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What Does A Website Cost?

When considering establishing a website there are lots of components to factor in to your overall budget.

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Written By Dave Calvert

Oct 2024 / Reading Length: 6 minutes

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What you need to know.

When considering establishing a website there are lots of components to factor in to your overall budget. With a number of ways to go about it creating a website can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be. In this article we will take a closer look all the factors that go towards the website cost and creating a website.

Website Cost

Creating a website can be as cheap and as easy as you want it to be especially with the availability of Theme/Templates, DIY web builders such as Wix.


You don’t need any experience or design expertise and if that’s all you need then great.


But if you want your website to do more for your business then consider using a professional web agency like WTBI.


There are various factors and basic requirements that will need to be dealt with when setting up a website. For any website to be accessible to the wider audience and is searchable and secure you will want to cover the following. You will need to register a domain name, find a website hosting company, engage with a professional web designer to facilitate the build of the website or doing it yourself through a website building platform. An SSL certificate will also need to be obtained if not included through one of the above services. And in addition other add-ons such as a e-commerce element.

Domain/Hosting

Securing the right domain name is a vital part of your strategy and can help attain a top level position to help you achieve a first page view in search. These top level domains (TLD) can be expensive if they represent a first stop after the sponsored/ad zone.

With 5 official TLDs; generic, sponsored, country code, infrastructure and test.

 

Generic Top Level Domains

Generic being the most popular with the most common usages being:

  • .com – for commercial sites
  • .org – for organisations
  • .net – for networks
  • .info – for information platforms
  • .biz – for businesses

Sponsored Top Level Domains

Sponsored top level domains are supervised and proposed by private organisations such as govenment agencies or organised groups. They make the decision on whether an applicant is eligible to use a specific top level domain for a predefined community theme.

Among some of the most popular sTLDs are:

  • .edu – for higher educational institutions
  • .gov – for United States governmental agencies
  • .cat – for Catalan linguistic and cultural community
  • .museum – for museum organisations
  • .travel – for travel industry businesses

 

Country Code Top-Level Domains

With well over 300+ country codes established for specific countries and territories, identified by a two letter string these ccTLDs operate according to local policies, meeting cultural, linguistic and legal standards. Large corporations often use these if their regional sites operate independently. With these domain extensions serving the same purpose as a subdomain.

Some of the most well known ccTLDs are:

  • .us – for the United States
  • .es – for Spain
  • .fr – for France
  • .it – for Italy
  • .br – for Brazil

Infrastructure Top-Level Domain (ARPA)

A special category which contains only one TLD: the Address and Routing Parameter Area (ARPA) and managed directly by the IANA for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) under the guidance of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and is only used for technical infrastructure purposes.

 

Test top-level domains

These are reserved for documentation purposes and local testing, and cannot be installed into the root zone of the domain name system.

There are four tTLDs:

  • .example – for place holding
  • .invalid – for invalid domain names
  • .localhost – for usage in local networks
  • .test – for testing purposes

Registering a domain will generally incur an annual payment from a domain registrar or potentially through your chosen web design professional or platform. Prices can start from around £7 a year. But remember, some domains may cost a lot more depending on how popular keywords are in the domain.

If you’re using a website builder platform service, a free domain is sometimes offered as part of the first year package.

Web Hosting

So when building a website it needs to be hosted somewhere. Think of it as renting a space where you can store your website so that you and your clients or customers can go see what’s on your website. There is usually a cost associated with this but some website platforms include this as part of their subscription fees.

Fees can vary and it is not always best to go with the cheapest option. If your site has or will have a lot of traffic going to it, it may be better to invest in a more solid hosting plan to ensure that your site doesn’t crash. If your hosting isn’t going to cover a lot of traffic, you may run into issues down the line. If you are unsure start with a base plan and upgrade as and when your website increases it traffic.

DIY Website Design

As mentioned at the start of this article there are a number of options when it comes to building a website. If you are on a tight budget you may consider using a website platform such as SquareSpace, GoDaddy or Wix. Using a system such as these to design a site yourself can save you thousands of pounds. These sites tend to use pre-set templates for you to utilise through a drag-and-drop facility. It may take you some time but you would most likely be able to create a standard website under your own steam.

The basic systems are usually inexpensive but to access more premium features, unique themes etc. you will be required to pay a higher subscription fee. It’s also worth noting that if you have a site built on one of these drag-and-drop platforms and if you ever decided to move your site elsewhere you will most likely find that you cannot as the sites are generally built within their systems and are not transferable.

Customisation through a website builder platform can be limiting compared to a system such as WordPress and building a website from scratch. If you are looking for something truly unique or inspirational you will be better to engage with a professional website designer.

illustration of what does a website cost?

Professional Website Designers


If designing and building a website on your own isn’t going to cut it for you then using professional web design services is probably the route to take. Hiring a website designer will take the burden off your shoulders and they will be able to steer you through all the technical aspects of designing and building a beautiful site for you.


Depending on the scope of the project most web designers will usually charge you a flat fee to design and build your site. These sites are usually bespoke and therefore the fees will be much greater than the subscriptions from the DIY website platforms. Using a website designer has its advantages, helping bring to life what you envisioned for your website, customising it to exactly what you need. Working with a website designer will give you the opportunity to discuss; persona’s, user journey’s, styles, colour etc. Not forgetting other valuable data and research enabling them to develop a specific UX (User Experience) just for you.

A website cost can vary widely depending on experience and the needs of the project, but it’s not uncommon to get quotes between £3000 and £10,000+.

SSL

What is an SSL? Well SSL Certificate is a digital authentication of your website’s identity. It enables an encrypted connection for security purposes and is essential for websites that accept online payments. It also means that visitors to the site are protected from unwanted cyber attacks. If you are using an SSL you will see a prefix at the beginning of your domain HTTPS and a padlock icon. If you don’t use an SSL Certificate you will see HTTP and you will most likely be directed away from your site to a screen with a message “This site may not be secure.”. This is usually enough to deter a visitor from continuing through to the site and ultimately giving your business a bad reputation.

Its also worth noting that an SSL can help with search engine optimisation (SEO) and the flow of data to and from the site.

SSL Certificates are usually included as part of your hosting costs through your web hosting provider. Fees vary from free to around £250 per year. Whichever way you look at it you’ll want your website to include an SSL Certificate not only for the security but also for the confidence of your visitors.

 

Other things to consider

There are always other things that will crop up in your journey to creating a website. Here are a few things to be considerate of.

 

Features / Technology

No two websites are exactly the same. Price also depends on what the site needs to do. Having a site that is able to perform a certain level of functionality or contain a specific set of bespoke features add to the cost of the site. These are usually provided in the form of add-ons known as plugins. Plugins help enable features that are required to evolve a site beyond the standard elements giving your site a much more bespoke appearance or function. Features such as on-page testimonials, subscriptions or contact forms to name a few. Depending on the new function you want, it could be free or an annual subscription fee of £50+ per year and if its not a plug-and-play plugin it may require additional configuration within the site adding to the cost.

Use plugins sparingly and only add plugins that you feel will enhance your visitors’ experience while on the site. The more plugins you add to your site, the more the site needs to process information prior to loading. Slowing down the speed of your site which isn’t good for a user experience or SEO.

 

Software Updates

The other cost factor for a site is the upkeep and maintenance of the site. Your site will usually be built with the latest technologies and tool and as with all technology it degrades quickly. Content management systems are continually rolling out software updates to maintain their platforms’ security and performance. Outdated websites can leave you vulnerable to cyber breaches. If a customer isn’t confident in a company’s ability to handle their information responsibly, 87% of consumers(opens in a new window) will do business elsewhere. Comprehensive web hosting services, complete with routine updates, regular server maintenance and daily security monitoring packages gives you peace of mind that the core system that you website is built off is updated along with security patches to keep your site functioning.

 

Support

Once your website is up and running don’t forget about it.  If you are serious about your business then you should be serious about your website. Regular content updates, monitoring traffic and analysis are but a few things required to keep your website goals and KPIs in check. WTBI can provide all of these services.

 

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Your website needs to rank well on Google, unfortunately, this doesn’t just happen by chance. It takes work.

If you’re looking at ranking your website on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs), you may need to hire a search engine optimisation (SEO) specialist. This may cost upwards of £250+ per month. It depends on how much work you need them to do on content and web pages. The more pages that you need to optimise, the more an SEO expert will cost.

 

Conclusion

Depending on the project’s scope, whether you require updates and need unique functionality, the costs of a website can vary widely. If you’re willing to invest the time to learn new skills, it is accomplished cheaply and fairly easily with an all-in-one website builder. But if you want professional assistance or lots of extra functionality, the costs can add up quickly.

So “how much does a website cost ?” well the answer is up to you.

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