So you’re planning to launch a website, but you don’t have an idea of how much it is going to cost you? It’s ok; we can help you get a rough estimation.
Indeed, the cost of building a website depends entirely on your individual goals. For instance, a blog website is easier and more pocket-friendly to setup up than an e-commerce website or business website.
However, there are a few things that are common in every website building process and may influence the cost, such as web hosting, domain name, and website building technology.
Let’s analyze these factors one-by-one to get a rough idea about a website building cost.?
Table of Contents
Domain Name
A domain name is much like your home address. It’s your site’s address on the Internet. For example, the domain for Google is www.google.com. People type your domain in their browser to access your site.
You need to look for a relevant domain name as per your business niche and then get it registered from a domain name registrar. Our favorite is GoDaddy. Upon registration, you get the right to use that name for your site for a year or more, depending on the plan you choose. Don’t forget; you need it to renew after a certain time.
The cost of your domain name depends on your top-level-domain (TLD), which is the part of your domain name that follows the final dot. For example, “.com”, or “.net”.
The average cost for a brand new TLD domain can be anywhere between $10-12 per year.
Some of the key factors that can affect the cost of a domain name include:
- The popularity of domain name you choose
- The length of the contract with the registrar
- Addon features such as domain privacy
Website Building Technology
The technology you use to build your site is another major factor that determines the cost of your website. There are three major ways you can create your site in today’s scenario:
- Custom Solution
- Website Builder
- Content Management System
Custom Solution
You can hire professionals to design and develop your website from scratch. Your website development cost will be much higher in this case, as this process involves a lot of work and time. Web development agency may charge you between $10,000 – $35,000 for a general business website.
Website Builder
Over the past few years, this method has gained enough popularity. What makes it better than other methods is, anyone can use it and design a website without writing a single line of code.
The majority of website building platforms feature a drag-and-drop interface making it easy for a newbie to create a website without any prior training.
Website builders usually charge on a monthly fee. Depending on the plan you choose, you can expect to pay between $4 to $40 per month. Some of the popular website builders you can try out include:
Though a website builder seems an ideal method, it has some drawbacks such as you get limited customization options, you have to rely on 3rd party for technical support, and an affordable plan often comes with limited features.
Content Management System (CMS)
CMS, like WordPress (WP), is highly flexible in terms of customization. You have hundreds of themes to choose from. Moreover, you can customize them as per your website needs.
Another advantage of choosing WP over other website building options is, it’s an open-source tool that means you don’t need to pay anything to create a website.
Today, 35% of the web uses WordPress that includes some of the world’s most significant websites, such as The New Yorker, BBC America, and TechCrunch.
With WordPress, you just need to buy a domain name and web hosting. You can simply install WordPress and start working on it.
WordPress comes with a basic theme that can solve your purpose if you’re building a general blog or business website. However, if you’re planning to launch a robust e-Commerce website, you may need to invest in a premium theme and plugins to improve the features and functionality of your site. A premium WP theme usually costs between $30 and $100.
Web Hosting
Web hosting allocates your site dedicated space on a webserver to store its flies. When someone types your site’s domain name in a browser, they are directed to the site files stored on the server of your hosting provider.
There are usually three types of web hosting services offered by most providers. These include:
- Shared Hosting
- VPS Hosting
- Dedicated Hosting
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is considered ideal for low-traffic websites. Since in this type of hosting, you share your server resources such as CPU, RAM, and Disk Storage with others, it’s comparatively affordable. You can expect to pay between $2 – $7 per month.
VPS Hosting
VPS hosting is designed for mid-sized websites. Though like in shared hosting, you share your server resources with others, but you get a dedicated portion of server resources, that means no one can use resources dedicated to you. The average price for a standard VPS hosting service is between $20 to $30 per month.
Dedicated Hosting
As the name suggests, with dedicated hosting, you get server resources that are all yours. This type of hosting is suitable for large-sized websites that need more support, security, and handle the heavy traffic load.
Unfortunately, dedicated hosting is expensive and needs technical knowledge to manage. If you’re comfortable with paying $100 or more per month, and have a staff to handle technical glitches, you can go for it.
If your website is in the initial period, it’s advisable to go for a shared hosting plan. You can upgrade it as per the growing demands of your site.
Some of the popular hosting providers that you may consider are:
You can find more here.
Conclusion
Putting everything together, we can say that building a basic website can cost you anywhere between $100 – $200 per year. However, if you want to develop a feature-rich, custom site, the price may go up to $35,000 or more.
To create a basic business website with WordPress, you need to pay for a domain name (costs $10 – $12 per year) and shared web hosting (costs about $2 -$7 per month). So altogether, starting a website on WP will cost you between $34 – $96 annually. Though it’s a rough estimation, you can expect to pay a similar amount.
