Having a website for your business is an important way to gain exposure. If you’re selling products and services, getting your presence online is paramount for success. If you’re ready to put your business online, you’ll want to know how much it costs.
What is the average cost to create a website for a small business?
The cost of the website includes purchasing your domain name, finding a hosting plan, design and building your site. A business website will cost anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000. It depends on the features you decide to have. So, websites that have more features and custom-built components are going to cost more.
Factors that Influencing your Business’s Website Costs
Domain name: $0.95 – $12/domain
Your domain name is important and how much it costs depends on what you want your name to be. You can look through for domain names at GoDaddy or Dreamhost. If your domain name isn’t available, you may have to choose an alternative. If you’re set on the name, you can contact the current owner of the domain name and see if they’ll sell it to you.
Website hosting – $24-$120 annually
A website hosting plan is essential to get your site online for the world to see. Web hosting companies power your site and put it online. The hosting can cost anywhere from $24 to $24,000 a year. For small businesses, it’s going to cost less. You can go with shared hosting, which is between $24 – $120 per year. The resources are more limited but this option works fine if you need less resources.
SSL certificate – 0 – $1500
A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate protects your website and your visitor’s information. It’s optional but for any business, it’s essential. It makes users feel secure as this certificate is a signal of trust. But if you don’t have it, people may not have enough trust to purchase through your site.
SSL encryption is used with online banks and business sites, protecting customer information from hackers. You may be able to solidify an SSL certificate for free from your web hosting company when you subscribe. Look for hosting that provides this as purchasing it yourself can be up to $1,500 per year.
Website design – $2,000 – $15,000
The design of your site is what sets it apart. There’s a lot involved from color to font to where information is found. You may want a very basic site with little design. This will be the most reasonable. High-end layouts that require more time from your web designer will cost more. Design features will be considered on home pages, contact pages, about me, and product/service pages.
If you have someone designing your site, ask them to show you samples and prices. Ask them for a sample of high-end designs and basic designs.
Website pages – $1,000 – $5,000
How many pages your site has is going to determine the price somewhat. If you are looking to build an ecommerce site, you may have over 100 pages. However, a service-based site may have just 10 or less pages. It takes time to design and build each page even when some pages have similar layouts.
Images need to be uploaded as well as videos and copy. This all takes a lot of time. If you want to have 1 to 50 pages, it will cost between $1,000 to $5,000. Web design agencies will usually offer tiers when it comes to price per page.
Functionality components – $2,000 – $25,000
Functionality is just as important as looks when it comes to web design. You may want to accept online payments and orders. Make sure to account for functionality expenses, which can run pretty high with costs from $2,000 to $25,000.
Content management system, (CMS) – $2,000 to $25,000
How much you pay for CMS will depend on how much customization is needed. If your design team needs to spend a lot of time customizing your CMS, it’s going to cost more. If you do the web design on your own, it will cost nothing. As a result, professional web design comes with a price tag of $2,000 – $10,000. Sure, it’s great to do it all for free but this is no easy task.
Some downfalls of doing it yourself include:
You have to do all the work.
Site launch can be delayed.
You need to learn how to maintain your site.
You’ll have to deal with troubleshooting issues that arise.
You must settle for a website that is not unique as you’ll likely use a template.
A business website can range a lot based on the kind of site you want to have. It’s essential but you must figure out how important and how in-depth you want it to be.
