How Much Does Business Website Cost?
A business website gives your business a face online. In many ways, a website can bring more business than your brick-and-mortar store.
Let’s see how much a website will cost for your business.
DIY your Business Website Vs Hiring a Professional Agency
When you are at the crossroads of deciding between developing a website yourself and hiring a professional, we suggest you always select the professional unless you are building a hobby blogging website.
While you may know something about website imagery, UI/UX, and functions, a professional knows his craft and can place pieces of a website together in a more productive way. The final website will speak for the difference in skills.
Many times, tools cannot replace professionals. Don’t be deceived by the plugin functions. For a large e-commerce website, managing plugins is itself a job. Many times, a plugin may not provide the functionality you need. Again, you’ll need to hire at least a professional for that task.
DIY is good for saving costs and making only basic websites. You can build a good website for a blog, a simple brochure website, and an e-commerce for small and micro businesses. Website builders like Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace do a good job of helping you DIY your website.
DIY tools manage domain and hosting for you and save you extra effort. When you use a website builder, they take care of domain management, hosting management, security, and ongoing maintenance for your website.
Scaling a DIY website is hard. You don’t have technical skills and you will again have to hire a professional when the business grows.
Website Design and Development Cost by Different Factors, Phases, and Business Sizes
- Factors by Type and Purpose
- Factors by Phase
- Essential Factors that Stay there no matter what
Factors by Work Type and Purpose
Website cost largely depends on the type of website you are building and the purpose of the website.
1. Personal website /Portfolio Website
A personal website or a portfolio website is when someone is a solopreneur and she wants to show her skills to attract new leads. Examples are a portfolio website for a wedding photographer or a writer.
2. Brochure Website
A brochure website is useful for small businesses that want to establish an online presence and contact information. These websites may display the range of products or services a business offers but doesn’t have a checkout function.
3. Corporate Website:
Big companies or corporations are multifaceted businesses and they need a comprehensive representation that can address all of their business partners from customers to government agencies. These websites are the most costly as a website plays a central role in the company’s operations.
4. eCommerce Website
When a business is selling a product or service online and they want to let the customers complete the transaction right on the website.
An eCommerce website displays products, shows all important information, lets customers place orders, keeps customers’ data and purchase history saved, and gives a one-place dashboard for managing the business.
5-Catalog Website
These types of websites are used by businesses that focus on showcasing the range and quality of their products or services. These websites may also have e-commerce or booking functionality. Two good examples are Airbnb and TripAdvisor.
6- Community and Forum Websites
User forums and social media websites are examples of these types of websites. Many businesses maintain a user forum to build a community that enhances the company’s knowledge and provides a good PR platform to work with customers.
Factors by Phase
A website development process completes in many phases. Each phase needs different resources in time and expertise. Let’s see how much each of the website development phases costs and how long it takes.
1- UI and UX Designing
A website that looks credible gets more business. (Google study about the website looking untrustworthy or 23 things about website cost that will blow your mind)
A website user interface and user experience design are made up of three steps:
- Researching
- Wireframing
- UI/UX Designing
Though the actual time and cost may vary depending on the project details, we have estimated the time to be 7-14 days and cost between $800-$3500.
2.Front-End Development
UI/UX is what we see on a website. front-end development is what makes it interactable.
For example, the UI designer laid out a contact us form or dedicated a place for text or images, the front-end developer will write code and convert the user interface PSD files or Wireframes into actual web pages.
Again, the time and cost will vary depending on your project details. We estimate that the process can take 2-6 weeks and the cost can range between $1000-$13000, or even more.
3- Back-end Development
When the designer has designed UI, and the front-end developer has coded that design into a webpage, now is the time for back-end development.
The back-end developer is responsible for what happens when we click a button on a website or fill out a form. In short, back-end development makes a website functional.
Our research for the time and price for the back-end development phase is 3-8 weeks and $3500-$15000.
4- Content Management System (CMS) Development
You can use a free CMS for your website like WordPress. The developer will only charge for the changes she makes. For most business websites, small tweaking in WordPress works fine. However, if you need extensive changes in the CMS, you’ll need to be ready for the time and allocate a budget for the phase.
Our research shows the time may vary between 3-8 weeks and cost can fluctuate between $2500-$8000.
Table: Website Cost Factors by Different Development Phases
| Website Development Phase | Estimated Time (weeks) | Average Cost ($) | Factors that Affect Price and Time | Relevant Development tools and frameworks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
UI/UX |
1 – 2 weeks |
750 – 4,000 |
-------- |
--- |
|
Front-End Development |
2 – 6 weeks |
1,000 – 12,500 |
Website responsiveness for different devices, animations, |
CSS3, HTML5, TypeScript, JavaScript, Angular, Vue, React |
|
Back-End development |
3 – 8 weeks |
4,000 – 12,500 |
API integration and complex functionalities |
Example Web frameworks:
Ruby on Rails,
Phoenix Database servers
MySQL
PostgreSQL
Web servers: Nginx, Apache
Programming languages: Elixir, PHP, Python, Ruby, Java
Cloud server platforms: EC2, S3, AWS |
|
CMS development (when needed) |
3 – 8 weeks |
3,000 – 9,000 |
------ |
WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc |
Website Project Size and Scope
The scope of the website development project is a basic determiner of the website price. The constant factors ever present in a website project include:
- No. of webpages
- Domain Name
- Style or theme
- Responsive Design
- Interactive Multimedia
- Website Hosting
- Website Maintenance
- SSL Certificate
- Search Engine Optimization
You may think that search engine optimization (SEO) is not necessary but this is not true. You need SEO to be found online and get any business from your website.
Table: Constant Factors of Website Cost
| Price Factor | What is this factor about? | Factor Price |
|---|---|---|
|
1 to 250 web pages |
The number of pages in a website determine the scope of work. More resources are needed to create more webpages and as the number of pages increase, hence the price increases. |
$1,100 to $10,500 |
|
Domain Name |
Unique address for your website that shows in browser search bar |
Average $5 to $15 yearly, custom or premium domains are expensive |
|
Theme or Template
|
Web design is the looks and usability of a website. The price increase with design complexity. |
$2,500 to $14,000 |
|
Website Responsiveness
|
Website responsiveness makes your website usable across devices. |
$2,500 to $23,000 |
|
Animation and Design Assets |
Animation and design assets are costly as they consume a lot of time in production and the designers charge a hefty fee. |
$300 to $9,500 |
|
Website Hosting Cost |
website hosting keeps your website accessible and available on the internet. |
$70 to $250 yearly |
|
On-going Website Maintenance |
Website maintenance includes constant checking on technical aspects, etc. |
$750 to $11,000 yearly |
|
SSL Certificate for Website Security |
An SSL certificate keeps your website secure. |
$10 to $1100 monthly |
Upfront vs Monthly Cost of a Website
The upfront and monthly cost for your website will vary greatly with the services and the talent you select for building a business website.
You will need to invest in these factors in most cases.
- Domain Name
- Website Hosting
- CMS (Website Software)
- Design
- Development
- Add-ons:
- Website Builder Price
- Copywriter for your website
- SSL Certificate
- E-Commerce Apps and Payment Gateways etc
The upfront cost for your website range is $80-$10,000. The $80 is when you build a brochure website yourself, use free CMS like WordPress, use a cheap hosting plan, and don’t use any addons or eCommerce functionality.
Along the same lines, $10,000 is the upfront cost for a corporate website when an agency builds and the website comes with a plethora of functions with a custom CMS, and ongoing maintenance.
A website cost can fluctuate between $35-$5000 per month. Factors like who builds your website, CMS, website builder, hosting charges, developer charges, and add-ons like eCommerce, SEO, etc., affect this price range.
The yearly cost can vary between $400-$60,000 per year. This price is also directly related to the size of your business and the scope of your business website project.
How much does a custom website cost?
You can get a custom website built to your specifications. You can hire a freelancer or freelance agency if you are building a website for a small business with limited business. However, you may need a professional web development agency to build a website for a large business or enterprise.
When building a custom website, these factors affect the price.
- Project Scope including the website functionality requirements
- Your Business Size
- Website Building Company or Freelancer
Let’s see the cost of a custom website for brochure websites, database websites/functional websites, and eCommerce websites.
Brochure Website
A brochure website is the most simple website that displays a business, introduces its offering, and gives contact information.
A typical brochure website contains a small number of pages like 10-20.
These are some of the default pages you’ll get with a brochure website.
- Homepage
- About Us
- Our Team
- Product and Services
- Case Studies
- Blog
- Contact Us Form
When a freelancer is building a brochure website for you, expect the cost to be $500-$2000. However, when you hire an agency, the cost may vary between $2500-$10,000.
Database Website / Functional Website
These websites have every from the brochure website with the addition of the:
- Portfolio of Products or Services (Airbnb, TripAdvisor)
- Membership Accounts for Users
- Planning, Booking, or Checkout facility
A variety of skills are required to build a database website. Hiring a freelancer for this type of website project is not a great idea. We suggest you hire a professional web design and development agency like WiseBusinessPlans Web Design for this website.
The cost of building such a website is $5000-$15,000.
E-Commerce Website
An e-commerce website is used for selling goods or booking services online. E-commerce websites can be of any size. You can have a one-product website and you can build the next Amazon.
For self-employed and micro businesses, a website builder works fine. You can start with WooCommerce, Wix, Shopify, or Squarespace.
The upfront cost of an e-commerce website with a builder varies between $150-$500 and the monthly cost can be anywhere between $10-$150.
A freelancer can also develop an eCommerce website for you. However, we only suggest hiring a freelancer for a small business website when you are not expecting much business through your website. An e-commerce website made by a freelancer can cost anywhere between $1000-$5000.
For any business looking to shift its focus to online sales or going online only, a web development agency is the best solution.
A good eCommerce website is one that you can scale. Your startup idea takes time to shoot and if your website is not ready to handle the growth phase of your startup, it can stop or hinder growth.
For this reason, a web development agency is the best choice with its diverse team, a great range of skills available in-house, and the ability to work with you five years from now or ten years from now.
Hiring a website design and development agency for your eCommerce website is the most expensive option. You can expect to spend anywhere between $10,000-$150,000.
How to Reduce Web Development Cost?
Are you interested in getting your website done at a fraction of the cost? Here are four ways to do it.
Partly DIY your website
For some business websites, you can do some of the website work. Check the project scope and see what responsibilities you can take.
Or, you can use a website builder for a small website. Some website builders are easy to use and scalable like Shopify, Squarespace, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.
You can reduce images, pictures, and graphics costs by taking the images yourself or using royalty-free images from Pexels, Freepiks, Unsplash, etc.
Use Themes and Templates for your Website when Possible
Many free website templates work great for brochure and eCommerce websites. You can use WordPress templates, Shopify templates, etc.
Build Fewer Webpages
See if you need a few web pages. You can make a brochure website work with 6,7 pages also.
Use Content from Old Website
If you already have a website and you are looking to give it a fresh look and add more functionalities, you can use content from your old website. This will save you in copywriting costs and visual assets costs.
Costly Website Design & Development Mistakes To Avoid
When working on your website project, be careful about these mistakes and avoid them however you can.
No or Few Calls to Action
A call to action tells visitors what action you want them to perform. A Call to Action (CTA) converts visitors to leads. Make sure you are using CTAs on your website appropriately.
Use Analytics and Webmaster Tools
If you have invested in a website, analytics will help you measure the return on your investment. You can use Google Analytics, Bing Analytics, and other website tools to track website performance like traffic, visitors, the average stay time on your website and get email leads.
Do Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
You developed your website to raise awareness about your business, market your brand, and get more customers; SEO helps you achieve all these goals by showing your website high in SERPs. When you are making a list of common web design mistakes to avoid, keep SEO among your priorities.
(Almost) Missing Contact Information
Customers don’t want to put effort into finding your contact information on your website. The web dynamics require you to be readily available so that people can contact you on your website asap. Consider displaying your contact number, using a floating chat button, or a contact us form.
This is necessary to convert website visitors to leads and, eventually, paying customers.
Keep your Website Fast
A slow website causes a loss in ranking and many visitors may bounce back. In fact, as Google research shows, a whopping 53% of visitors will leave your site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Poor Mobile Site
The world wide web has shifted to mobile. Most people use mobile sites. If your website is not optimized for mobile, you are not making the best of it. Also, Google will not rank a site that is not friendly for mobile viewing.
Why hiring a professional is the best way to build a website?
These reasons will help you understand why hiring a professional for developing your website is the most suitable option.
- Professional skills are not replaceable by tools, plugins, or website builders
- DIY websites are mostly not scalable whereas professionally-done websites are
- A professional will help you solve any issues down the road
- DIY websites don’t work for medium and large businesses
- Website builders’ support isn’t great, you can’t depend on them for such issues
WiseBusinessPlans Prices for Website Design and Development
Get worry-free website development experience with WiseBusinessPlans. Check out our packages for website design and development.
- Landing Page: $999 with one landing page with copy written, one stock image, the royalty-free stock images, and one banner design
- Starter Package: $1455 with 5 web pages, 5 pages written, 5 stock images, and 5 royalty-free images
- Professional Package: $2460 with 7 web pages, 7 pages written, 7 stock images, 7 royalty-free images
- E-Commerce Package: $3855 with 10 web pages, 10 pages written, 10 stock images, and 15 royalty-free images
We also offer logo design, explainer video creation, and content writing.
You can get a business website at Net 30, Net 60, or Net 90 credit terms. That means you can get your website within this week and make payment within 30, 60, or 90 days.
Explore the full range of our business website design, development, and maintenance services.
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FAQs:
The cost of a business website can vary depending on several factors, such as the complexity of the design, the number of pages, the need for custom features or functionalities, and whether you hire a professional web designer or use DIY website builders. On average, a basic business website can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
In addition to the initial development cost, there are ongoing costs to consider, such as domain name registration (typically around $10-20 per year), web hosting fees (ranging from $5-30 per month), and potential maintenance or updates depending on your website’s needs.
Yes, for e-commerce websites, there are additional costs to consider, including SSL certificates for secure transactions (ranging from $50-200 per year), payment gateway fees (varies based on the provider and transaction volume), and potentially inventory management or integration with other software solutions.
Yes, it is possible to build a business website for free using DIY website builders or content management systems like WordPress. However, keep in mind that free options may have limitations in terms of design options, functionalities, and branding. Additionally, you may still incur costs for domain registration and hosting.
Several factors can influence the cost of a business website, including the complexity of the design, the need for customizations or unique features, the inclusion of e-commerce functionality, the level of SEO optimization, and whether you hire professionals or opt for DIY solutions. It’s best to consult with web design experts or agencies to get an accurate estimate based on your specific requirements.
Hey!
Thanks for the info on small business website cost. I read it all and it helped me a lot. I would like to ask if there is an official cost page for all the services that wise business provides?
Hey Farank, Thanks for your feedback. Yes, We have our own website costings for small businesses providing all services. If you want info about the cost of the website that we offer please click here to learn more.