With the arrival of the internet, everything around us has changed, especially the way businesses work. Today businesses, all over the world are rapidly evolving and moving towards digitization. Business owners now understand the need and importance of websites and what difference it can make to their business. And not only just websites but these days, web portals are also gaining a lot of prevalence, due to the sheer number of benefits it offers to any business.
These web portals now have become an integral part of online marketing, and seeing so much popularity of these portals, the demand for web portal development services, is also gaining momentum in the world of web development.
Now many of you must have a question that what exactly web portals are? So today, in this blog not only are we going to answer all the questions related to web portal development. So, without much ado, let’s get started-
Table of Contents
What are Web Portals?
Web portals are just like websites that are developed for offering particular information. They are a special kind of websites that have users who are looking for specific information related to a particular topic. For example job portals, where you can find anything and everything related to a job opening from various companies. All you need to do is log in or sign up on these portals and become their member to be able to access all the information.
Web Portals vs. Websites
Some of you might ask the key difference between website and web portals, so here is what we are going to talk next about. Websites and web portals are two different things. Websites are a virtual representation of your business created to attract diverse users, but a web portal is created to suffice the needs of a specific group of people. Unlike websites, web portals are not open for anyone and everyone, users have to first sign up and only then they can access the information.
Types of Web Portals
Just like websites, we have different types of web portals that help suffice a different purpose for different kinds of people. Most businesses opt for custom web portal development services to get a customized solution developed for their needs. Every type of portal is intended for a specific group of people, serving different purposes and businesses that are looking for digital transformation, having a web portal can help as it directly conveys your message to the people who are genuinely interested in your services or products.
Not like websites where anyone and everyone could visit your page and garner the information there. So, based on the purpose and requirement, web portals are divided into four categories.
1. Customer portal
2. Employee portal
3. Partner portal
4. Membership portal
Now let’s begin with knowing these different types of web portals:
1. Customer-centric Portal
Customer-centric portals are the ones where users can find everything at a single place. It is for those businesses that are willing to have a portal where their users can easily get customer support and other service or products. Using these portals customers can perform various tasks and functions like raising a complaint, sharing feedback, etc.
Read Also: A Complete Guide to Website Development Cost
2. Employee-centric Portal
For companies looking to move towards digitization and integrate digital marketing trends into their business, having a web portal that can not only bring employees together but can also streamline the process, is very important. Employee portals are very important for big companies where there are a large number of employees working, having a customized web portal is important.
These web portals, not only promote effective communication among the employees but also helps in allotting tasks, sharing their grievances, raising tickets to the senior management, downloading their pay slips, keeping a track of their attendance, and lot more. If you are also looking to streamline your management, you must hire web developers who can create customized web portals for your company based on your requirements.
3. Partner Portal
Partner portals are best for industries like real estate, healthcare where more than relying on your portal you need to have various partners who can help you in taking your business forward. For businesses like these having a web development solution that can help you in increasing your user base and taking your businesses to potential buyers is really important.
4. Membership Portal
For businesses that offer services to their customers based on the type of subscription, they gave chosen, having a membership portal is important to keep a track of everyone and provide the type of services that have been subscribed by your users.
Benefits of Having a Web Portal for Your Business
Now, most of you must be pondering upon what wonders a web portal can do for your business. So, let us tell you the key benefits of having a web portal and how it can benefit your business.
Businesses get to interact with their customer or even employees in the most effective way as there is a proper solution or rather a web portal for them to communicate. Also, most businesses opt for web portal development as they are the best ways to inform users about their products and services and keep them aware of all the latest updates
There are many companies that are looking for rebranding or targeting a specific user group, web portal develop0ment seems a most feasible option. And not only just that even these web portals are known to offer a professional look to your business.
Steps to Develop a Web Portal
Now that we know what web portals are and what benefits they offer to a business, let’s begin with knowing the steps involved in creating them. Many development companies in the market offer such web development solutions to their client and every company have a different process. But today we are going to discuss a generic process and steps involved.
Step 1: The need for a Domain
Just like website development, if you are looking to create your web portal you would require a domain name first. A domain name is nothing but a name for your web portal, using which users can easily search your web portal. You can have this by either paying monthly subscription fees or by paying annual charges.
Step 2: Web hosting
Once you are done selecting a domain name for your business, the next step is to look for web hosting. Web hosting is a place where your domain will reside. You must have seen some websites starting with Http:// and some with https://. It is the SSL, which makes your website secure, and users mostly trust websites that have an SSL and starts with https://. Also, you can ask from your web development company for web hosting services as most development companies offer these kinds of services to their clients.
Step 3: A good design
Now comes the most interesting part, where you will get to finalize the design, or we could say the front-end part of your web portal. For this, you can either hire front-end developers or UI UX designers but generally any web portal development company have both of these in their teams. Good design and captivating layout play a vital role in attracting users and keeping them engaged on your web portal. Choosing the right color scheme and graphics, as per your target group and purpose is very important.
Read Also: Importance of Website Design for Businesses
Step 4: Development
Now you are done with finalizing your design, this is the most complicated part. Backend development is the core, which can either make your break your whole project. Having the right team of web developers is very important, and therefore, you have to be very prudent in making your choice when you plan pout to hire web developers for any of your web development projects.
Step 5: Testing
You do not want to present a poorly built web portal in front of your users. Hence, it is essential to test your web portal before you launch it and make it live for users to use it. Although, companies offering web development services make sure to test the product before delivering it to ensure that there are no bugs or errors.
Cost to Develop a Web Portal
Now, talking about the cost, this is the most awaited section which you all must be eagerly waiting to read. Just like websites, the cost to create different web portals differ based on the design and features you choose. Creating a web portal based on a specific need is not an easy task to accomplish and it requires a lot of time and effort.
So, here are a few factors that affect the cost of creating such web development solutions for a business.
- Functions and Elements Included
- Hiring Model
- Development Team: Size and Experience
Let’s discuss each of them in detail:
Functions and Elements Included
The cost of creating a custom web portal solution depends upon the functions and elements you plan to include in it. The simpler the design and layout the lesser it will cost you. This is because having a complex design and too many elements will require more time to develop by any website designing company, thereby it will increasing the portal cost.
Also, the features or the functions you choose to include in your web portal play a crucial part in undermining the cost of web portal development as integrating too many features will increase the complexity of the project, which will in turn increase the development cost.
Hiring Model
This is one of the most important factors to consider whenever you are planning to get any web solution developed. The cost to hire web developers differs from place to place, so choosing developers from a location, which fits your budget, should be your first priority. Also, instead of hiring in-house developers, outsourcing your project to a proficient web development company will save you money.
Development Team: Size and Experience
Now, this is an obvious one as generally, the cost of web portal development depends on the average hourly rate of the team working on it. So the more the time size the more will be the cost. Also, hiring an experienced and skilled developer may cost you more than hiring the ones who are less experienced. But this may also act as a disadvantage as hiring a new developer may not be able to work on the complexities of your project, so before making your choice you must consider all the factors and their pros and cons, to get the most out of it.
Now that we know the factors affecting the cost, let’s look at the estimated overall cost that you might have to pay to get a custom web portal for your business. So, before telling you the collective amount, break this overall cost into smaller sections, i.e. the cost per step.
Domain and Hosting: $50 to $1000 per month (depending on the rarity of the domain & traffic)
Designing Cost: $500 – $15,000 (depending upon the quality of the design)
Hourly Rates of Developers
US Developers: $150-$200 per hour
Eastern Europe Developers: $80-$100 per hour
Asian Developers: $20-$50 per hour
Plugins and Additional Cost: $500-$5000 (depending on the plugin)
Considering all the above mentioned factors, developing a web portal will cost you around $5000 to $50,000 depending on the quality and features of the portal. However, if you want to go for an outstanding design or have any out-of-the-box idea, this cost might be higher than the estimated cost.
Final Words
Having a web portal for your business is a need for today and especially or large scale organizations, where you have to manage too many employees or have too many diverse services to offer. They not only simplify your business process but also, help increase your efficiency.
Creating web portals that are just apt for your business requires proper planning and an efficient team of developers to bring your idea on to the tables just the way you want it. After all, having an online presence is a must these days, and websites and web portals are the first steps towards it.
