Guess what is the first concern a client has when it comes to a new web development project? Right, cost.

To get good quality services for a low price is not that easy, basically, you receive what you paid for. However, some extra costs can be reduced, if companies strive to invest smartly into their web projects.

Read these 5 tips and discover how to optimize your web development process and benefit from lower cost.

1. Make up a brief

What is brief? In terms of web development process, it’s a short summary of an overall project management plan. Make everything as clear as possible before you start any development – gather the requirements and write them down. Include all the details that matter much for the consequent development, for example:

• An abstract of your company’s activities, its mission and key goals that you plan to achieve with your website or web application;
• A portrait of your target clients, administrative staff, and other key users supposed to work with a final product or solution;
• A list of pages and features that you cannot do without;
• An overview integrations with third party systems – payment gateways, video, audio, social media etc.;
• An analysis of your competitors, or, at least list of the similar products on the market you like or don’t like.

You’ll be impressed how a brief document with a ballpark figures helps you make faster decisions and save on unexpected issues arising in the course of development.

2. Keep your product model simple

Once you start your web development project, you can be lured into putting all the possible bells and whistles into your projects. Stick to the core functionality that you outlined in your brief, as all the add-ons can result in a large project scale, extended timeframe and – what is more painful – endless extra costs that you sometimes cannot afford.

3. Add features step by step

How many apps do you use on your smartphone? The research shows that 84% of your app usage time is spent on just 5 apps. The same is with the web development functionality – no matter how many nice-to-have features you add, the users will still focus on basics.

Try to sort your features by the importance level, starting from critical ones to complementaries and nice-to-haves and implement them phase by phase. Such an approach doesn’t guarantee you cost reduction, in the long run, however, you can save on the initial outlay and get faster to the market without much risk. On the other hand, you will have an opportunity to stop at the moment when you have to tighten belts without significant functionality loss.

4. Consider outsourcing

The first consideration for outsource development is cost effectiveness: you save on infrastructure and labour expenditures and get the access to skilled resources.

The point is where to find a reliable partner for web development. Some Eastern European web developers have proven to deliver fair solutions for a reasonable price. The other option is to hire an Asian team, however, mind the time difference, which can make up to 12 hours in comparison with the US.

5. Don’t save on security

There’s one thing for sure that you shouldn’t save on – security. If you strive to grow into a successful platform, invest in the best practices and resources for keeping your data safe.

The list of cost-reduction options is not limited by these five but what really matters is that the web development process should be well-thought, reasonable and tailored to the specific business objectives. Low price does not always mean low quality, however, it can cost you more on bug fixes and support in the long run.