How Much Does a Website Cost? The Definitive Guide

The cost of building a website varies depending on the approach you take. It could be anywhere from $0 – $20,000, depending on if you’re using a website builder, a Content Management System (CMS) e.g. WordPress, or hiring a web designer for a unique website.

If you’re looking to save money (and let’s face it, a lot of businesses are at the moment), then doing it yourself with a website builder is the cheapest option. You can check out our website builder comparison page for a side-by-side overview.

But, professional web design isn’t something to be snubbed either. It can cost in the tens of thousands, but what you’ll get for it is a unique website that’s tailored to your specific business needs.

So, which is right for you, and how much does each website building method cost? Read on for a full breakdown of all website associated costs, plus a bonus outline of hidden costs you might not have considered.

How Much Does it Cost to Build a Website?

It can cost anywhere from $0 to $20,000 to build a website. Maintaining it can incur added costs, bringing the total cost up to $40,000 a year in some cases.

Using a website builder is the cheapest way to build a website, and typically costs between $0 and $5,000 per year. The reason the starting price is $0 is because there are free website builder options available.

Building a custom website using a web designer typically costs between $5,000 and $20,000, depending on the size and complexity of the website you’re building.

Here’s a breakdown of website costs:

Website Builder and CMS Costs

Website builders and CMS’s operate on monthly subscriptions, and it typically costs between $6 and $300 per month to use the software.

Some website builders also have free plans, but these usually include ads, and don’t include a domain, which means the website builder’s name will also appear in your URL.

Some CMS’s also don’t charge a monthly fee for you to use the software, but you’ll have to pay for hosting and a domain, and various plug-ins, without which the software will feel very restrictive (unless you know how to code).

Website builders also offer custom plans – typically $2,000+ per month – for larger businesses that require specialized support for their website.

Web Design Costs

Hiring a web designer to build a website typically costs $5,000 to $24,000+ depending on the size and complexity of the website.

There are two ways to hire web designers:

1. Freelancers: reachable on websites such as Upwork, Toptal, and PeoplePerHour (don’t discount word-of-mouth)
2. Web design agencies: these are companies that have a staff of web designers, such as AKQA, Straight North, or HigherVisibility

On average, it’ll cost between $75 and $200 per hour to hire a web designer, regardless of whether they’re freelance or agency.

Freelancers used to be slightly cheaper to use than agencies, but nowadays there isn’t much of a price difference between the two because a lot of highly skilled web designers operate as freelancers.

Domain Costs

Registering a domain costs anywhere from $10 to $45 per year, although most domains are in the $15-$25 range.

Your domain is the name of your website, and appears in the URL. For example, “learningaboutdomains.org.” You have to pay for the rights to use it, sort of like renting out a property, and if you stop paying, someone else can snatch it up.

The cost of a domain typically isn’t included with a website builder or CMS subscription, but you can sign up for one at the same time that you sign up for their software. Some website builders let you have a domain for free in your first year.

If you’ve hired a web designer to build you a website, you’ll have to purchase a domain through a third-party domain registrar. Popular registrars include GoDaddy and Namecheap.

Registrars have a search bar, where you can check to see if the domain you want is free, and how much it costs. If your chosen domain isn’t free, you’ll usually be suggested alternatives. You can also reach out to the owner of the domain you want, and try to get them to sell it to you.

Hosting Costs

Hosting a website can cost anywhere from $0 to $420 per month. Hosting is what allows your website to go live on the internet.

The starting price for hosting is $0, because a lot of website builders don’t charge extra for hosting, it’s a service that’s included in your monthly subscription fee.

However, if you’re using a CMS, such as WordPress, or had a web designer create your website, you’ll need to pay for hosting separately.

There are three main types of hosting:

• Shared: $2-$10 per month, the most affordable option. Your website shares server space with other websites. It’s best for low traffic websites, used by businesses such as restaurants, handymen, hair salons, or small consultancies.
• VPS: $20-$150 per month, the mid-range option. Your website gets its own space on a server and won’t share RAM or CPU (memory or processing power), and will run more quickly. You can choose between managed or unmanaged, but you should choose managed unless you’re an IT systems administrator. It’s best for a growing ecommerce store or a business with increasing web visitors.
• Dedicated: $100-$420, the most expensive option. A whole server just for your website means massive processing power: think huge amounts of memory and lots of technical capability. This is only for large business websites such as ecommerce stores or sites with loads of pictures, videos or email messages. Mega retailers, media streaming sites or popular entertainment booking hubs need this option.

SSL Certificate Costs

SSL certificates cost anywhere from $0 to $250 per year. SSL (secure socket layer), is a digital certification that verifies your website’s identity, and encrypts connections to your website. This protects website visitors from cyberattacks.

Websites that have an SSL have a URL that starts with “https”, and SSL certificates are often included as part of a website builder package, which is why the starting cost is $0.

If your website was created with a web designer, CMS, or your website builder doesn’t automatically include an SSL certificate, you can expect to pay between $20-$250 per year for one.

They can be bought from certificate authorities, which is a trusted organization licensed to sell SSLs. Well-known providers include GoDaddy, Comodo SSL Store, and DigiCert.

Add-on and Plugin Costs

If you’re using a website builder or a CMS, you might want to integrate additional software into your site.

These additions, whether they’re called add-ons, plugins, or apps, can be free, but a lot of them come with a price tag. This could either be a monthly or yearly fee, or a one-off purchase. Either way, you can expect to pay between $7 and $100 per plugin.

WordPress, for example, is a CMS that’s known for plugins, and it has a library of around 60,000. Some of its most popular plugins are Yoast SEO (which is a Search Engine Optimization assistant to help your website rank high in search engines), and WP Bakery Page Builder, a WordPress-made plugin that makes editing pages on the platform easier.

Maintenance and Running Costs

Once your website has been built and is live, chances are you’ll probably still have to spend money maintaining it, unless you’re using a free website builder.

If you’re using a paid website builder, your maintenance costs will only be around $20 to $500 per year, essentially the cost of renewing your subscription, maintaining your domain and SSL certificate, as well as any plugin subscriptions. If you’re doing all the site content updates in-house, the cost will be you or your employees’ time.

If you have a custom website, or use a CMS that’s been worked on by web designers, you’ll need to spend around $400-$15,000 per year on updating and improving your website. Costs will vary depending on the scale of work that needs to be done – for example, a full website redesign is work that will take several hours to complete, and so will cost more.

You can find out more about website maintenance costs in our guide.

Hidden Costs When Building a Website

The hidden costs of building a website are essentially easily overlooked expenses, such as content writing, SEO work, and image production.

None of these are strictly necessary, and can be done in-house depending on you and your employees’ set of skills, but they’re worth considering.

Copywriting

Depending on how copy-heavy your website is, you might need to hire freelance copywriters or content strategists to produce ads or articles. Rates vary from $25 to $200 per hour, depending on experience.

SEO Work

You might also want to hire an SEO specialist that can help your website rank higher on search engine results pages, and get it seen by more people. This typically costs $500 to $2,000+ per month for SEO agencies, but you can also choose to hire freelancers for around $100 per hour for a more low-touch approach.

Graphic Design

If you want to populate your website with unique ads or visuals to convey information, and you don’t have someone in-house who can do this, you’ll need to hire a graphic designer. Graphic designers typically charge between $30 and $150 for an hour’s work.

Photography and Images

You’ll probably need to populate your website with images to make it visually appealing. If free stock-images aren’t available via your website builder, or if you’ve made your website with a web designer, you can expect to pay between $1 and $15 per stock image. If you need to use a lot of images, it can be cheaper to subscribe to a stock image service, which costs between $80 to $500 per month.

If you’re selling products online and want them professionally photographed to display on your website, expect to pay $1,000 to $5,000 for a day-long photoshoot, depending on how experienced the photographer is.

Can I Build a Website for Free?

You can build a website for free using a free website builder – popular options include Wix, Square Online, and GoDaddy.

However, there are some downsides to this. Free website builders don’t include a registered domain name, which means that the website builder’s name will appear in your website URL (example: “wixsite.com”).

A website made with a free website builder will also display ads for the website builder, in the form of top banners or footers. This can make your website seem unprofessional to customers, and is not an option I’d recommend for long-term use.

If your budget is tight, you should consider going for the most affordable plan offered by a cheap website builder. GoDaddy’s cheapest plan starts at $10.99 per month for your first year, and IONOS’s cheapest plan starts at $9 per month.

You can find out more about each of these website builders in our GoDaddy Review and IONOS Review.

The advantage of cheap website builder plans is that they’ll get rid of ads, and let you get a custom domain so the website builder’s name no longer appears in your URL. Some also come with basic marketing and analytics tools.

However, if you want more advanced features, such as increased storage space, more design flexibility, or the ability to sell products online, you’ll typically need to upgrade to a more expensive version.