How much should a website cost? It is a question that many business owners ask themselves when making that step into the digital world.
A website has many benefits for businesses of all sizes. This includes, search engine visibility, boosting customer service and increasing sales. You can read more about it in our related article : 6 Ways a Website can Help Your Business .
But with the current economic climate many businesses, especially small ones, are hesitant to invest in a website that does not help improve the bottom line.
Nzuri Web Services wants to help guide business owners in the right direction. Here are some of our proposed solutions when creating a website and how much it should cost!
Here we will look at the different cost factors to consider when building a website. And the various different platforms available for you to construct your site on.
| Website Feature | Upfront Website Cost (in USD) |
|---|---|
| Website Domain | $12 – $60 per year |
| Website Hosting | $24 – $1000 per year |
| SSL Certificate | $0 – $300 per year |
| Website Template or Theme | $0 – $200 |
| Ecommerce Functionality | $20 – $14,000 |
| Website Content | $0 – $5,000 |
| Apps and Integrations | $0 – $100 |
| SEO and Marketing | $0 – $900 |
| Web Designer/ Developer fees | $0 – $5000 |
Website Hosting Costs
Website hosting costs will vary based on the type of hosting resources your website needs. Hosts are servers with different specifications that impacts factors like website speed, scalability, performance and management.
A small personal blog with 2000 monthly visitors will need a less powerful host that a corporate website with 250,000 monthly visitors.
You need to find out:
- Which type of hosting you need (if you don’t already know)
- How much this type of hosting will cost
- Which are the best providers
Shared Hosting
This is the most affordable hosting solution. It is best suited for personal blogs, portfolios and small businesses.
How shared hosting works is that you share a server with multiple other website owners. It is like renting an apartment with roommates and having separate rooms but sharing utilities.
So it is really convenient if your site is not a heavily lifter. But there are drawbacks. For example, if another website on your server spikes in traffic, then it might affect your own site.
Shared web hosting benefits:
- Most affordable type of web hosting.
- Easy to set up.
- No technical knowledge required.
- Great for beginners and small websites.
Shared web hosting downfalls:
- Sharing server resources with other websites.
- Performance issues are out of your control.
- Slower loading times and lower uptime rates.
- No scalability
Best Shared Hosting Providers
VPS Hosting
This is a step up from shared web hosting. While you are still sharing a server with multiple websites, the server is broken down into multiple virtual private servers “VPS”. So you are sharing the server, but have reserved slice of the hardware dedicated to your resources.
We recommend VPS if you are running multiple websites, a medium sized business and/or want ecommerce functionality. VPS hosting will comfortably provide you with the power, customization and security you might need in these cases.
VPS Pros
- Not sharing your partition of the server with other users means your site visitors will enjoy the fastest loads time you can ghive.
- Not sharing also means you don’t have to worry about viruses and malware from their website files affecting yours.
- You will have root access to your server and be able to make customizations in terms of how your server works.
- Easily scalable, which is good if your website is expected to grow in terms of traffic and file sizes.
VPS Cons
- Slightly more expensive than shared hosting
- Will require you to manage your own virtual private server, unless you pay extra for a Managed VPS.
We recommend ScalaHosting for all your VPS needs. They are our top pick. They have managed VPS services starting as low as $9.95/mth but can be scaled depending on your needs. A $39 monthly plan will give you 100GB SSD Storage, 2 cores and 4GB of RAM. Great for a medium sized business website or for hosting multiple websites.
Web Designer/ Developer fees
Some fees when making a website are mandatory… hosting, domain costs are examples. But do you need to pay a web designer or web developer to make or assist in creating the website?
Nowadays there are a lot of drag and drop, easy to use tools to build website. So truthfully, you could have a website up and running in a single day without anyone’s help or much technical experience.
But we highly recommend getting a developer or at minimum consultation. Having a website live is easy, but creating one that will increase the profit of your business is not so much. A website has to be search engine friendly, marketable, easy to use and drive conversions. It also has to be mobile friendly, which means to look great on all devices. And so we recommend having someone on board who can either do the website fully or at least someone to consult with.
What Affects the Cost Of Hiring a Web Designer?
The factors that affect the cost of hiring a web designer includes but isn’t limited to the following:
Agency Vs. Freelancer
If you hire an agency then obviously it will cost more than a freelancer. An agency has better protocols and processes however this level of quality assurance comes at a larger cost. There are a few excellent freelancers that can be found on sites like Fiverr. Here at Nzuri Web Services, we offer payment options and plans that can give you agency level quality at the cost of what a freelancer would charge.
Content Creation
The amount of pages you want your site to have as well as the amount of content on each page will affect the cost. If you have content ready and don’t need the developer to create that content it will be more affordable.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
How well do you want to rank your site on Google? You can create a website that doesn’t show up on Google at all. And so you won’t get any organic traffic through search engines. No matter the agency or freelancer you choose, you need some level of optimization. For example we offer basic, standard and advanced, with the latter costing the most. If you have a website that is already created but needs search engine optimizing we can do that for you too. Click here to learn more.
Social Media
You might need social media pages created and attached to the website. This affects cost.
Mobile Responsiveness
Do you need your website to look great on desktops, tablets and laptops? This is called mobile responsiveness. This costs extra. The good thing is these days many platforms such as WordPress, is built to look great on all devices, so it doesn’t increase the price drastically.
Training & Support
When your website is done, you might need to either train your internal staff, or get that support from the developer. Either way this isn’t free. Learn about our Support options here at Nzuri.
Website Domain Cost
Your website will need a domain as well. You web host is where your site files are stored but your domain is how people will find your website. Your domain will take the format of something like “mycompanyname.com”. It can be anything you want as long as it is available but we recommend getting something that favors your company name, brand or marketing strategy.
Domain’s can cost as low as $1.99 per year. That’s much we initially paid for nzuri.live. But .com domains usually start at around $8.99 per year.
Domains can go into thousands of US Dollars but this is if someone already owns it and is reselling it as they deem the name valuable. It is almost never necessary to buy a domain so expensive unless you have to have that specific one. Other domain extensions .org, .net, .info, .gov , .edu.
Website Template or Theme
You can build a website from scratch, but even with the help from a developer this is very expensive and time consuming. It is better to start with an existing theme or template and build your website using it as the base. You can still end up with something very customized.
Free vs Paid Themes
There are tons of great free themes despite which page builder you use. If you are using Wix or WordPress you will find them in your theme repository. Our favorite free WordPress themes are Astra and Sydney. But for great premium themes with amazing functionality, we think buying a theme from Themeforest.net is a good idea. Premium themes are recommended if you are a building a site for a specific industry and needed added functionality. Premium themes will start from $10 and go up to around $70. It rarely but can exceed $100.
Ecommerce Functionality
With great plugins like Woocommerce, you can set up an online store on your website for FREE! So that’s why we say ecommerce can be as affordable to start as $0! The issue though is that as your ecommerce needs become more advanced, then the price can quickly increase. Your store might need special features such as:
- Variable products
- Memberships & recurring payments
- Discount Features
- Appointment Booking
- Order Tracking
The prices will either be increased because of the need of additional ecommerce plugins or by a developer charging you additionally.