How Much Does It Cost To Make A Website?

Last Updated on May 22, 2024
Written by CPA Alec Pow | Content Reviewed by CFA Alexander Popinker

For businesses, professionals, creators, and organizations seeking an effective online presence, developing a well-designed website serves as the essential foundation. Yet, with the vast range of solutions for website creation now available—from DIY site builders to custom development firms—determining accurate pricing to build the ideal website to suit your specific needs and budget can prove challenging.

Read on for an in-depth examination of everything that goes into answering that critical question – how much does it really cost to create a website?

How Much Does It Cost To Make A Website?

The cost to make a website ranges from $300 to $3000 for a personal website or simple business site, while a complex web application platform can cost anywhere from $100,000 to $1,000,000 or more, depending on the project’s scope and requirements.

Personal Website or Simple Business Site – $300-$3000 for a 5–15-page informational site on a managed CMS platform using themes and custom plugins.

Small Business Website – $5000-$15,000 for a 10–20-page custom-designed commercial site with lead gen forms, sales funnels, contact managers, SEO optimization, and premium security layers.

Medium Online Ecommerce Store – $10,000-$50,000 for a data-driven e-commerce site with inventory management, CRM features, dynamic product catalog, and highly secure PCI compliant checkout process.

Large Corporate Website – $25,000-$250,000+ for an enterprise-grade website with special functionalities like logins, dashboards, custom databases, and heavy traffic capacity.

Complex Web Application Platform – $100,000-$1,000,000+ for advanced web-based software programs with deep backend programming, servers, infrastructure, and specialized engineering teams.

Elegant Themes provides a detailed breakdown of the typical cost of building a website, highlighting key factors that affect website cost. The essential costs involved in building a website include domain name registration, hosting, website builder/platform, content management system (CMS), eCommerce platform, website theme/design, website addons/plugins, security, SSL certificate, ongoing maintenance, and custom web design/development.

The cost ranges from $10 to $25 per month for domain name registration, $5 to $500 per month for hosting, and $10 to $200 per month for a website builder/platform. Additionally, custom web design/development can cost between $1000 to $10,000 or more as a one-time expense.

WebFX provides insights into the cost of building a website in 2024, highlighting that websites cost on average between $1000 to $145,000. The cost of building a website depends on factors such as the website’s size, features, and build.

Specific cost factors include domain registration, SSL certificate, hosting, site style or theme, ecommerce functionality, database integration, website size, responsive design, interactive media, and content management system. The average price of developing and designing a website ranges from $12,000 to $150,000, with various features impacting the total cost of a website.

Mark Brinker discusses the cost of building a small business website in 2024, emphasizing that the cost could be less than $1,000 or more than $10,000 depending on the size and complexity of the site.

Hiring a professional web designer to build a website typically costs between $5,000 to $10,000, but could be as much as $20,000 or more depending on the number of pages and customization required. Alternatively, attempting to build a website yourself through a DIY approach could cost around $500 to $1000 in expenses, with the main cost being time.

Upwork provides insights into the cost of building a website in 2024, highlighting that on average, building a website can cost anywhere from $300 to $5,000. The cost of building a website can fluctuate depending on factors such as the website’s complexity, desired features and functionalities, and the skill level of the web developer.

Factors That Influence Website Building Costs

Design Complexity and Customization – Simple informational sites with stock themes cost much less than highly customized e-commerce sites with intricate user interfaces, expansive visual and written content, and huge interactive product catalogs. Fully custom designs with animations, illustrations, and special interactive features increase base costs.

Backend Development Requirements – Dynamic database-driven websites with advanced custom backend programming and administrative dashboards are notably more expensive and time-consuming to develop than basic, static sites using common content management systems (CMS) platforms like WordPress. Integrating complex functionalities and APIs adds engineering expenses.

Built-In SEO Strategies and Marketing Tool Integration – Designing SEO best practices directly into the site architecture and integrating email marketing, analytics, and CRM tools during the initial website development boosts costs upfront but delivers immense long-term dividends through organic growth and conversions.

Expected Website Traffic Volumes and Scalability – Websites anticipating moderate to high traffic volumes and user numbers need substantially more robust hosting plans, security, and infrastructure to deliver fast reliable performance as they scale, adding to monthly costs. Building future capacity expansion into the initial architecture reduces rework later.

Ongoing Content Updates and Management – Websites requiring constant additions of new pages, blog posts, and products/services demand intuitive CMS platforms and user permissions that enable non-technical users to easily publish content themselves without developer assistance. This facilitates easier growth.

Maintenance, Troubleshooting, and Post-Launch Support – Properly maintaining a site’s security, functionality, and user experience through ongoing updates, troubleshooting, optimizations, and client support adds recurring annual costs beyond just initial website creation expenses. Upkeep is critical.

Breakdown of Website Building Costs

Planning, Strategy, and Information Architecture – $500-$5000

Custom Site Design and Branding Package – $1000-$15,000+ for a completely custom design with logo, branding, wireframes, and visual assets.

Copywriting and Content Creation – $300-$5000 based on total word count for professional copywriting.

Frontend and Backend Programming – $1000-$100,000+

You might also like our articles about the cost of advertising on Waze, radio ads, or BBB memberships.

Content Management System Setup – $0-$2000 to install open-source options like WordPress or pay for proprietary systems.

Web Hosting and Infrastructure – $60-$1000+/month for plans accommodating expected traffic volumes and bandwidth needs.

Domain Registration – $12-$40+/year for registration and renewal of domains through registrars like GoDaddy.

SSL Security Certificates – $0-$250/year depending on the validation level desired for the security certificate.

Project Management Fees – 10-25% of total budget when using an agency to manage all phases of building a complete website.

Post-Launch Support and Maintenance – $500-$5000+/month for ongoing maintenance, updates, troubleshooting, and support.

SEO Optimization and Marketing – $300-$5000/month

 DIY or Hire Website Development Experts?

DIY Website Building Using Site Builders

• Very Low Upfront Cost – $100-$500/year for platforms.
• Pre-Made Templates Limit Customization
• Substantial Time Investment to Learn and Master Builders
• Ongoing Maintenance/Hosting Responsibilities Fall on You

Custom Website Development With Web Professionals

• Higher Upfront Cost – $2000-$100,000+
• Fully Custom-Built Websites Matched to Brand
• Tech Expertise for Efficient High-Quality Execution
• Long-Term Support and Maintenance Included

For most businesses, organizations, and professionals seeking an authoritative online presence, partnering with experienced web developers provides the technical skills to bring a brand vision to life quickly and integrate features that drive growth. But DIY website builders can offer an affordable path for simple personal sites.

Reducing Your Website Creation Costs

• Utilize pre-made templates on platforms like WordPress and Wix for the quickest and most budget-friendly option when applicable to your brand.
• Consider open-source content management systems like WordPress or Joomla for the foundational platform, which removes software licensing fees and offers abundant free templates and plugins.
• Work directly with individual freelance website developers and designers versus large agencies to reduce average hourly rates while still benefiting from experienced professionals.
• Invest time upfront fully outlining your needs, objectives, target audiences, design preferences, and key features/functionalities you require so developers can accurately estimate costs and scope deliverables. Identify core priorities versus nice-to-haves later.
• For large projects, consider phasing development into multiple stages, which allows launching with essential features faster while delaying secondary capabilities until vitally needed. This keeps initial costs contained.
• Maintain the website yourself for the first 6-12 months doing tasks like content creation and keyword research before outsourcing specialized digital marketing and technical maintenance entirely. This also reduces initial year one costs.
• Take advantage of opportunities to save on overhead expenses, like registering domain names for multiple years in advance to lower annual costs. Avoid overpaying for bundled packages unnecessarily.
• Incorporate free open-source resources like images, fonts, color schemes, and royalty-free videos/stock photos as much as possible into the site to minimize licensing fees.

Final Words

By first clearly defining your brand’s goals and target audience needs, understanding website creation cost drivers, leveraging available technical resources judiciously, and managing development phases sensibly, companies, organizations, and solo entrepreneurs alike can all keep project costs contained and value-focused.

The most important is focusing budget on design elements, content, features, and digital marketing capabilities that strongly align with core business objectives and KPIs for an optimal professional online presence and ROI. With diligent research and planning, building a custom website delivers immense ongoing dividends.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you determine the cost of a website?

Define features and create a detailed requirements document. Get quotes from developers outlining the projected hours and rates for design, coding, testing, and launch. Add monthly hosting, domain registration, and maintenance fees. Factor in growth needs. Set aside at least 20% contingency budget.

Can we create a website free of cost?

For basic personal sites or blogs, open-source platforms like WordPress offer free options. But supporting growth requires investment in hosting, domains, security, design, and maintenance. Professional sites require expertise and technology investments in the $2000-$10,000 range initially. Ongoing costs also arise. Completely free high-performing sites are unrealistic.

What is most expensive websites?

Some of the most expensive websites ever built include Salesforce at $100 million, Tesla over $35 million, massively multiplayer online games costing $60-$100 million, and complex web apps like Uber valued at over $500 million with vast server infrastructures and engineering teams required to deliver their experiences at scale.