o Integrations with Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, and other accounting systems
o Reward Point set up
o Login with Facebook
o Data Migration and clean up
o Custom Product types (downloadable products)
o Integration with drop shippers
o Custom scripts and cron jobs

Custom Magento Enterprise Site $55,000.00- $150,000.00
This option is for businesses who make most of their revenue through eCommerce. The Enterprise platform allows for multiple admin levels and an easy to manage CMS. This option creates a seemless process from order to accounting to shipping.
• Large Amount of Skus
• Custom Design
• CMS with WISIWIG
• Magento Enterprise Platform
• Integration with Accounting software
• Integration with inventory software
• Integration with shipping rates/providers
• Social Media integration
• Reward Point set up
• Customer Groups
• Admin access set up
• Full page cashing
• Testing/QA
• Training
• Migration to Host

Still wondering if you can get it cheaper somewhere else?
The answer is yes you can. You can get a low cost website, and it will only reinforce the saying “you get what you pay for.” Yes you can have a site for a fraction of the price. Will it work? Probably not. Will it look good? Nope. Will you have a valuable relationship with the development team? No way, good luck finding them again after final payment.
Working with a Magento Gold Partner like Orange Collar Media is well worth the spend. There are literally hundreds of things we do that I did not mention here; from project management, to best practices on everything eCommerce and beyond. Spend the time and spend the money doing it right the first time.

Call us or email for a bid on your Magento project 866-262-1517