There are several ways to build a website and all of them come with different costs.
Here are the ‘WAYS’ you can build or can get the website built:
- A website builder like Wix or Squarespace
- A CMS like WordPress (import themes and custom design them)
- Webflow (import themes/layouts and custom design them)
- Hire someone to custom code your website
These are only the ‘WAYS’ but there’s so much more to the costs.
- Domain Costs
- Hosting Costs
- Plugins / Custom Integration
- SSL (mostly free though)
- Website Theme Costs
These costs vary from domain to domain, hosting to hosting.
You can always pick something *better* and there’s always so much to choose from.
If you’re looking to help get an ‘AFFORDABLE’ website, here are the rough costs:
| Domain | $10 – $100 (annually) |
| Hosting | $200 (annually) |
| Website Theme | $50 – $200 |
| SSL | $0 – $100 |
| Plugins | $10 – $1000 (Depends on the requirements) |
These are costs if you build it yourself.
If you’re hiring someone, which is obviously the preferred way, you get to save time and effort roaming around different platforms and you can add the time devoted by the freelancer as an add-on.
Remember, the chart that you see only is true if you want to build a website in the cheapest way possible.
The total cost comes to around $500 – $1000 anyways if you’re starting from scratch and only use Page Builders and have little to no custom elements.
Things we haven’t included yet – Payment Integrations, Chat Bot, Email Newsletter Integration, and whatnot – this is the reason why you hire an expert.
we suggest Using a website builder if:
- Spending is limited for you at the moment.
- It’s becoming late and you need to get going.
- You’re interested in giving website creation a go on your own.
- You’d rather not have to worry about the nuts and bolts of it.
WordPress is a great choice if you:
- You want more flexibility
- To have complete authority over your site is a top priority for you
- You can spend a lot of time figuring it out
- You’re hoping for a lot of personalization options
- Managing the nuts and bolts of the technical side of things come naturally to you.
When to hire a web designer:
- You can afford a lot of things.
- You prefer to outsource website development since you don’t want to be responsible for it.
- Time is of the essence.
- Intricate or bespoke design is required.
- You’d be content having a third party take care of your site’s management.
Conclusion
We’ve laid out all the options for you to make an informed decision about your budget. We hope that you have a better understanding of which approach might work best for you and your situation.
Remember that there are other considerations besides dollar amount when estimating the price of a website. It’s also important to consider your available time, technological expertise, and creative talent. Learning new abilities is possible if you have the time, but outsourcing the work to a professional is the better option if you’re short on both time and money.
Make the most of your resources by carefully considering your site’s long-term goals, your available time and resources, and your preferred day-to-day operations.
