No matter what kind of business you are in, the one thing you will ask when building a website is, “How much does a website cost?” This isn’t a simple question. Website costs come in various forms. Here is a simple breakdown of what they are and how much they cost.
- Website Design And Development
In the short run, the design and development of your website is going to be the most expensive part. This is the amount you will pay your web designer/developer to design and build your website. Depending on what kind of website you need, this can get into the $10,000+ range. However, five digit costs really only apply to really large sites like eCommerce websites, sites with hundreds of pages, or a lot of backend work. Each web developer will have their own rates, but at Business Website Builders we specialize in affordable web design and design your website at prices starting at $495. This is a one time cost.
- Domain
Your domain, i.e. yourbusinessname.com, is usually the cheapest part of the entire process. As long as you aren’t buying the domain from someone who already owns it, your domain should cost you anywhere from $5 to $25 per year depending on the top-level domain (.com, .net, etc.) that you are using. Every year you need to renew your domain in order to continue using it. You can usually save by buying it for more than one year at a time, but this really just depends on the domain registrar you are using. For the sake of ease, just consider this a $5-$25 per year expense.
- Web Hosting
Once your website is built, you will have to host it on a server that is available 24/7 so that your customers can reach it. This will cost you. Luckily web hosting doesn’t only come in a one-size-fits-all package. Costs depend on how many people visit your website every day, what kind of bandwidth you use, and the various bells and whistles you want. For most small businesses, you will be okay with some form of shared hosting plan. If you want more details on which hosting provider is best for you, you can check out our post on the best web hosting for small business. However, depending on your type of business, you may need a more robust hosting plan. Hosting plans start at around $4 per month, but it truly depends on the needs and size of your site. At Business Website Builders, every website we build comes with up to one year of free web hosting.
- Maintenance
The last remaining website cost to consider is the cost of maintenance. This is what website owners pay for someone to update, maintain, and repair things on your website. Depending on what you use your website for, this may be very infrequent. However, if you have a blog, are constantly adding pages, or are constantly tweaking, you will likely need to pay someone to do this for you. Once again, costs will vary depending on what you need done, but you can expect to spend somewhere in the range of $30-$100 per hour. Not sure where to find a webmaster? We can help!
In the grand scheme of things, the cost of a website is fairly low. In most cases the costs are front-loaded, with just a handful of monthly/yearly fees. A majority of small businesses will spend less on these monthly and yearly fees than they do on their phone bill. So, how much does a website cost? Not enough to prevent you from getting one! Contact us today to learn how we provide businesses of all sizes with affordable web design.