How Much Does It Cost to Build a Website?

So you’ve recently started a business… good for you! Or maybe you’ve been running a business for some time and you’re shifting, or rebranding. Either way, you’re a small business owner who’s ready to take your business up a notch and claim a corner of the internet as yours. You know you need a website to show off your stuff, sell your products, or get information out there about your business, and now you’ve come to the big daunting question: how much does a website cost?

2 Paths to Website Success

Among all the costs a new or redirecting business owner has to consider, paying for a website is arguably one of the most important. It can be scary and overwhelming to figure out everything that’s needed and make sure you’re getting a good price for it. But don’t worry, we’re here to help break it down for you! We’ve broken down the average monthly costs for you to run and maintain your website in a handy, easy-to-understand pricing guide! 

When looking into building a website, you generally have two paths to choose from: DIY or hire a professional. While the monthly cost of owning a website will be the same either way (we’ll break down those average costs for you in just a minute here), hiring a professional designer can save you LOADS of hassle, frustration, overwhelm, and discouragement. But more on that in a bit. First, let’s see what it takes to get your website up and running!

Website Feature Breakdown

Domain: A domain is your website’s address. It tells the internet where your site is located so people can find your website. Custom domains are normally the least expensive asset of your website and typically costs around $0.95-$20 per year. Where’s our favorite place to purchase a custom domain? Namecheap! Namecheap is one of the most popular and affordable options, with excellent customer support! 

Hosting: To keep it simple, if building a website was like building a house, hosting is the “plot of land” your website is built on. Shopping for website hosting is like buying a sandwich at Subway. You could get a 6in. meatball marinara for $3.99, or you could get a footlong roast beef with chips, a soft drink (and a cookie to treat yourself 😀) for somewhere around $20. It all depends on what you’re looking for. Website hosting comes in all shapes and sizes, but in most cases, you can purchase a plan for somewhere around $10-$35/mo. We personally recommend hosting through Showit. Showit is an incredible web-building platform that includes hosting on every plan purchase! Their plan starts at $19/mo if you don’t need a blog, $24/mo if you do. 

SSL Certificates: SSL certificates are like a deed to a house. It is a digital certificate that verifies a website’s identity and adds security to your site. Just like hosting, the cost for an SSL certificate can vary greatly, anywhere from free (your favorite word!) to thousands of dollars. Luckily, most hosting and/or design platforms will include SSL certificates in their plans (and yes… Showit includes an SSL certificate with your subscription).

Web Design Platform: If you’re been researching building a website, you’ll probably recognize names such as Wix, WordPress, Squarespace, etc. These are all web designing platforms. They help you make a beautifully designed website just the way you like it. Design platforms range in pricing but again you can expect to pay around $10-$25/mo. Most web design platform plans will include hosting and SSL certificates, but just double-check before you purchase. And once again, our preferred platform is Showit! Seriously, we can’t recommend it highly enough. 

TOTAL: ≈ $12-36/month or $144-432/year

These are the basic, foundational costs for a website. Just like in our Subway example, you could get a number of add-on features, including a website template/theme, e-commerce functionality, website integrations, SEO/marketing functionality, and more.

Now Let’s Consider Additional Costs…

As I hinted at earlier, there are more costs to consider than what you’ll financially pay. Building a website can be overwhelming! You have to think about your website’s purpose, ease of navigation, branding, layout, usability, responsiveness to different devices, and so much more! When going the DIY track with website building, it’s tempting to try and save as much money as possible. Sure, you could save a few bucks here or there by doing it all yourself, but I really want you to take a moment and consider the opportunity costs.

• Research: Building a website yourself requires you to know how to use a website building tool. You would need to research which platform is best for your needs, how to add plugins such as ecommerce, blogging, or filling out forms, and how to incorporate any other functionalities you may need. 

• Uniqueness: Most often, once you get into it, designing a custom website gets overwhelming very quickly. It’s much faster and easier to build from a template. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of looking generic. It could easily end up looking just like any other website.

• Time: Designing and implementing a strategic website takes time, even more if you don’t have web designing experience. It can take hours upon hours to design, tweak, and adjust your website until it’s just right. Will all of the time spent here be pulling you away from running and growing your business? Most likely.  

Going the DIY route would save you money, that’s true. But that’s just about the only upside. Web designers do this for a living. You could save yourself on: 

This is exactly what we do for you here at A&M Digital Design. When you book a Website in a Week package, you get: 

• 1 hour strategy call: we’ll all get on the same page about your vision, goals, wants and needs with your website. 
• Brand Clarifying Questionnaire – in addition to creating an optimized website, we’ll help you discover your brand’s heart, your why,who your ideal client is, and get direction and clarity on your brand and vision.
• Brand identity: we’ll create a logo suite, mood board, patterns, textures, and more to help you create the branding of your dreams and attract your ideal customers
• SEO optimization: let us take the marketing worries off your hands. We’ll make sure your site is strategically designed so your customers find you. 
• Set up: Let us worry about connecting your domain, setting up integrations, and all the technical issues. You just sit back and relax! 
• Our team devoted exclusively to you and your project.
• 30 days support: reach out to us with any questions or technical issues with your site. We’re here to help and make sure everything is just how you want it. 

This is just some of what you’ll get when you book with us. Schedule a discovery call with us and let’s chat about making the website of your dreams come to life!

If you just have a few questions you can get in touch with us here!