March 7, 2023

How Much Does a Website Cost?

How Much Do Websites Cost

“How much does a website cost?”

That’s like calling an auto dealer and asking, “How much does a vehicle cost?”

Well, do you need a sports car, compact or SUV? Or maybe you need a tractor-trailer?

What other features do you need for your car?

Do you live somewhere with inclement weather? Will a 4-wheel drive be required?

Do you travel a lot? How important is gas mileage? Do you need a roof rack?

You get the idea.

There are a million variables that affect how much a website will cost.

Think about this…

Is a website too expensive if it costs $50,000 but helps deliver $500,000 in sales?

Is a website too expensive if it costs $5,000 and delivers no sales?

In this blog post, you’ll learn about the three ways to build a website and how much they cost. Remember, the method you choose will greatly affect the cost of your website.

So how much will a website cost? Let’s break it down.

The cost of a website can be broken down into two broad categories; Infrastructure and Design.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure basically means what powers your website. Under infrastructure, there are three costs that you should know about;

I.     Domain Name

This is your website’s address on the internet (for instance, Google’s is google.com). You usually purchase 

it from a domain registrar, e.g., Namecheap. Your domain name cost varies depending on your TLD (what follows after your name; for instance .edu, .com, or .org)

Therefore, a regular domain name may end up costing you about $10 per year. However, some hosting companies will give you a deal for hosting with a free domain name.

II.     Website Content Management System

Most websites aren’t created from scratch, they use pre-made content management system (CMS) software. CMS includes popular web software like WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla. WordPress is the most common powering over 35% of all websites globally.

Using a CMS is very cheap. For instance, WordPress is 100% free. However, there are two ‘types’ of WordPress; WordPress.org, which is open source and 100% free, and WordPress.com, which comes at a premium.

If WordPress is not your cup of tea, you can opt for a dedicated website builder, e.g., Squarespace or Wix. It’s easy to design your website since you only need to drag and drop objects onto your screen when creating your website.

However, this method is a bit more costly than WordPress since you pay a monthly fee to use the web builders if you want your website to continue working. Prices range from about $16 monthly or $150 annually with the annual payment discount.

 III.     Hosting

Hosting means renting space on a server to power your website. For self-hosted CMS software, e.g., WordPress and Joomla, you need to buy hosting. However, for website builders, e.g., Squarespace or Wix, hosting is already included in the monthly payment.

The good thing about hosting is that when you get started, it’s cheaper. Prices start from $6 per month, payable annually. For the best deal, purchase multiple years upfront.

After buying the domain name, hosting, and installing CMS, you have a working website. However, it still needs a few more things to make it ‘lively’.

Website Design and Functionality

This next feature is what your visitors will see and interact with your website. You might opt to do it yourself or you might pay someone to do it for you. So what do you need to work on?

Design

Using a CMS like WordPress or Joomla enables you to change the design of your website using prebuilt themes. There are free and premium themes. For premium themes, you can expect to pay an average of $59 on WordPress and an average of around $100 on web builders e.g Squarespace.

Functionality

Website functionality is added via third-party extensions called plugins. They have many capabilities e.g automatically backing up your site.

Just like themes, there are both free and premium plugins. So if you have a basic site, you might not need the premium plugins.

For most premium WordPress plugins you can expect to pay a one-time payment with an annual renewal fee.

Web builders e.g Wix have premium plugins that you pay for monthly.

So How Much Will a Website Cost?

Building a website doesn’t have to be expensive.

In summary, you’ve learned that you need to have infrastructure and website functionality. The cost of the two varies depending on your needs. For a simple blog or website, you only need to pay for hosting and the domain name. You can install a free CMS (WordPress) and use free themes and plugins.

For an advanced site, you might need to buy premium themes and plugins in addition to purchasing hosting and the domain name.

Finally, for a custom site, you might need to hire a developer who might charge you a tidy sum to customize your website to your exact specifications. Contact us today for a free proposal.