Hi, I'm in need of making a custom website with a lot of different features very similar to www.moneysavingexpert.com. It will be a very large site and as I normally only create wordpress sites, I don't believe wordpress will be powerful enough to make this site. I've looked into freelancer as I normally do but I don't believe a lot of them have enough experience. Where should I get my site done? In which platform should it be created in? Any Ideas?
I don't know if you noticed but their site has a variety of templates used depending on a link, option or category with a variety of different functions. I don't think anyone would seriously consider doing this for you unless you have an unlimited budget, but most importantly time to wait. I think you should start plowing this on your own. Step by step. Find a PHP/MySQL script that has similar to their script's functions and start working on it. Hiring someone for this type of a job will bring you nothing but a frustration.
Just putting it out there, but you could create a theme like that in Wordpress. It's a very robust CMS, just comes down to whether you are willing to program a template to fit your needs. If you are looking for a quick easy solution where you can just throw a bunch of plugins together and duplicate that site I doubt you'll find one without doing any custom coding.
The site you're referencing has a lot of custom code - it seems it's not based on anything ready-made. If you want something similar, you either need a rather big budget or some ability to code yourself - it will not be made in a week, unless you hire a professional agency who can throw lots of coders at the problem - that will of course be quite costly. Having this done by one or just a few coders will take time, and you must expect that there will be a lot of rewrites and adjustments needed while you get the site up and running. What you should perhaps consider is concentrating on some base functionality, and make sure that works 100% before branching out. That way you'll have a basis for the rest of the site, and can build upon that when branching out. However, this is not a "done in a week" kind of thing, it will involve some serious coding, and you'll have to at least consider both cost and time before starting. I'd say this (as in basic functionality) will cost you between 10-20k minimum, upwards to maybe a 100-200k total, and timewise we're talking a few months at best (dedicated team), up to a year or more (if you're going with the cheapest coders).
A project of this scope cannot just be thrown together without detail formal requirements. I would suggest what you need to do is do an RFP (request For Proposal), if you are not familar with the RFP approach that you start by hiring a consultant who specializes in project management to help you develop the requirements. If you have a small budget, then a project like this is beyond your reach and I suggest you try something smaller until you can afford to move up to the higher level you are looking at.
I believe, it can be done with WordPress as it's still have a database, but the implementation takes time. The site have many custom features but it's not that dynamic and responsive.. In any trusted freelance marketplace, look some freelancer portfolios, if you feel that someone has a solid experience related to the site that you want then you can hire him/her! But such kind of site is expensive. If you can't find your dream freelancer then find it in the other marketplace. You can implement another WordPress features or develop your own web application. Develop all the features step by step. First, develop a simple website, then improve it on the next version, and keep improving...
Hi, Thanks for all your advice so far. I'm thinking of getting the basic functions of the site done by a freelancer then improve it, I have an initial budget of around $6000. two questions: 1) I know a couple of you said word press would work however is it good enough to handle a site of this scale? 2) Should I get the site designed first then developed? Or should I let one freelancer/team do it all? Scott
I believe I can build that kind of design with WordPress, but of course, with few differences. My idea to implement the "topnav" menu (not the "nav-secondary" one which is in the header,) with WordPress, is to create multiple menus such as "Cards and Loans" menu, "Reclaim £1,000s" menu, "Utilities and Phones", etc... with their own sub-menus for the "firstCol" of a specific menu. And then create an area where you can insert 2 HTML codes for the "secondCol" and the "lastCol", and where you can set an ID of the target menu where you want to attach those codes. And a lot more, step by step... It's really depend on you if you want to develop your own software or rely on WordPress, such question is the same as "What is your favorite editor?" But as what you've see, developing it with WordPress needs a lot of tricks, some original functionalities of WP will not be used, such as some parent menus aren't clickable and don't have 3rd or higher sub-menu levels. If you're willing to create your own software, then develop. If you want a WordPress theme then design your initial theme, then upgrade later. You can also let a freelancer/team do it all if you want.
Hi, Scott. Let me break up it into two part. The "how" one is simple. I see "as I normally do" here, and may assume you have not a lot of insight in the web development of big things. On the other hand freelancers are professionals who do this every day and grow their skills. As on any market there are good specialists and bad workers. Just check the customer reviews on their work, and a price. Again as on any market the price correlates with the quality as a rule of a thumb. The huge prices are usually web agencies generated (they have to pay not only programmers, but sale persons, management etc). Lowest prices normally bidden by students or beginners without enough experience. Stick with the median and choose by reviews or hours total. UpWork is a good place to start. Also take a note that most of unsuccessful freelance projects caused by the lack of specifications. Make sure you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve before you start. In case of freelance make sure your vision is stated in document. Double check it if you go fixed price, because big changes in the middle of the process may be heavy to develop. Having a wireframes would not hurt either: it may be something from a wireframe toolkit (check http://www.creativebloq.com/wireframes/top-wireframing-tools-11121302 ) or an HTML markup with bootstrap/bourbon/etc. The technologies to go The site you are referring does not seem complex, but it have a lot to do. Assuming you want to play with it by yourself you have a lot of options. Wordpress may be a way to go if you are good with it. Really, there are text, text, text and text again. It is a rich blog in the core. Again, it is your product, and you are free to cut complex layouts to fit Wordpress logic. And Wordpress allows custom pages, multiple layouts and much more if you know how to cook it. Drupal would give you a better control over the site and much more clean approach to customizing. While the Wordpress is the most popular CMS (because it is a blog in the core, and exactly match most people demands) the Drupal is the most advanced one. It is amazing such a big thing still maintains quite easy to use interface. It is also easily extendable both by contributed modules and a custom code. Last but not least are Static site generators. They are dead simple, does not require any database, webserver app or anything else. You even does not require a hosting with one of those - GitHub provides great free access to static sites with the GitHub Pages ( https://pages.github.com/ ). As they are really static they are also blazing fast. You may need to put a bit effort on the basic setup (or may skip this step and setup a preconfigured installation - here is a great article on those: http://onewebstory.com/notes/thoughtbot-driven-development-static-site-using-proteus-bourbon-and-middleman which describes Middleman or Jekyll setup. To give you an idea, here are some examples in the wild: http://mailchimp.com http://hiphopquoted.com http://htmlarrows.com http://hockeyapp.net Good luck with building!
hello scott2342, you can create your site in cake php and for more you can visit our site for web design solutions http://www [dot] digiinteracts [dot] com/ Digi Interacts Private Limited, B-218/2nd Floor, Pitampura, New Delhi - 110034, India. +91 (0)11 4709 5799
Hi, let me introduce myself. My name is Ganyos. I was once a member of digital point forum, but not active. Now I tried to active in this forum again. I use wordpress to develop so many sites and I think this time wordpress could handle what you need for your website requirement. Thank you.
I think you can create similar site in wordpress. you can search for paid responsive theme. We have good developer for WordPress in market.