Let me guess, you own a small business and you are desperate to know ‘’how much do websites cost to make’’. Let me tell you that, it all depends on the size, complexity, and optimization of the website.
Let’s talk about what factors decide how much it will cost you if you plan to develop a converting website for your small or medium business.
Method #1 Hire a Professional
So, you are super busy and you cannot take the hassle of doing all the things yourself or you do have not enough tech knowledge. Then you should hire someone else for the task.
When it comes to hiring someone, you have two options.
- Hiring a Web Design Agency ($5000 to $10000 )
- Hiring a Freelance Web Designer/Developer ($300 to $2000)
Hiring a Web Design Agency
Hiring an agency is a great option but only if you can afford it. No doubt agencies provide great quality websites with complete optimization and after support. But a normal agency can charge you anywhere between $5k to $10k and even more. And the amount can go up if you want some addons or more pages on your website.
If you hire an agency, you don’t need to worry about anything from Domain to Graphics used on your website. It saves you a lot of time. So, I recommend you to hire an agency if you do not have a problem with spending thousands of dollars.
But if you are just starting your business or you have a small and medium-size business, you really need to focus on finding an individual freelancer or a freelance Web Designer/Developer with a small team.
Hiring a Freelance Web Designer/Developer ($300 to $2000)
What does a Web Designer/Developer do?
A web designer helps in making the design and basic structure of a website while a developer helps in applying that design and making a real website.
They both work together to make a finished product. Most web designers are also good developers, which makes it easy for someone like you to deal with one person rather than dealing with multiple persons of an agency.
Freelance Web Designer VS Web Design Agency
You can lower your design and development costs from $5k-$10k to anywhere between $300 to $2000 if you hire an individual freelance designer/developer or a designer with a small team.
Freelance designers/developers work remotely and have no extra expenses (rent, electricity, and employees) that a normal agency has. That is the reason they can give you the best price. Don’t worry about quality, professional freelancers work with small teams and provide results that are even better than agencies in some cases.
They work on a per-project or hourly payment. Hire a freelance web designer/developer here.
Method #2 Making it yourself ($250 to $1000 + lot of time)
Making it yourself can save you a lot of money but only if you have a lot of time. You have to learn first before you start making the website for your business. But if you have a decent understanding of how websites work, you are ready to dive in and make it yourself. The basic material you need is not that expensive.
Factors that affect how much your website costs are:
Learning before you Dive in ($0 to $200)
If you are planning to do it yourself and you are a beginner, you need to learn before diving in. You can get a paid course from Udemy and some other websites ($25 to $200) or you can learn from youtube for free. Get some basic courses about WordPress, photoshop, and S.E.O.
Website Domain Name Cost ($10 to $15/month)
A domain name is the address of your website. For example, www.google.com is the address of Google. You cannot buy domain names for a lifetime, you will pay a yearly rent to the registrar to keep the domain under your ownership. You can easily register a domain name from $10 to $15 from any famous domain registrar. I prefer Godaddy, Namecheap, and Hostinger.
Website Web Hosting Cost ($30 to $150/year)
Web hosting is just like paying rent to the owner to stay in your rented house. You pay a monthly or yearly fee to your hosting provider to keep your entire website on their servers.
1 year of good speed hosting can cost you anywhere between $30 to $150 which can handle 100k/month traffic of visitors very easily. And obviously, you can upgrade later when your site becomes more popular.You can buy hosting plans at a good discount on Hostinger. Some other options are Hostgator and Bluehost. I prefer Hostinger because of its great server speed and great support.
SSL Certificate Cost ($10 minimum)
In very simple language, the SSL Certificate helps in protecting your websites from hacking attacks. It converts your website from standard HTTP Protocol to HTTPS Protocol which also allows in becoming compatible with modern browsers and protects your websites from crashing. You can buy an SSL Certificate from $10/year to $300/year. But most hosting providers nowadays provide free SSL Certificates with their hosting plans. Hostinger is one of them.
Content Management System & Other Cost ($0 to $1000/month)
If you talk about making a website the next thing is to get or install a CMS. There are many famous CMS like Wix, Squarespace, and Joomla but I will recommend the most customizable and free CMS i.e, WordPress. Let’s see how much a WordPress website costs to make.
How much do WordPress websites cost?
Making a WordPress website can cost you from $0 to $1000 and more depending on the customization and functionality.
- Buying a theme or using a free one ($45 to $2000)
When it comes to making a WordPress website, WordPress heavily relies on themes and there are a lot of free and paid/premium themes. Many free themes are great, but I recommend you spend a few hundred bucks on a well-optimized and designed theme. Because along with the paid theme, you also get support from the developer of that theme for some years that helps in fixing bugs. Themes cost as low as $45 to $2000 and more. You can buy themes from Theme Forest.
- Buy paid plugins or use free ones ($20 to $500)
When it comes to enhancing the features and functionality of your website, plugins are the main backbone. You can use free plugins from the WordPress plugins store or buy paid plugins to add more properties to your website. Premium Plugins start from $20 to $500 and more depending on the functionality. You can also ask a developer to build you a custom plugin for your website. But that will cost you more money.
- Graphics & Royalty-Free Images Cost ($29 to $115/month)
If you see any websites, you see a lot of graphics and images that are used to beautify the experience and functionality. Royalty-free or premium images and graphics play a very important role here. You can use some websites like Pixabay & Pexels to get free and copyright-free images or you can buy premium images from websites like https://www.istockphoto.com/ $29 to $115/month.
For custom graphics, you can use Canva (Free+Paid)
Note: Do not just copy-paste images from other websites because those images will be copyrighted. If you use anyone else’s photos, the person can sue you. So it’s better to play safe and just buy your own images or use royalty-free images from Pexels or Pixabay. For custom graphics, you can use Canva (Free+Paid)
How Much do Websites cost per month to Maintain, Update
Now you know ‘’how much do websites cost to make’’ but let’s find out ”How Much do Websites cost per month to Maintain” It’s not over after your website is online, your website still requires routine maintenance and updates to keep it running.
That’s why businesses need to ask not only, “How much does it cost to build a website?” but also, “How much does it cost to maintain a website?”.
- Per Month
On a monthly basis, your website can cost $35 to $5000 per month.
- Per Year
On a yearly basis, your website can cost $400 to $60,000 per year.
Conclusion
‘’how much do websites cost to make’’
Now you know ‘’how much do websites cost to make’’. Hope this article helped you in getting an idea about how much money is required to make a converting website for your small and medium business.
I recommend you to hire a freelance web designer/developer for the task for you because of their cost-effective services. Even some freelancers do not charge small maintenance fees. My name is M. Ahmad (Web Designer/WordPress Developer) and I’m the founder of MY CODE FREE WEBSITE. You can hit me up for an amazing web design.
