Building a website from scratch can be quite daunting. You need to take care of a lot of things, like estimating your business website cost, creating good content for your blog, building business strategies, and promoting it on various social media platforms.
Although you can’t set a definite amount for website making cost, an average business website would cost you around $1000 – $3000 depending on a lot of different factors that we’re going to discuss.
Without much ado, let’s unveil the 5 major costs required for website making. These aspects are critical for any website, big or small.
5 Critical Website Costs to Consider
#1 Buying a Domain
When you think of creating a brand, deciding on your brand’s domain name consumes a lot of time; and it should.
Before knowing the cost of buying a domain, you must first know what is a domain name and why it’s the first step towards making a website.
What is a Domain?
A domain name is the web address where visitors can access your website. Simply put, it’s the name of your website in the URL.
As soon as you pick a domain, it becomes your identity because it’s the name that people will see, relate to, or remember. Thereby, you must do a lot of homework before choosing the “Name” for your website.
Now let’s move to the financial part i.e., the Domain Cost.
The estimated cost of a business domain name can vary from $5 to $50 a year.
This price can depend on several different factors, such as:
- Domain Availability and Readability
- Brandable Domain Name
- Domain Extensions
- Mobile Friendliness
- SEO Compatibility
- Domain Registrars
So, buy a domain smartly; it’s okay to spend some time deciding on it.
#2 Choosing the Right Web Hosting
If Domain name is the “Address” of your website, Web Hosting is the land for your home (website).
After buying a domain name for your business website, the next step is to find the right website hosting and server provider for you.
Though there are different types of website hosting to cater to different needs, it’s critical to find the perfect fit for your brand.
Following are the types of web hosting, whose cost can be different and depend on the array of services they provide.
i) Shared Hosting – It’s the hosting type where your data is stored on a server that is shared by many. If you’re a beginner and just want to run a blog, shared hosting will be an affordable solution for you.
ii) VPS Hosting – Virtual Private Servers are installed on a physical computer running multiple operating systems. A VPS is recommended for small website owners who want to host their multiple sites. However, your web security and performance may suffer at times, hence, you can look for other better options.
iii) Dedicated Hosting – This is probably the perfect solution for growing and big businesses. Why? Because the dedicated server is like owning a flat which is secure and spacious. You get a separate server where your data will be stored and fetched from. Your website is safe and loads much faster.
iv) Managed Hosting: Managed hosting services are a kind of web hosting where one individual owns one server that is managed by the web host. Managed hosting offers great value for your money, however, you don’t get enough control over the server.
Now let’s compare the prices:-
Web Hosting Cost
| Web Hosting Type | Estimated Cost per month |
| Shared Hosting | Free to $50 per month |
| VPS Hosting | $5 to $100 (ideally) |
| Dedicated Hosting | $10 to $500 |
| Managed Web Hosting | $10 to Custom price (for big businesses) |
#3 Building the Website
You bought a business domain and took a reliable hosting, great! Now is the time to focus on website building.
You can build beautiful websites in the following two ways. Choose your option carefully because how you build your website, reflects how serious you are for your business.
1. Using a Website Builder Tool
There are many tools that can help you build an amazing website you want, with little money spent. Tools like Wix.com, web.com and site123 offer great layouts, Artificial designing Intelligence and customization options to win the battle.
2. Hiring a Web Designer/ Developer
Hiring an expert is always better than doing it yourself when it comes to building a professional business website. As good business website also helps in building trust amongst your customers and getting your brand global exposure, you can’t take website making casual.
Website Building Cost:
| Methods | Estimated Costs |
| Website Builder Tool | Free (to a few Dollars) |
| Hiring a Web Designer | $300 to $450 |
| Hiring a Web Developer | $500 |
#4 Buying Themes and Plugins
One of the websites cost factors that can affect the overall website budget is the price that you pay for plugins and paid themes.
Yes, there are thousands of free themes and plugins on the market for different CMS and platforms, but if you really want to make your business website to be unique, fast and professional, it’s recommended to invest in a paid responsive theme and plugins.
Now let’s explore the estimated cost of Buying Themes and Plugins:
| Website Themes | Free to $99 |
| Plugins & Extensions | Free (and Pro versions) |
#5 Content Creation, SEO & Marketing
These three are the big players and the most dominating costs that make the total website budget.
Content is the King!
Once your website is ready and functioning, you need to add the content that you want to convey to your visitors.
It can be brief about your website’s purpose (services), content about your journey and idea, and some recent blogs and news to connect to your customers.
Content is so important in website growth and value.
With content comes SEO and Marketing.
No matter how much beautiful website you have made, or how amazing content you’ve created, until you are following the right SEO and marketing practices, your every effort is going in vain,
That’s why business owners shed a lot of money on the website’s content, SEO and marketing.
The estimated costs of the three are:
| Content Creation | $800 to $1000 |
| SEO | $100 to $300 |
| Marketing | $300 -$500 |
Final Takeaway
With approximately 1.94 billion websites in the world, the competition is cut-throat. To start the new legacy, you need to start right, prepare right and spend right.
Here’s where website making cost plays a critical role in starting right. This post discussed and described the following major factors that make a website cost blueprint.
The major website costs involve,
- Deciding the domain
- Buying Web Hosting
- Hiring a Web Developer/Designer
- Buying Paid Themes
- Content & SEO
When you’ve ticked all these boxes, you’re ready to launch a brand.
