There are a number of reasons to create a website, including launching a business, starting a blog, or kicking off a new hobby or side project.
But just because you have a great website idea doesn’t mean you know exactly how to implement it.
One barrier to starting a website for a lot of people is worrying about how much it’s going to cost.
In this guide, we’ll go through what it actually costs to build a website from the ground up, dissecting each of those costs piece by piece to help you create an affordable website you’re proud to show the world.
The cost of building a website can range from less than $100 to several thousand dollars or more, depending on the complexity of the website and how much of the website you build yourself versus hiring out to other people.
We’ll cover the specific costs below, as well as how you can minimize your spending and get a great website up and running for well under $100.
Whether you choose to build a website yourself or hire someone to build your website, you are likely to find yourself paying for a domain name.
Your domain name is your unique website name—the thing that people can type into their address bar to find your website, such as awesomewebsite.com.
Although some website builders, such as WordPress.com, give you the option to piggyback off of their domain for free, having your own domain makes you look more professional and reduces the control another company has over your content.
Your web host is where your website lives—it stores your website’s files and connects it to the public Internet. It’s important to research reputable web hosts and find one that frequently backs up its servers and has few outages.
One great option for people getting started with their first website is SiteGround, which offers you both a domain and hosting account.
SiteGround offers three different plans—StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek—for different levels of website. Each plan has a startup cost that’s about 1/3 the renewal cost, so to save money, we recommend locking in for a longer period of time to begin with. Here’s a cost breakdown of each of the SiteGround plans:
If you build your own website, this is where the majority of your budget will go. However, if you pay someone to build your website, this is just one factor of many when determining your overall website costs.
Keep in mind that you can always start with a cheaper plan and upgrade if you need additional features later on. To save money, start with the cheapest possible plan that gives you the features you need and only upgrade when it becomes necessary for your website’s continued success.
Although building a website yourself takes time and effort, you can save yourself a lot of money while also creating the exact website you’re thinking of.
Free online tutorials make it easier than ever to learn what you need to know to build a website yourself. In fact, you can follow our step-by-step beginner’s guide here!
When building your own website, you can get by without spending a penny after the cost of your domain and site hosting. If you do choose to spend money, you can focus that money exactly on the features you care most about for your site.
The first step to building a website is choosing an appropriate platform. Website platforms provide the tools you need to create and manage your website.
There are a number of platforms to choose from, including Squarespace, Wix, and Shopify, but by far the most popular website building option is WordPress.
WordPress was originally built as a platform for bloggers. Today, it’s used by all types of website owners, including major brands like BBC America and the Walt Disney Company, and has the features to create almost any website you can think of.
The best part? You can enjoy the benefits of WordPress absolutely free.
From mommy blogs to major corporations, professional websites have one thing in common: professional logos.
Your logo increases your brand’s recognition and will help you grow your online business.
Just like with your website, you can choose to design a logo yourself, or hire someone to design it for you.
If you have graphic design skills, you can of course design a logo using Adobe Illustrator other design software.
Otherwise, there are a number of websites like Canva that offer you the tools you need to design your own logo. Generally, these sites only have you pay for your files if you like your design, so you can play around with a few different sites to see which one produces the best logo for you.
The cost of creating your own logo through a site like Canva is anywhere from $20-$40.
Alternatively, you can totally outsource your logo to a professional designer.
We’ve had great results with 99designs, where you can hold a design contest where dozens of designers compete to create a winning logo for you.
You can also hire an individual designer on freelancing platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.
It’s possible to have a cheap logo designed for as little as $50, but realistically you should expect to pay $300–1500 for a truly professional design.
When hiring someone to build your website, you’re paying not only for the time they spend on your website but also for their unique expertise.
Depending on the specifications you give them about your website, the costs of paying for someone to build your website can add up quickly, and in the end you may or may not love the product they return to you.
There are two different ways you can pay for someone to build your website: you can pay for them to do the legwork within a website builder like Shopify or WordPress, or you can pay for them to build you a website from the ground up.
Similarly, the complexity of your website will alter the costs. If all you need is a landing page with your contact information on it, that’s going to cost less than if you need a full inventory of products with individual product pages that are sorted into comprehensive categories with dropdown menus.
As you can imagine, the costs of paying for website design can be all over the map—anywhere from $1,000 to $20,000.
This is made more complex by the fact that few web designers list their prices in a comprehensive way on their website. Instead, you’d have to call and discuss your specific needs with several different designers to do a price comparison.
Logo design may or may not be included in your web design package.
As we mentioned earlier, logo design can be as cheap as $50, but is more likely to fall in the $300–1500 range.
99designs is a really solid value for logo design.
As you can see, building your website can be quite affordable if you do it yourself. Luckily, this doesn’t have to be an overwhelming prospect…
Ready to start building your website? Click here to check out our step-by-step beginner’s guide 👈
If you have any questions about the cost of building a website, feel free to leave a comment below!
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