How Much Does a Website Cost?

With inflation pushing up the price of services by almost 5% in the first quarter of 2023, it’s no wonder business are looking for the best deal on a new website.

As the experts in business, we keep our finger on the pulse of current market rates. Depending on the specs you need, you can expect to pay between $5,000 and $50,000+ for a custom-built website.

Or, if you have the time and confidence, you can use a website builder tool like Squarespace or Wix, which will allow you to edit the design yourself using a drag-and-drop editor. Website builder subscription prices range between $0 and $500 per month, though some are completely free.

There are around 23 million websites built with a website builder and hosting provider. So the chances are you’ll be able to get the hang of it without too much difficulty – we know this because we’ve put many of them to the test.

At the end, we’ll explain how to go about hiring a web developer. For now, let’s look at a quick overview of website costs.

How much does it cost to build a website?

You can expect to spend $0-$500 using a DIY website builder tool, or $5,000-$50,000 for a custom design built by a professional.

Websites can be made in a number of ways, so the cost will vary according to several factors. These are:

• Whether you hire a professional, an agency, or use a DIY tool
• The number of webpages you need
• Its complexity
• How much multimedia you want to upload
• Whether you need sales and payment features
• The level of security and malware protection you need
• How competitive the website (domain) name is
• How much traffic (flow of visitors) you expect

Broadly speaking, there are many DIY website tools that will provide exactly what you need within a defined price bracket.

For instance, if you want an online store with thousands of products, the ability to automate processes, plus complex inventory management, we’d recommend Shopify Advanced, which costs $4,653 per year, including a promotion to get your first month discounted to just $1. If you are not eligible for the promotion, it costs $6,204 per year.

However, if you hired an expert to build a custom website with these same capabilities, you’d likely end up spending $20,500-$60,000.

On the other hand, if you only want a basic site to promote your local business, you could spend $144 for the entire first year with GoDaddy ($192 per year on renewal).

How much does it cost to run a website?

Ongoing fees can range from nothing to several hundred dollars per month depending on the way you’ve chosen to construct the website. For instance, you could pay $0 if you use one our recommended free website builders.

Or you could pay around $51 per month to use WooCommerce (a plugin that adds selling features to a WordPress website). The plugin itself is technically free, but you’ll have to pay for hosting (and a template, if you like) separately.

There are various pros and cons to using a flexibly priced online store such as WooCommerce versus a set price plan from Shopify, for instance. You can read the in-depth differences in our WooCommerce vs Shopify comparison.

Website costs at a glance

What you need is an overview of price brackets for various types of websites.

For added simplicity, we’ve created a comparison table with the information you’ll need:

We’ve gathered the above by researching freelancer rates and website builder plans. Bear in mind you’ll need to add on the cost of templates, content (such as copywriting, articles, photos, and videos) plus plug-ins. As a quick reminder, plug-ins are the additional apps which add extra features to your website. Examples include email marketing, accountancy, and invoice creation. Costs of website plug-ins vary hugely, from CAD$0-CAD$1500+ each per month.

The main takeaway is the cost of your site will depend on the type of website you need.

While website builders are priced within set limits, custom projects are designed specifically to your requirements, so we can’t give you an exact figure for those. A developer or agency would be able to work with you individually to work out a price.

How much your site costs will depend on how you build it. We’ve made a cheat sheet to weigh up your options:

Website builders are great for creating a simple site based on an industry-specific template (such as a restaurant, an events company, or a clothing shop). You might be surprised at the range of design choices you can pick from. Design customization tools have improved to that point that now – unlike five years ago – website builders are no longer a recipe for a generic-looking website.

We’ve tested a range of website builders and found GoDaddy is by far the easiest to use. Close behind is Jimdo, which is a little better value for money (if you’re happy with it’s basic editing capabilities).

More sophisticated programs (such as Wix, Shopify, WordPress) take more time to learn to use. Yet, whichever DIY website builder you choose, you’ll be trading in your time to save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on developer or agency fees.

After all, 87% of web designers said clients generally expect lower pricing than is realistic. We don’t want you to get caught out if a web builder subscription would be cheaper for you.

Don’t worry if you can’t pin-point exactly which option you need right now. First, figure out what kind of website you need. Then you can skip to the relevant section of this page to understand costs.

Website builder and ecommerce platform costs

To avoid the expense of hiring a web developer, you can use website builder software and make the entire website yourself. You can expect to pay $0 and $500 per month, which includes web hosting and security. The only extra cost you have to pay is the domain (your web address), at roughly $11-$21 per year.

Wix is our favourite all-around website builder because it offers great business features, like the ability to take bookings via an online calendar. Best of all, the Wix free plan allows you to try out some of its premium features and doesn’t request any payment details.

Online shop platform costs

An online shop website is sometimes known as an ecommerce platform. It’s a special type of website builder that includes the ability to take payments securely. You can choose between different payment gateways to offer your customers multiple ways to buy your products, services, content, and subscriptions.

Luckily for you, we’ve already rated and ranked the best ecommerce platforms for small businesses to make your decision that much easier.

Using our research, we created this summary table of the top online shop website builders:

If you’d like a more detailed comparison of the two closest mid-range online shop tools, read of our Wix vs Squarespace guide.

WordPress website costs

The cost of WordPress depends on the type you’re using.

1. WordPress.com offers specific price packages ranging from $0-$91 per month.
2. WordPress.org is open-sourced (this means it’s free).

Below is a summary of the costs involved with each type:

As you can see, the costs are variable because most of them are based on your particular needs (and budget). While some of the costs are optional (for example, plugins and email), others are not (you have to pay for hosting in some form, and most people prefer to buy their own domain name).

Working out your WordPress costs

At the cheapest end of the scale, it’s possible to build a beginner WordPress site using the free plan and no plugins. You’ll have to use a WordPress subdomain, meaning your website URL contains “WordPress” (and everyone will know you’re not paying for your website name).

As the size and complexity of your WordPress site increases, so will the price. You can pay $396 a year for a small business website made with WordPress.com. This includes: backups, unlimited bandwidth enhanced security features, and the option to upload your own templates and install plugins.

Of course, plugins cost extra. The top plugin, Yoast SEO Premium will cost USD$99 (~CAD$133) a year, and you may need four or more plugins for your website to work the way you need it to. That’s just shy of USD$400 for four WordPress plugins, and this is only an example.

A custom-built WordPress.org site will require extensive work from a developer. Costs for this can be in the region of $6,000-$18,000, depending on the project.

How much does each type of website cost?

In this section, we’ll explain the costs you can expect to pay for basic, business, ecommerce, and bespoke websites when using a web designer or website builder platform.

Cost of a basic website

A basic website is made up of one to five pages, and will require very simple functionality. They are considered ‘brochure style’ websites. In addition to the core pages, they will have a contact and landing page. They should also be mobile responsive, but it’s always worth checking that this is included in the design price.

Basic websites are great if you’re after a very simple, stripped back online presence. It is a place to showcase your business and receive enquiries. Think of it as a modern day business card.

You can go down several routes when creating your basic website. Each option has its own pros and cons:

Build your own basic website: Free or $7.50-$385 per month (paying annually)

Website builders have become prevalent and sophisticated in recent years. They are now a legitimate option for businesses and individuals alike. Other than a clear cost benefit, website builders also allow you to get a website up and running in just a few hours, with no prior design experience required.

Wix is our top all-around website builder for promoting your small business. It offers impressive great design tools and handy features to improve the SEO (search engine optimization) of your website.

Here are the current prices of the top website builders:

If you want more detail on each of these platforms, check out our overview of the best website builder tools for Canadian businesses.

Basic website from a design agency: $650-$1,800

Design agencies offer you the chance to work with reliable and experienced website creators. Making slick websites with exceptional user experience is their bread and butter. As a very rough estimate, a small one to five page website from an agency will likely cost between $650 and $1,800.

This is the perfect option if you want something that’s truly unique in functionality. It’s also the ideal choice if you have a decent budget but not much time or desire to create it by yourself.

The price may be higher than working with an individual because of the additional overheads (such as paying multiple staff, office rental, and marketing costs). But you could benefit from the range of experience agencies have in-house, including graphic designers, SEO experts, and marketing specialists.

Agencies or freelancer designers will provide a quote for the project as a whole based on what you need, so we’d always recommend comparing quotes before selecting a provider.

However, we’d recommend that you don’t go with the cheapest agency you can find because reviews on the quality of their work is critical. The last thing you want is to lose thousands of dollars in revenue because of an unprofessional website that doesn’t work.

Freelance developer pricing for a basic website: $1000-$2,500

Using a freelance developer is a convenient option to create a basic website. Finding a freelancer takes more research than an agency, and you may want to go off a recommendation rather than a Google search. However, you will find that a freelancer won’t be hiding behind glitzy marketing and call centres. Since you’re working directly with a skilled professional, you’ll enjoy a high level of accountability as well as a personalized service.

A freelance web developer typically charges CAD$80 per hour. However, it’s common to charge per project, too. A basic website will likely cost you $1000-$2,500 from a Canadian-based freelancer.

Offshore web company basic website costs: $120-$880

Using an offshore web company is definitely one of the cheapest options ($5-$40 per hour). However, they are often a lot less reliable than the other options. You’ll likely have to wait for responses to your questions because of time zone differences, too. Language barriers may prove problematic, and there is the possibility of spelling mistakes on your website.

When creating your website, bear in mind how your needs will change over the next few years. If you are planning to expand your company, or predict future surges in the number of visitors, mention this when requesting quotes to ensure you get a website that is future-proof.

Of course, these prices depend on the size and the complexity of your site. When requesting a web design quote, try to be as specific as possible and ensure that you get the total cost. Transparency in the early stages of the web design process between both you and your designer ensures everyone is on the same page, and will help prevent costly amendments further down the line.

Cost of a small business website

A small business website is the perfect size for a business that requires more than a very basic website, or is looking to upgrade from their existing basic website. ‘Small Business Websites’ are also brochure style, but are far more feature-rich.

Such features may include: integrating social media, responsive design, a content management system, Google Analytics, Google Maps, and a ‘Google my business’ capability. They will also have more pages than a basic website and, again, will be designed to be mobile responsive.

Small business websites are perfect for businesses that are likely to update their content regularly. This makes them the perfect choice for startups, freelancers, or any growing organization.

We cover the rough cost of a small business website below:

Paying for a well-designed website isn’t a guaranteed formula for internet success. Once you have your completed website, we recommend that you reinforce your presence with regular marketing and content updates to keep visitors coming back to your site. Allotting a monthly budget of time and money can be a great way to ensure that this doesn’t get forgotten.

When choosing a web design company for small businesses, select one that has experience working with small businesses. Otherwise, you may find yourself lumbered with fancy features that won’t actually offer you any real benefit.

Again, website builders are a great option for creating your small business website. Wix categorises its templates by industry, making it really easy to find the one that’s right for you.

Cost of an online shop website

If you decide to hire a freelancer to build your online shop website, they may include one or more of the below elements in one overall price. You may also get a cost breakdown. This is why we’ve put together this quick reference table to give you an idea of market rates for a typical small to medium-sized online shop.

You may hear this type of website referred to as “ecommerce”, which simply refers to online sales.

To work out this estimate, we researched prices for www.buymoreclothes.com and compared domain registrar quotes.

Again, being as specific as you can about your requirements will help you arrive at an accurate quote early on. It can be hard to guess at the price of an ecommerce website due to the many variables involved.

The easiest way to get the right price for your website is by comparing free quotes. We can help you there. Simply let us know what you’d like from your website, and we’ll match your business with trusted web designers that suit your requirements. They’ll then be in touch with obligation-free quotes for you to compare. It’s simple!

Cost of a specialist website

Bespoke websites are great for larger companies requiring more functionality, with a higher number of visitors or with more information to share.

Such websites are database driven. They have advanced functionality and unlimited subpages (pages created within the subcategories of your site). Businesses in certain industries need these most, including financial services, recruitment, property, and architecture.

When requesting a bespoke website, it is highly beneficial to work with a dedicated partner.

Unless you have a strong relationship with a talented freelancer, we would definitely recommend looking for an agency to work with. This ensures you are getting the best possible service and that they understand your business and what you are trying to achieve.

It’s vital that you get a quote for the project as a whole, rather than a ‘per hour’ rate. This is because larger projects have the potential to produce time-consuming problems that are out of your control as a customer.

Website builder vs web designer

Here are the main factors to weigh up and decide upon when you’re building your own website or hiring a designer:

When it comes to your time, you’ve got to consider if you’re willing to put in about 5-20 hours setting up your DIY website with a website builder. From then on, you’re looking at 2-30 hours per month for content and usability updates. A web designer will usually take care of all of that work, so you’ll only spend time checking in over calls and emails.

When it comes to your interest, you’ll need at least some enthusiasm for design, writing, and marketing your business with a website if you’re going to build your own. If you don’t care to spend your talents here, a web designer takes all that creative load off your plate.

Thinking about budget, the cheapest option of all is to build your own website with a free plan (we’d recommend Wix). A plan with your choice of domain (website URL) and no adverts costs roughly £7.50-£35 + VAT per month (and you’ll spend less if you pay for one year upfront).

Or, if you’re looking to seriously invest in a custom site that’s more than an online business card, you can expect to pay £1,100-£5,500 to hire a developer to build a small to medium-sized website.

Ongoing costs explained

There are several website maintenance costs you should bear in mind. We’ve outlined these below:

Domain Costs

All websites need a web address – the formal name for this is the “domain”. For example, the Expert Market domain name is “expertmarket.com”.

Domain names include everything after “www.” so you’re paying for the website name and the “.com” part afterwards. That final part is called the top-level domain (TLD). Domain costs vary according to:

• Which registrar you choose
• Which type of TLD you want
• Whether someone already owns the domain
• If you add extra security protection
• How many years you buy the domain for

Here are some examples of different TLD prices:

Most registrars will draw you in with a low price for your first year, then increase the price thereafter. So buy a longer domain term if you can, and look at the renewal price for accurate budgeting.

Unsure where to start with a domain name? We can provide you with quotes from hosting and domain name providers including Bluehost, GoDaddy, and Hostgator. Simply enter your contact details and we’ll put you in touch with those companies.

We strongly suggest you purchase a domain for at least five to 10 years. If you allow your domain name to expire, you will lose access to the web address, and someone else can host their own website at that web address. There’s usually a discount on the first year, so you should look beyond that and consider the cost over time. Generally it’s less expensive per year to pay for a longer rental.

Even if you decide to close down your business, you should continue to pay for the domain. Why? This protects your professional reputation for customers that try to access your website after it’s closed down. Otherwise it’s easy for an opportunist to set up a gambling, gaming, spam, or scheme website at your old web address to take advantage of your online customers. Here’s an example:

SSL security certificate

Without a security certificate, it’s easy for cybercriminals to hack into your website. This could mean website outages, stolen credit card details, reputation damage, and even legal action. It’s your responsibility as a website owner to keep your website protected from malware and password theft.

Website visitors can see if you have a valid security certificate – your website comes up with a padlock symbol in the address bar. Browsers may block visitors from entering your website if your security is out of date.

SSL pricing differs according to:

• The number of websites you have
• The amount of data you need to protect
• How tough your security measures need to be

You will often find that a freelancer or website builder tool will include the SSL certificate in an overall price package.

Prices range from $4-$25 per month for an SSL certificate.

Hosting costs

Every website needs to be hosted on a web server. While your domain is your virtual address, your sever is the physical location of your website. Hosting basically means renting some “space” (well, bandwidth) on the internet. Fully understanding what hosting means is not necessary, but you should know that your website will need it in some form and you have a few options for this:

Shared hosting

Shared hosting is the cheapest form of web hosting. You share your hosting platform with a number of other sites, which means you’ll be sharing the cost as well. The downside is that you also share the bandwidth. So, in effect, you fight for server space with other sites. Shared hosting can be a great low-cost option for basic or new sites that don’t yet get many visitors.

Prices range from $5-$20 per month.

WordPress hosting

You may be familiar with WordPress, an open-source website-building software that includes a content management system (CMS). In fact, ExpertMarket.com is built using WordPress!

You can now find WordPress-specific hosting packages that help your site run fast and may come with automatic updates, scheduled data backups, and other tools.

Prices range from $9-$30 per month. Managed solutions (with technical support) and ecommerce options (for online selling) are at the upper end of the price scale.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting

A VPS server is a good middle ground between shared hosting and having your own dedicated server. A VPS is one physical server but allocates multiple, separate servers to its sites. This way you avoid the problems associated with shared hosting.

Prices range from $7-$70 per month for standard VPS hosting, and $140-$1,000 per month for high performance VPS hosting. Windows hosting is generally more expensive than Linux.

Dedicated hosting

With this option, a server is dedicated to hosting your website. Websites that are particularly large or complex, or require exceptionally high levels of data security, will benefit from dedicated hosting. It is also the best option for websites with a high and steady amount of traffic. You do not have to compete for bandwidth, so the price is higher.

Prices range from $120-$300 per month for standard dedicated hosting, and $250-$900 per month for high performance options. Managed plans (which include technical support) are on the higher end of these price ranges.

Top Tip: Websites such as IONOS, 123reg, and GoDaddy regularly offer package deals for domain names and web hosting.

Additional costs

Aside from the costs we have already mentioned, there are some additional services that you should consider:

1. Content production

Producing written content is something that you can do yourself to keep costs down. However, it can be worth getting a freelancer or agency to help. Expect to pay between £30 and £100 per hour for web copywriting.

2. Imagery

Hiring a photographer to collect a bank of images for your brand or product is always advisable for creating a strong brand image. You can also buy stock images and graphics from sites like depositphotos, or download free images for commercial use on unsplash.

3. SEO/marketing

Let’s say you own a cupcake shop in Ontario. Googling ‘Ontario cupcakes’ returns over 4 million results. So how do you make sure that your business appears near the top of the results?

This is where SEO comes in.

SEO is the process of making a site the best that it can be in terms of search engine visibility. Search engines give preference to sites that load fast and offer the information that people are searching for, among other things. If you’re running an online store, make sure you check out our guide to the best ecommerce platforms for SEO.

If you’re hiring a web developer or agency, ask whether SEO services can come as part of your overall package. For websites with a lot of content, consider getting a freelancer or agency that specializes in SEO to take a look through your site every month to ensure it’s visible on search engines.

How long does it take to build a website?

Now that you have a rough idea of how much your site might cost, it’s on to question number two: How long will it take?

It should come as no surprise that the answer will again depend on the size and complexity of your desired site as well as the agency you’re working with.

Website builders are likely to be the quickest option – you could build yourself a basic website in just a few hours. Working with an agency may take anything from a couple of weeks to a few months.

To get a clearer idea of how your project will progress, it helps to have an idea of the steps involved. Check out our guide on how to build a website or watch this video to learn more:

Kieron Woodhouse, head of UX for a major UK tech company, breaks down the web design process.

10 Questions to ask your web designer

Communication is the key to making the web design process as streamlined as possible. You need to know exactly what you’re getting from your web designer, and they, in turn, should know exactly what you expect of them. With this in mind, we’ve put together a few questions to ask your designer:

1. Do you arrange buying the domain name and hosting for the site, and is this included in your quote?
2. How easy will it be for me to report on and update my website? If it requires specialist knowledge, will you provide training for myself and my staff?
3. Will there be any ongoing costs for general site maintenance?
4. Will you optimise the website for search engines?
5. Will the site be mobile responsive?
6. If I am unhappy with the finished design of my site, can it be amended and is there a cost associated with this?
7. Will you provide content and imagery for the site, or must I provide it?
8. What is the scope for future development of the website? Is it built to grow quickly?
9. How much will future amendments to the site cost?
10. How is my website protected if something goes wrong?

What to know when hiring a web developer

The last thing we want is for you to go into a consultation with a web developer without some key advice under your belt. Here are the main points you need to know:

Web development is a service, not a product

You’ll have ongoing costs because a website always needs updating. When first hiring a web developer – and paying for upkeep and maintenance – you’re buying the use of someone’s time and skills. It’s possible you could negotiate to transfer ownership of the website over to you when it’s done being built. However, it makes sense to keep the same web expert on your books to install security patches, and so on.

Support levels vary

You could be quoted £1,000 and £50,000 for the same project. This is because an agency will give you an account manager, and connect you with graphic designers, marketing professionals, and possibly social media services as well. A freelancer will generally work alone to deliver what you need. You need to work out how you will best communicate a website project, and if having a range of marketing professionals at hand is preferable over just one point of contact.

Standards vary from agency to agency

As with any industry, the quality of work will vary from one agency to another. It’s a good idea to have a look at customer reviews and examples of previous work when deciding which agency to go with. Remember, the cheapest option isn’t always the best one – your website is an investment in the growth of your business. It goes beyond a good-looking business card, and can be central to the facilitation of your services.

Next steps

Even with a guide to help, trying to work out the exact cost of a website without a background in design is really tricky. We know that the cost of living is adding extra pressure to your profit margins this year, more than ever before.

For the most affordable website, all you need to do is take a look at our easy ecommerce platform comparison tool. You can find links to free trials on that page to try out the tools you’re curious about.