Without getting overly complicated with this discussion, I design really good basic web sites for a reasonable price which I try to tie in with my client's other branding so there is a consistent look and feel to the company's image. The service I offer is a personal service that normally is part of other work I do on a client's behalf.

Pricing of web sites is really subjective. I can't be all things to all people, and I certainly don't want to and can't compete with self-service sites, (which one doesn't even own the content) lousy, boring templates or $39.95 web development software that writes ugly and malfunctioning code. Most of the restaurants I do business with can't afford to spend $5,000 to $10,000 on a site either. There's no reason to, actually, and no way to justify the expense or show economic return for the investment.

I've seen the prices of simple web sites range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. It just depends on how much work the person/company is going to put into the site. What I've found is that I usually spend two to three times what I estimate the site development should take. Because I simply do not provide my clients second best. Generally speaking, one should plan to spend $1,500 to $2,500 for a site with the upper end being in the neighborhood of $5,000.The Zinfandel Grille, Gold River site is a $1,500 site ... it's one page with links to special events and downloadable menus. The Americano Grill site is right around $2,000. And the Zinfandel Grille, Sacramento site (which has many pages, lots of photo galleries, links, etc.) would be on the higher end at $3,500 to $4,000.

Most of the reason to spend on the higher than $4,000 or $5,000 is because one has maybe a few locations and can spread the investment around, or simply because one wants to buy a Mercedes to drive back and forth to work.

Sites for restaurants don't need expensive bells and whistles ... simple flash for photo transitions is a plus ... databases for creating eClubs or mailing lists are easy ... the essentials don't have cost an arm and a leg.

I can design a site in HTML and PHP, or a combination thereof, maintain the site, host the site on my off-site server for $100.00 per year (free for new clients at the present time), and basically make the whole process easy and cost-effective for the client.

It's far more important to take one's marketing dollars and spread them around, albeit sparingly, on many things that will contribute to the bottom line, rather than dumping a fortune into a web site which will also be expensive to maintain.

If necessary, all of my work can be ported to another web designer who is competent with Joomla, HTML, PHP and CSS.