Curious about how much website design costs in Malaysia? What is a reasonable rate for web design?
As a top web design service provider, we can break down the factors and help you find a fair price for website design.
In this article:
- How much does website design cost
- Website price in Malaysia
- Ecommerce website design Malaysia price
- WordPress website design cost
Pricing scale for website design
The average cost for web design here in Malaysia can be anywhere from RM500 to more than RM20,000, depending on the project's requirements and its complexity. It's important to assess the long-term costs when budgeting for your website design such as domain & hosting.
If you're considering outsourcing web design from freelancer, agency or web design companies for your business, here’s a typical pricing range for those services.
RM500-3500 - Ideal for startups and small business owners who want to level-up their digital marketing efforts to gain brand awareness, trust and credibility.
RM3500-7000 - Recommended for growing agencies and companies that fulfill business requirements to enhance their competitive advantages, with extra essential features to work with sales and marketing team and potentially to perform better search engine ranking.
RM7000-RM20,000+ - This type of website will dominate their competitors in local Malaysian market. Moreover, it will get you better results in generating more leads, online sales (like ecommerce platform), and rank well on Google to reach more potential audience than basic site. Best for startups and growing business to boost their business growth.
Website design pricing model
Another popular pricing by website design vendors is a price dependent on package, requirements and strategy based. Some of it are imperfect from competitive perspective while all price models are good for online presence.
You probably can get unlimited pages, consider its lower price, you wouldn't have a space to grow with your website marketing. Often comes with low-quality content, slow and not optimized for search engine optimization (SEO).
Below is an average cost for each pricing model for 10 pages of website design Malaysia price.
Page/package-based model - RM2600 average for 10 pages - Unless you know what you are doing, you often required to provide your own content and copywriting (could be everything). Without compelling content, it's hard for you to convert visitors into potential clients. Recommended if you have in-house strategist and design team.
Requirement based model - RM4500 average for 10 pages - It's a sweet spot to get a website for your amazing business. Vendor can insert half of your website content with strategy-driven content marketing and copywriting while you fulfill the rest. Plus, you'll get better hosting and features that align with your sales and marketing team.
Value based - RM6800 average for 10 pages - Vendor will produce high quality of work to achieve better results for your business goals and still you have to provide some information about your business and images. They are placing your website in a sweet spot based on competitor for start.
Average website page based on industry
Unlike small website that usually require 1-3 pages or even only 1 page, we called them a landing page or sales page. Some business industry requires more pages to enhance their competitive advantages.
Depending on who you approach whether you're looking for their recommendation or your needs, freelance web designer, professional web designers or any design agency. They have their own expertise in developing a website. Some might suggest you compact website or multi pages to improve user experience and structured website content.
Below is average website cost based on number of pages.
Starter website - If you run startups, with less content, portfolio and service, you can start from one page website (or landing page) or multi-page like 8-12 pages. If you are planning to run ecommerce website, prepare to increase pages for shopping cart page, checkout page and etc.. as its part of online store requirements. While other pages design can be repetitive for example same layout for every product except custom pages.
Growing industry - As a service provider, you may want to split your service on each page while giving engaging information of each service benefits and what it's for. This type of website scales up from small size and eventually to large size as it keeps on growing.
Corporate websites - This website should give enough information about their business and services especially listed companies and operate their business globally.
What influences the price of a website?
The average cost of a website depends on several important factors, which can change a lot depending on how complex the project is, design complexity and design packages.
Low-cost website or basic design with or without e-commerce integration will often use template design, but at affordable web design Malaysia price.
Strategy and custom website design always recommended, it will work the best for your business growth with modern design, digital marketing strategy and work effectively with your sales team.
But it requires extra time to complete with extra scope of work such as competitor analysis, SEO strategy, compelling copywriting, content marketing and more. For that reason, the actual cost and design process will significantly increase compared to standard website.
Here are some of the main factors that affect website pricing and annual fee:
Domain name
When it comes to designing a new website, domain registration is the first cost to calculate. It's the main requirement for hosting and website address. The cost of acquiring a custom domain name can differ depending on the extension you select.
A .com domain generally costs between RM55 and RM120 per year. This domain extension is popular due to its broad appeal, making it a preferred choice for both businesses and personal websites.
If your preferred .com domain is taken, the .my extension is a great option especially for those who want to target a Malaysian audience, typically ranges from RM90 to RM150 annually. Another extension is the .com.my. Its frequently used by Malaysian businesses and priced between RM70 and RM120 yearly.
Hosting
Web server or website hosting package should rely on your website size, and monthly traffic volume. Depending on hosting provider, it affects your website performance from frontend like page load and backend such as managing a content and analytics. Some has hosting speed requirements for it to operate seamlessly for your high-quality website.
Nowadays, visitors expect to load quickly for better user experience and engagement throughout your site. Most users will leave your site if it loads too slow (wasting time).
Average website hosting cost in Malaysia:
- Shared hosting: RM100-RM600+ annually
- Virtual Private Server (VPS): RM800-RM1500+
- Dedicated hosting (Private hosting): RM1200-RM2000+
- Managed WordPress Hosting: RM1000+
When choosing a web host, always check for the post-promo price, next billing (annual) price and technical cost such as domain transfer and other for your budgeting.
Dedicated server always recommended for growing ecommerce websites with complex functionalities, you can always start with basic e-commerce features and scale later when your business grows.
Website type
Commonly there are 2 types of websites, which is static and dynamic website such as e-commerce platforms that require shopping cart, shipment tracking, inventory management, and secure payment gateways.
The standard websites development cost depending on business goals, requirement, additional features, design complexity, advanced features and content management system.
Mostly, both type of website can be done through custom website design or template-based website design. The result is varied, template is nice to have, and strategy-driven effective for your goals, but consider increasing the development time.
Besides e-commerce functionality, the content management system (CMS) also affects the cost of development. A WordPress, Drupal and Joomla is commonly used due to affordable price compared to custom CMS development project or paid and premium like Hygraph, Contentful and Sanity (custom development service required).
Below are some examples of static and dynamic site:
Static:
- Corporate website
- Business website
- Agency websites
- Personal website (Like portfolio)
- Small / mini website (Best for small business owner)
Dynamic website:
- Ecommerce / Online store
- e-Learning and LMS
- Membership sites (i.e: University site with student login or premium News)
Functionality and features
Some websites might require extra features such as premium plugins to improve workflow, speed performance like compression for images, social media and WhatsApp integration, Google Map integration and assist in boosting monthly sales. These features will be included in the design prices and design cost.
Here are the features commonly used by most website:
Business website: Contact form, premium analytics, SEO tool, transactional email services (for notification), maintenance and web security.
E-commerce website: Integrate with local payment gateway, upselling features, shipment tracking, email newsletters, contact form, advanced analytics tools, SEO plugin, transactional email, maintenance tools and premium web security.
Remember, the website features may increase your annual payments as it required by every installed plugin and integrations depending on used content management.
Content and copywriting
The biggest upfront cost here is the total pages of your website and scope of work need to be done. It requires complex work and strategy such as copywriting, graphic design for content, stock images, multimedia elements, design style, typeface (free or paid fonts), custom icons, layout and other customization. Of course, your website look should consistent according to your requirements and branding.
Since every page has its own unique content, copywriting relies on the content of every pages you have on a website. Plus, the crucial aspect for amazing websites with better user experience, the overall design needs to optimize for mobile with responsive design.
Here a thing, copywriting is one of the most valuable for your website as it also affects your SEO rankings. A strategy-driven copywriting can help to convince your web visitors to engage. Combining copywriting with bespoke design for your content, your website persuades and convince the audience to engage while improving your digital presence with interactive elements and consistent in mobile devices.
Normally, these metrics are used to price for the website page design pricing with compelling content. The average cost per-page somewhere between RM150 and RM1000 or more. Depending on who you engage, you can negotiate the price by providing your own content and copywriting. But full service like strategy and content creation may extend the development process.
Tips: Always get the best content and copywriting for your website to achieve better results. Remember why you want to have a website for, unless not for profits.
Updates and maintenance
Consideration for ongoing support, updates, and regular maintenance can also influence the initial pricing. Some agencies or companies may offer maintenance packages, which would be an additional cost beyond the initial website development. Except when selecting managed hosting, usually covers most of the update and maintenance service.
The website itself are required to update regularly, like e-commerce features and other custom features to get new features, fix common bugs and errors, improve performance and security updates making your website secured compared to outdated, but additional renewal fees.
In-house vs Agency Pricing
No sure whether to choose in-house or hiring an agency to build a quality website for you? It's all depending on your needs and budgets.
Here is primary key factor consideration for your project:
In-house: Higher long-term costs due to salary, benefits and software, but you'll get dedicated resource focused solely on your custom web development projects.
Agency: Project-based costs (pay as needed), but you'll pay slightly higher upfront cost for high quality content, strategy, content marketing and rush services (Usually you'll get discount if late).
In-house costs
If you're serious about building a website for your business with custom design making it work pretty well for your business and rank on search engine like Google.
Below we have highlighted the estimated average salary for the cost of running a website design team in-house annually.
Website designer: RM3,500 - RM4,800 - If you want to do this right, the best is to select an experienced web designer / WordPress developer to oversee the server requirements, features implementation, and design.
Digital marketing strategist: RM4,500 - RM6,000 - You're going to need with prospecting, personalization and oversee your digital marketing strategy and website growth with tools such as Google Analytics for bounce rate, user engagement, conversion rates and marketing funnels or maybe Google Ads.
Brand strategist: RM3,800 - RM5,500 - Although some companies aren't really focusing on their brand consistency, but website aim to boost your online presence, technically a brand awareness. This brand strategist effectively maintains your brand identity and message.
Graphic designer: RM2,500 - RM3,800 - They will work closely with brand strategist and digital marketer to produce high quality graphic design for your website content, marketing content, blog post and other design projects required.
Content writer: RM2,200 - RM3,500 - If you want your website to gain higher visibility based on audience intend searches on search engine like Google, consider hiring a content optimizer.
SEO specialist: RM5,600 - RM8,000 - This is the most important roles for your website growth. Search engine optimisation specialist will effectively rank your website higher on Google (or another search engine)
Website and software cost: RM3700+ - You're going to ready for budgeting with annual cost here: Domain & hosting (RM900 per year), but we'll assume it's a WordPress based website, we'll need to pay some premium plugins to improve website speed and streamline marketing funnel (RM800 annually). Besides that, you'll need SEO software like Ahrefs (RM1390 annually), email services, and maintenance tools. Roughly RM2000 per year all in.
That brings us to a total price of approximately RM337,900 per year.
Some costs are not included yet in that price such as potential office equipment, benefits, and taxes.
Agency costs
This all depends on which website design agency you hire!
Major website development companies - Providing an end-to-end service with custom design and development might charge anywhere from RM55,000 - RM500,000+ for a single project, especially top-level companies that has been in the market for over 20 years.
Full-service digital marketing agency - These will cover everything in digital marketing services for your business marketing goal and website projects. Let's just say you're outsourcing your whole marketing department to other company. Expect to pay RM35,000+ per-month for experienced professionals with monthly ads cost for your landing page and digital marketing campaign.
Specialist web agencies - These vary depending on quality of services and reputation. But expect to pay anywhere from RM2500-RM10,000+ depending on your requirements and scope of works.
Freelancers - They'll normally charge you an hourly rate between RM50-RM350 (web design / content / SEO), but they'll expect you to handle additional costs such as page builder or themes (templated), software, etc. Depending on expertise, most freelancers don't offer maintenance, and you have to seek for other alternatives to fulfill that.
At Vetter, we offer a flexible website design at different price points.
Boutique web agency like us will charge far less, while focusing solely on each project accordingly. We also offer SEO services together with website design project to boost website ranking on Google.
Of course, there are agencies who don't provide strategy-driven marketing content for your website, but rather work on a price per page basis, often complete in less than 1-2 weeks or less. There are commonly known as templated sites or could be generated with AI.
Be warned - free services
If someone offering, you a very cheap website or free service. I can guarantee that website is worthless, and you will end up paying more to fix. You'll get into trouble with malware (you don't want private database to be exposed) and unable to transfer domain registrar.
These are commonly known as website hijack and domain lock.
There is no such thing as free, especially when it comes to custom domain and high-performance secured hosting. They will normally inform you to build a portfolio, and etc for that attractive website design price Malaysia and packages.
If you are still insisted to try one, yes there are still diamond in a rough, make sure you get your domain ready before approaching them. So, you'll get full ownership at start.
Below is a common case
Website Hijack
Yes, you'll get pretty nice website with most advance features. But, not at free rates. There is higher chance that your website will get hijack, infected with malwares, spam abuse and more after certain period of time.
And you must be wondering why? As far as we know, all genuine website builder, plugins and etc has a price to pay either by lifetime license or subscription based. Those "free" provider will often use nulled plugins (cracked).
Domain Lock
Let's just say your company name is abc coffee and your domain is abccoffee.com. After a year of your digital journey, the renewal fee will be far high (make no sense) like RM1000 annually for a domain, and you are paying to them for them to renew.
Additionally, you can't transfer your registered domain to another registrar, because it was locked by your domain registrant (vendor). They have full ownership for the domain and it's not a good idea to change your domain after your good journey with the domain and reputation linking to your business and brand.
If you're planning to switch, you have to pay them high transfer fee (probably RM2000+) for them to transfer the domain ownership to you.
Getting a website in the right way
It's important to know your marketing directions and needs which can help your business grow effectively. With the aim of increasing brand awareness, organic traffic, conversions, and rank higher on Google.
If you're planning to build a website with page pricing model or you're on a tight budget and looking for affordable web design services, you will have to provide your own website content ideas and copywriting. Providing design mockup is alternative, but its better, so they can design according to your requirements and needs.
Below is key factor that affect website quality:
Unique selling point (USP): These are your advantages that you need to highlight with your attractive solutions and like why should people choose you? Be sure to provide in text, images, infographic or video.
Reputation: Showcase your recent work, clientele, quality post and reviews. Making audience to trust you before engaging for your solutions or probably join ventures. Alternatively, you can hire content marketing agency for your blog posts.
Competitor analysis: Depending on expertise, it's better to compile your strategy to outgrow local competitors. There is a wide range of services provided by your competitors within your business niche, by making your website quality better than them, your website can get more lead and engagement to your business.
Quality and relevant content: Your content has to be relevant based on your target audience, otherwise it will become confusing when they are looking for some services that your services can cover.
Search Engine Optimization: Be sure to optimize your site with SEO best practices, this is one of the best ways to get better ranking on search engine like Google and Bing. With better ranking, user that are looking for service that you provide will click on your website.
Ideal website price point
Most common question before hire a design providers is all about your budget. See our recommendation website design Malaysia price list below for your high-quality business site:
Budget - At least RM1500+ for multi-page that not more than 5 pages, otherwise do expect template design. Basic pre-designed templates are good, but not for business growth. Because not all theme/template work well based on your business needs. As mentioned above, when looking for cheap website design Malaysia, be ready to provide your own quality content.
Package - Spend RM3000 or more for a website that includes essential features like analytics, contact form with email notification, security hardening, and whatever features you might think your website needs to boost your digital presence. Although some vendors might provide you additional copywriting on top of your provided content and custom design, it's better to let them know your target audience.
Custom quote - This will be your best web design investment as your website will be designed according to your target audience, business goals and well align with your branding. We specify a sweet spot for this type of website starts from RM4500+. With that price, you will get not just a regular website for brand awareness, but packed with amazing content ideas, features, SEO capabilities and more to converting traffic into clients.
Everyone wants traffic to their site. Investing in SEO service can help you to get a targeted organic traffic to your site based on your niche. SEO costs is high while our agency provide attractive price for the work quality to enhance your competitive advantages.
