Published Date: July 30, 2024
Many small businesses have either already developed a web presence or are looking to develop one to enhance their online presence. One of the common considerations among business owners is the cost of developing a website. Designing a website alone may cost $0 to $299 per month if you are using a website builder like Kemo SaaS. If you need the services of a professional website developer to do the job, you may expect to pay somewhere between $300 to $5000.
However, it is almost impossible to give an exact cost breakdown without knowing the type and complexity of the website you are looking to develop, the platform, and the approach you use for the website development.
Below, we have made a breakdown of the cost that goes into website creation from start to end through different routes. So all of your queries regarding the cost of building a website will be answered in this comprehensive blog post.
Developing a full-fledged website from the start comes with a set of requisites that estimate the cost of website development. The website cost is divided into several parts, the pre-requisite tools which are one-time or recurring, the core development or the designing part, and the maintenance.
Here is the cost of the elements and features required to build a website in 2024.
| Elements/Features | Average Cost |
|---|---|
| Domain | $10 to $20 per year |
| Hosting | $2 to $500 per month |
| SSL certification | $0 to $1500 per year |
| Add-ons | $20 to $200+ |
| Database Integration | $2000 to $25,000 |
| Theme design | $2000 to $15,000 |
| E-commerce functionality | $2000 to $25000 |
| Maintenance | $3600 to $50,000 depends upon website level |
| Content creation & marketing | $5000 to $10,000 per month |
| SEO | $100 to $300 per hour |
So, to calculate the total cost of website development from zero, let’s look into the multiple building blocks of a website and how much each of them costs.
Every website has a unique domain name that enables users to search for a website easily. The price of a domain depends upon the domain registrar, domain extension, subscription duration and type of domain.
You can secure a domain name from domain providers such as GoDaddy, Bluehost, DreamHost, and Namecheap by paying anything between $10 to $20 per year. Popular traditional top-level domains end with .com, .net, and .org cost between $6 to $15 while new top-level domains like .site, .online, and .club cost around $10 to $25. It is always suggested to opt for longer subscription plans to cut down the total estimate.
However, many website builders offer a domain with no fees for the first year which is a cost-effective solution. You may expect to pay much higher for a premium or an expired domain name.
Web hosting saves all the website’s data and files on a server. It offers frameworks that contribute to the website’s sustainability. So, when developing a website, purchasing web hosting services from hosting providers is crucial and without it, you cannot lay the foundation of your website. Multiple types of web hosting services are available at different costs and you may choose one at your convenience.
| Web hosting | Specification | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Shared | Manages multiple websites on a single server Non-reliable Easy to manage | $1.99 to $24 per month |
| Dedicated | Shares one or more websites on one server exclusively Best in performance Effortlessly manages large websites | $100 to $150 per month |
| Virtual Private Server (VPS) | Assigns a portion of a large server Performance consistency Secure | $20 to $100 per month |
| Cloud | Uses a wide network of physical and virtual servers for a site More flexible Ultra-fast | $40 to $500 per month |
Popular web hosting services providers such as BlueHost, WP Engine, Hostinger, Pressable, and many more offer reliable web hosting. Shared hosting works best for small businesses. It is best to choose a host that offers a free domain in its hosting plans. Having domain and hosting on the same platform helps manage both conveniently while also cutting down the first-year subscription fee of the domain
If you want your visitors to feel safe on your website, especially if you’re selling products and services on your website where customers have to put their credit/debit card details, it is vital to acquire an SSL certificate to protect the user’s data as well as your site’s data. There are free and paid SSL certificates available based on higher protection and warranty. You may acquire them from vendors such as Norton, and GoDaddy at a cost between $0 to $1500 per year. There are also free SSL certificates offered by web hosting providers in their plans that are convenient for basic blogging sites and small businesses. If you are running a website based on financial data collection, you must opt for paid SSL certification.
When estimating the cost of a website, you should consider adding the price of premium plugins, tools, and extensions which may cost between $20 to $200 and even more. If you want to add other additional tools such as optimization tools, e-commerce integration tools, and other analytical tools, the cost of developing a site goes higher.
The cost of Database integration mainly depends upon how complex the database is and the customization it requires. If you don’t want to use the third-party database, you may invest in a custom database. The cost of database integration lies between $2000 to $25,000 and offers users a seamless experience and adds up to their convenience.
You may choose a free theme to start building your website or purchase a theme of your choice from an online marketplace such as Themeforest, Etsy, Mojo, etc. You may expect to pay somewhere between $0 to $50 or more for a theme.
An efficient e-commerce system is essential to build a store that can manage a large line of products, payment and order placement, stock management, order tracking, etc. Adding e-commerce functionality to create an e-commerce site costs between $2000 to $25000 based on the store display, size of product line, functionality, etc.
The maintenance costs of a website depend upon how large or small your website is and how it is built. For instance; the maintenance cost for a basic website costs $3600 to $12,000, for a mid-sized website, the maintenance expenses will be around $12,000 to $30,000, and for an advanced website, the maintenance cost will be $30,000 to $50,000.
Content is an essential part of a website for both search engines and people. When you’re designing a website, it is crucial to add content to its pages, products/services (whatever you’re offering), and maintain a blog, resources, guides, etc. And for that, you rely on the services of a copywriter and content creator. The copywriting services may charge you $5000 to $10,000 per month depending upon the type of content, expertise, experience of the writer, etc, and most importantly the project size.
Every website owner wants his website to rank at the top of SERPs. The high-ranked websites have more power to bring traffic and to achieve that, you need to optimize it so the search engine algorithm is satisfied. On average, SEO services cost $100 to $300 per hour. Small businesses may spend $500 or more per month to see the results on search engines while large businesses may even spend $10,000 per month.
Based on the factors, look at the table below to determine how much it costs to build a website of different business types.
| Website level | Business Type | Web development cost | Maintenance cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Small business | $6500 to $15,000 | $3600 to $12,000 |
| Intermediate | Mid-sized business | $15,000 to $50,000 | $12,000 to $30,000 |
| Advanced | Large business | $50,000 to $1,00,000 | $30,000 to $50,000 |
Now, as you are aware of the cost breakdown of essential elements that go into creating a website, the next important consideration is the website creation cost in different ways.
If you don’t have technical skills and want to give your website a professional look and ensure a smooth website launch experience, you may consider hiring the services of a website developer. You may hire a website developer on a per-hour basis or assign him the complete project and put the website development and designing responsibilities on his shoulders.
Developing a website by hiring a professional web developer may cost around $5000 to $30,000 per project based on the complexity of a website and additional functionality. When working with a freelance website developer, you may expect to pay $60 to $80 per hour for website maintenance.
A website development agency takes charge of every web development phase including design, content, SEO, etc., and ensures a smooth website launch for you. If you want to hire high expertise with no communication gap, you may consider a web development agency. Every website development agency offers different pricing plans and you may expect to pay them $15,000 to $1,50,000 for website design and development.
There are several web builders available that offer budget-friendly subscription rates. If you know how to build a website with a web builder, it is the quickest way of developing it. It may cost between $0 to $299 per month to build a website with a web builder. Since no coding knowledge is required, you don’t have to pay extra to get the services of a web developer. Kemo SaaS web builder is one of the advanced website builders that you may consider for your next web project as it comes with beautiful templates and 24/7 customer support.
Here is a breakdown of the factors that go into determining the website building cost with a website builder.
| Website builder price factors | Cost |
|---|---|
| Website Builder Subscription | $0 to $500+ per month |
| Domain | $10 to $20 per year |
| Hosting | $2 to $500 per month |
| SSL certification | $0 to $1500 per year |
| Themes | $2 to $200 per theme |
A CMS offers free and paid templates and plugins to build and manage a website. Around 43.4% of websites are created on WordPress and it is highly popular to create intermediate to advanced websites.
WordPress offers several paid and free themes and plugins which help create a custom website. However, if you want to create a small website with limited features, you may expect to pay between $46 to $100 per year. Similarly, a WordPress website with more features and premium plugins may cost anywhere between $500 and $1000 per year. A WordPress e-commerce website along with domain, hosting, SSL certification, e-commerce plugins, and add-ons costs between $1000 to $3000.
Here is a cost breakdown of a CMS-based website.
| Factors | Cost |
|---|---|
| Domain | $10 to $20 per year |
| Hosting | $2 to $500 per month |
| SSL certificates | $7 to $1,000 per year |
| Premium themes | $2 to $200 per theme |
| Plugins | $5 to $1,000 per plugin |
Whether you want to build a website with the CMS, or website builder, or by hiring a web development agency or a website developer, this cost estimation will help you determine the cost that goes into developing a website.
| Website building tools/personnel | Cost |
|---|---|
| Website Builder | $0 to $299 per month |
| Content management system | $2000 to $25000 |
| Website developer | $300 to $5,000 per project |
| Website development agency | $15,000 to $1,50,000 per project |
The online presence of your business shouldn’t be compromised. If you want your website to leave a long-lasting impression, it should have all the elements that make up a compelling website. Website builders are advanced web development tools that have added convenience to the site creation. Moreover, with an advanced website builder like Kemo SaaS website builder, website development has become cost-effective and accessible, especially for small businesses.
Several factors contribute to analyzing the cost estimate of developing a website such as domain, hosting, SSL certification, expertise of a developer, site maintenance, and premium features integration.
A website builder like Kemo SaaS, is the most cost-effective way of building a website. It comes with pre-designed templates and a drag-and-drop editor that effortlessly creates a website without any coding expertise.
A professional website developer costs around $300 to $5000 based on the website’s complexity, additional functionality, work mode, and expertise.
If you are willing to invest money in website creation, you may consider hiring a website developer. On the other hand, if you want to create a stunning website within budget and without coding requirements, you may use a competitive website builder like Kemo SaaS.
There are different types of web hosting services such as dedicated, shared, cloud, and VPS. The cost of acquiring web hosting depends upon the type of hosting that you want, for instance; cloud hosting ranges between $40 to $500 per month, shared hosting costs between $2 to $24 per month, dedicated hosting costs between $100 to $150 per month and VPS costs between $20 to $100 per month.
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