Only 64% of businesses have a website. While this figure is high, the fact is that 100% of businesses should have a website.
If you don’t, you are missing a valuable opportunity to attract and inform customers of your services. Those customers will find your competitors who do have websites instead.
Many assume that building a website cost is expensive and that websites take a long time to set up. But in reality, you can spend as much or as little as you want.
This guide will break down the different website build cost options from the cheapest to the most expensive. Read on to reveal all!
Domain Name
Domain names are where a website lives so they are a necessity. You can buy these from a domain service, such as:
- Domain.com
- Namecheap
- GoDaddy
- Ionos
Domains are like subscriptions. If you want to continue to own your domain name, you will need to keep paying for it every year.
They are available for as little as $1 per year. Most website owners pay around $20-$100 per year for their domain names. But there is no limit on this kind of website cost and some domains cost thousands.
Content Management
To write and upload media to your website, you will need to choose a content management system (CMS). The most popular content management systems are:
- WordPress
- Squarespace
- Wix
- Drupal
- Shopify
The most popular CMS, by far, is WordPress and it is free to use. Some systems also offer web hosting so they have a monthly fee. But they all offer tiered services so you will only pay around $50 – $300 a month.
Hosting Service
Website hosts are servers that store all your website’s content and media. These are some examples of web hosting companies:
- Bluehost
- A2 Hosting
- HostGator
There are two main types of hosting: shared and managed. Shared is fine for smaller websites and should cost between $5 – $15 per month depending on the features you choose. Managed is more expensive and can cost up to $1,000 per month.
Design or Theme
This is one of the biggest differences between the cheapest building a website cost and the most expensive. If you choose an off-the-shelf website theme from somewhere like Theme Forest, expect to pay around $50. But if you hire a web designer, the cost will be more like $1,000.
And if you hire a web design team, expect to pay tens of thousands.
Potential Extras
Those are the main four things that you need to build a website. But you also need written and media content on your site or else it will be bare! You can hire content creators to do this for you (for a fee) or do it yourself (for free).
You might also want to hire a website management service. They will perform backups, maintenance, and other tasks to keep your website running well.
How Much Does Building a Website Cost? Now You Know
Building a website cost might seem like it should be expensive. But now you can see that there are more affordable options. You can spend as little as $50 a year on your website or much more, the choice is up to you.
Now you know the website building cost, you need to learn about everything else that goes into running a website. Browse our website for more tech tips and tricks that will help!
