How much does a website cost in 2023? While the cost of building a website differs greatly depending on the platforms and plugins you choose to use, a basic, self-hosted WordPress website could cost as little as $115 per year.
But all in all Honestly, It is difficult to put a price on a website as it depends on your budget and the goals you have set for your business.
That being said, in this article we will show you how much does it cost to build a website from scratch? And what tools can you use to stay on budget while leaving room for growth?
We’ve divided the article into the following sections because it’s a long read, so you can jump ahead if you want. Let’s get started!
- What tools will you need to create a website?
- Plan and estimate the cost of creating a website
- How much does it cost? to create a website for a small business?
- How much does it cost to create an advanced website?
- How much does it cost to create an e-commerce store?
- Tips to avoid overpaying when building a website
What tools will you need to build a website?
When it comes to building a website, No need to hire professional web designers and developers with technical knowledge. There are many tools available on the web through which you can easily create a do-it-yourself website.
If you don’t select the right tools, however, you’ll be wasting money on things you don’t want. you need.
That’s why we’ve put together a list of tools that will calculate how much a website costs. Here are 3 things you’ll need no matter what type of website you’re building:
- Domain name
- Website Builder
- Web Hosting
Domain name
A domain name is a web address of your website that users type into their browsers, such as www.yourdomain.com or www.MonsterInsights .com. It’s also the URL that appears in search results when people search for your website.
Once you’ve selected a domain name, it’s time to register it. When you register your domain, you can use the same name for one year.
When selecting a domain name, it’s also important to choose the correct extensions, such as .com, .org, . co or .net.
If you are an organization, then .org is great. However, one study found that 52% of websites have a .com extension, proving that they are more popular and relatable among users.
And remember, since registration of Your domain name lasts for one year, you will have to renew it every year. But if you don’t renew your domain name, it will expire and release the domain name for someone else to use.
Website Builder
After getting a domain name, it’s time to use a website builder. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or a seasoned expert, using website builders makes it very easy to create a website.
Using a website builder offers many customization options and allows you to create a website the way you want. It also helps to add important features like plugins and SEO tags.
There are different website builders you can use:
- WordPress.org – WordPress It’s open source, 100% free, and all you need is a domain and web hosting to get started. We recommend using WordPress as it’s so easy to use, works with over 40% of all websites on the internet, and gives you complete control of your website.
- Shopify – Shopify is a good choice for building an eCommerce website. It offers attractive themes (free and paid), a simple interface to set up a storefront and shopping cart, and easy management of your store.
- Web.com en one of the original and most popular website builders for small businesses. Since 1999, they have helped 3 million customers create a website at a very low price. It comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop builder and tons of ready-to-use website templates to get you started quickly.
Web Hosting
A big part of how much what it costs to build a website is your web hosting service. Web hosting is where you store all of your images, videos, files, and other website content. Imagine it as a home for your website.
Let’s say a user wants to view your website and types the domain name into the browser. The user is then directed to the web hosting server where all of your website content is stored.
In addition, it is through the web host’s Internet connectivity that your website is available to users 24 hours a day and can be accessed by anyone from anywhere. .
When you are building your website, you will come across different types of web hosting services. These include shared hosting , managed hosting, cloud hosting, and more.
So, which type of web hosting should you choose, let’s find out.
Shared Hosting
The Shared hosting is where your website shares a web server with many other websites. You can think of it like renting an apartment in a building.
The benefit of using shared hosting is that it’s affordable and very easy to manage your website, domain, and emails.
If you have a small business, personal blog, or website that has low traffic, then shared hosting is a great place to start.
On the downside is that shared hosting tends not to be as fast or secure as managed hosting.
You may find that e experience website downtime with some shared hosting services and slow page loads due to slow server response time. Security features aren’t always very strong either, as a security flaw on another website could also damage your website.
That being said, not all shared hosting services are bad.
Bluehost: The Best Shared Hosting Option
Bluehost is one of the oldest and most popular shared hosting services. Even WordPress officially recommends it. Bluehost is great for first-time website builders or small business owners.
And if you’re worried about how much a website costs, then Bluehost is cheap and packed with cool features like:
- One year free domain
- Free SSL certificate
- Free business emails
- Very easy to use cPanel interface
- 24/7 customer support
- One-click installation for WordPress websites
Managed hosting
Managed hosting is where a managed hosting company takes care of all your web hosting requirements. Think of it like having a home for your website accompanied by a driver, security team, maids, and maintenance staff.
Managed hosting is more powerful and different from shared hosting. The managed hosting company will take care of your WordPress website’s security, updates, and backup files and data.
Most companies also provide dedicated or premium customer support, so you you can communicate and resolve any issues at any time.
Although managed hosting has its advantages, it generally comes with a higher hosting cost compared to shared hosting. It is only available for WordPress websites, and some companies may restrict you from using plugins that could slow down your website.
That is why this type of web hosting is more suitable for medium and large companies, websites with high traffic or businesses looking for a business web hosting service.
WP Engine – Best Managed Hosting Option
WP Engine is a popular managed WordPress hosting company. It will keep your WordPress website fast and secure by taking care of its health and performance. Some amazing features that WP Engine offers include:
- Free Genesis Framework
- 35 WordPress Themes from StudioPress
- Automated SSL Certificates
- Daily website backup
- Automatic security updates
- 24/7 customer support via live chat, phone and tickets
Now that you know the tools you’ll need, let’s see how to estimate the cost of building a website.
Plan and estimate the cost of building a website
Before you start building a website, it’s important to plan the process around your goals, or you’ll risk overspending.
Here are some questions to ask before you start so you can estimate how much it will cost you to build a website:
1. What features do you need?
It’s important to know what features you want on your website. We suggest you write them down because they help you identify the actual cost.
Some features may require a premium plugin and others may need to go through the development process. So if you have a list of features ready, you can prioritize those that are important and save cost.
2. Should you hire a professional designer or use a pre-built theme?
The fastest and easiest way to get started is to use a pre-built theme. There are many themes offered by different website builders that will help save costs.
But if you want a website to look and function in a particular way, remember that website design and the cost of Development fees can be extremely high, especially if you opt for a custom website.
You should hire a professional to develop a custom website that works the way you want it to.The average cost of hiring a professional web developer can range from $20 to $100 per hour.
3. Do you have enough budget to start?
After listing the features you want, deciding which premium plugins you need, and finalizing the website design, it’s time to check your budget.
Many site projects websites fail because they overspend and exceed their planned budget. That’s why it’s important to list your costs and make sure you stay within your budget.
Once you’ve answered these questions, it’s time to create a website. To help you out, we’ve broken down the costs into the following sections:
- How much does it cost to build a small business website
- What does it cost to build an advanced website
- How much does a website cost if it is an e-commerce store?
How much does it cost to create a website for a small business?
Create a simple small business website can cost between $100 and $500. But this cost could increase depending on your goals. A custom, feature-rich website can cost $30,000 or more.
To get started with a website for your business, you’ll need a domain name and web hosting. The cost of a domain is usually around $14.99 per year and web hosting is around $7.99 per month. Put them together and you get a cost of $110.87 per year to build a website.
Since this cost can be expensive for many people, we have made a deal with Bluehost to offer our users a free domain, a free SSL certificate for added security, and over 60% off on web hosting.
As we mentioned above, Bluehost is the best shared hosting option and also recommended by WordPress. With its amazing features and low prices, you can save cost when building a website.
To save more website building cost, you can get free WordPress plugins and free theme. Here are some free plugins available in the WordPress repository.
Marketing
- MonsterInsights (Free): Helps you make data-driven decisions by connecting your website to Google Analytics.
- WPForms Lite – Add contact forms to your website to generate leads.
- SeedProd Lite – Create awesome landing pages.
- RafflePress: Create and run giveaways on your website.
Performance
- AIOSEO: improve rankings in search engines and optimize your website for SEO.
- W3 Total Cache – Increase the performance, speed and user experience of your WordPress website.
Security
- Akismet – Stop spam comments on your website.
- UpdraftPlus – Free plugin to backup your website.
How much does it cost to build an advanced website?
Over time, your website will grow, and to keep up with the increase in visitors, you’ll need to add more features. This will increase your cost as advanced features will require premium plugins and may require upgrading to a more powerful web hosting service.
You can continue to use Bluehost, but with an advanced website, we suggest using a managed hosting service. as WP Engine or migrate to SiteGround (GoGeek plan).
SiteGround will cost you a bit more than Bluehost , but its GoGeek plan comes with premium features like faster performance, more web storage space, staging capabilities, and can easily handle up to 100,000 visitors per month.
When building an advanced website, consider using a premium theme for your website. Almost all website builders like WordPress offer paid themes that have additional features built in, provide priority customer support, and give your website a more professional look.
As for plugins, here are some premium WordPress plugins that you can use. use to grow your website.
Marketing
- MonsterInsights Pro: See how visitors use your website and use the data to make informed decisions
- OptinMonster – Helps convert visitors who leave your website into leads.
- WPForms Pro – Create contact forms, polls and surveys, order forms and more with its easy drag and drop builder.
- Sendinblue – It is a complete marketing toolkit with advanced features like email marketing, live chat and CRM.
- AIOSEO Pro – Improves search engine visibility through advanced features like video sitemaps, redirect manager, and 404 error tracking.
Website Design
- SeedProd – Customize your website with beautiful landing pages using their drag and drop builder . It also comes with coming soon and maintenance mode functionality.
- CSS Hero: Change your entire website design without coding.
- Envira Gallery: Helps you create a gallery photo and video responsive .
- Crush balloon: embed social media feeds on your website.
Emails
- Constant Contact : The best email marketing plugin for growing and managing your email subscriber list.
- Drip : One of the best email marketing plugins for WordPress.
Security
- Sucuri: Prevent malware and hackers from attacking your website with the best WordPress plugin WordPress security.
- BackupBuddy: Create backup copies of your website, store data in an external location and restore your website in minutes.
These are just some of the premium plugins you can use as there are many more. That being said, the total cost of building an advanced website is between $500 to $1000 per year, depending on how many plugins you use on your website.
What is the cost? of building an e-commerce store?
If you are planning to run an online store and you think it will cost you millions of dollars, then you are wrong. Starting an eCommerce store is very easy and you don’t have to drain your wallet.
It’s even easier and cheaper than starting an actual physical store. And by going online, you can reach a much larger, global audience.
To create an e-commerce site, you’ll need a domain name and web hosting, just like any other website. Since you will be starting from scratch, we recommend using the Bluehost WooCommerce plan.
With Bluehost’s WooCommerce plan, you get attractive features to start and grow your online store. Here are some of its features:
- Free domain for one year
- Free SSL certificate to protect your online payments
- Showcase themes
- WooCommerce pre-installed with WordPress
- Dedicated IP address
- 24/7 dedicated customer support
For plugins, you can use the free plugins we listed above in the section for building a small business website. You can even add premium WooCommerce plugins for additional features and help grow your store.
So the total cost of starting an eCommerce store is around $190 per year. However, this could increase as you start using premium plugins and extensions.
Tips to avoid overpaying when building a website
Spending too much when building a website it’s very easy and could lead to the downfall of your website before you even start. That’s why it’s important to stay within your budget. Here are some tips that may help you:
- Start small, then grow your website. Use free themes and plugins to get started, and spend on premium stuff later as your website grows.
- Stay within your budget by prioritizing important features. It’s easy to be drawn to a feature you saw on another website, and then spend money on website development costs, only to find it’s to no avail.
- Optimize your website for a great browsing experience. user. No matter how small your website is, make sure it runs fast and smooth on all kinds of devices.
And that’s it!
We hope you’ll You liked our detailed plan on how much it costs to build a website. If you’d like, you can also check out our guide on why your business needs Google Analytics.
Not using MonsterInsights yet? What are you waiting for?
And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for more helpful reviews, tutorials, and Google Analytics tips.
.