Misconceptions about the expenditure required for a website can make people feel reluctant towards building their own website. They often find themselves in a dilemma while considering the services of a web developer or software engineer for this purpose. In fact, it is the fear of the unknown that scares such thoughts away.

 

On the contrary, websites can always add immense value to any business they are about. While they may be the sole source of income for an online business, any normal business can also grow its website to the extent that it substitutes a big chunk of its in-store sales. Internet is all about bringing the world to one’s couch in his bedroom, then why should your business linger behind in the race?

 

Let’s look at some generic estimates about how much would it take for you to build your own website and what should be some economical choices to make.

 

Outsourcing Vs. In-house team

This decision has less to do with the financial factors and more about what do you want from your website. To be honest with the remote way of working going big it is now about expertise, cost-effectiveness, and service. Outsourcing is usually a better option as many studies have proven many times. Whether your website acts as an add-on and has nothing to do with your core business or you are a full-on online business outsourcing to the right team can work wonders for you at half the cost.

 

With ample online products, tools for collaboration and remote management being the new normal outsourcing is more convenient these days. If you are an online business and your website is everything for your business an outsourced team works great as well. Remote teams these days can provide more agility and full-time 24/7 support for your core business. It is simply like your physical store; people can only buy from your store if it is open or in our case, up and running.

 

Additionally, it may also help to cut costs as an outsourcing company is more cost-effective than an in-house team. In the end, it eventually depends on your business’s requirements and how well-trained labor is needed for your website. Outsourcing ensures that your work is being performed by experienced and supervised individuals who live and breathe web development day-in and day-out.

Cost of Website

Now let’s come to the main point. How much will it cost you to create a website? It is very difficult to give an exact figure that you will need to pay to get a website. Rather the website cost can only be calculated after keeping in the mind the design, features, and other attributes that you wish to see in the website. The rule is simple, the more attributes, the higher the cost you will have to bear. But on average, it costs around $2500 – $100,000 for website creation.

 

Ways to Create Website

This is one of the most important questions when you are calculating the cost of the website. Although it affects all the aspects of the website here we are only concerned about the cost. You can create a website in several ways:

 

a.) Using a website builder is one of the most common techniques these days if you want a simple 5-page marketing website for registering your online presence. They are also very cheap to use. On average it costs $18-$20 per month using a website builder.

 

b.) Another very common method is using the word press or similar open-source frameworks. It is free to use but you might have to pay some amount for its premium features. It is usually in the form of plugins.

 

c.) You can also hire a website designer to create the website for you. This option is most feasible when you want a large website. Using an expert might cost you a couple of thousand dollars depending on the experience of the expert and the nature of the work.

Website Creation

Website creation is a complex process and involves a number of phases. In order to better analyze the cost, you must understand the cost that will be incurred at every phase of the process.

 

I.) Website Domain

Website domain is the name of the website by which it is recognized. You have to get it from the domain name registrar in exchange for some fee. You have to pay the fee upward as well as yearly to maintain the name. It costs $5 – $12 to get a name and then it can cost you $5-$15 to maintain the name.

 

II.) Design

UI design stands for user interface design. It is what your viewers see when they open the website. It is the most important component of the website. If the users won’t like what they see, they will not use the website. So you not only have to make the website attractive for users but also easy to navigate. The more user-friendly you make your website the more popular it will be with your target audience. However, it can also cost you more money. The best people in the business charge fees that may seem high to some but it pays in the long run.

 

UX design is the user experience design. This means that how the user feels while using the website. If the user is facing any difficulty navigating or understanding the website, most likely he will not come back to the site again. So in order to maintain user attention, you need to create a website that is easy to use which can be costly.

 

You have multiple options to create the design for your website. You can try it yourself with the help of a website builder or any other similar platform. It can cost up to $500. But if you are not skilled, then it can be difficult. You can hire a freelancer designer or you can even hire an agency to do it for you. It might cost $1500 – $25,000. But you will have the best work and will be able to get a good quality website.

 

However, apart from design creation, you will also have to pay for its maintenance. Usually, website owners keep on upgrading the design so that the users do not get bored. It can cost around $2,000-$15,000.

 

III.) Front End Development

What users see, when they open the website for the first time is very important. As it is said in English, “The First Impression Is The Last Impression.” So if you want to attract an audience, you must have an attractive first page. This is where front end developers come in. These are the individuals having expertise in CSS, HTML, and Javascript. They create the front page of the website.

 

You can create it yourself if you have the appropriate knowledge and specific skills to do so. However, it is more appropriate to do it with the help of an expert to get a flawless experience. It is a lengthy process and takes weeks to complete. So, usually, developers charge from $3000 – $15,000 depending upon the work.

 

IV.) Back End Development

The smooth working of a website is not possible if there is not a strong back end development already done. Back end development is even more important than front end development. The back end development is responsible for the integration with third-parties, answering complex queries and most importantly data processing. If the data is not processed, the users can not get their desired outcomes from the website and thus there is then no need of such website.

 

Knowing the importance of it, you should pay special attention to the back end development. Usually, it costs around $4000 – $ 12,000 for this. But considering the fact that back end development is the heart of a website, this amount is not much.

 

V.) Content Management System (CMS) Development

Websites are created as a means to display the content for the users. There is absolutely no use of a website if it does not contain any content. As time changes you might also need to change the content to keep it up to date. You might also want to remove it entirely or even add some new information. You can not contact the developers every time you need to make some changes. So instead you should develop a Content Management System commonly known as CMS.

 

CMS is used by people to change the information on the website. The development of this system takes around 4-8 weeks and can cost you $3000 – $8000 depending upon the complexity of the system that you need.

VI.) Website Hosting

Once the website is created and is ready to be shown to the users, the most crucial stage arrives. This stage is called website hosting. Website hosting is the process in which the individuals and companies host their website on space provided by another company so that their website can remain active 24/7 for the users. Usually, it is done via cloud servers these days.

 

The website hosting companies charge the websites’ owners for the space that is being used. There are a number of such companies and all of them have their different prices. On average it can cost around $100 – $10,000. The most popular names in the business are AWS, Google Cloud, Digital Ocean, Godaddy, and Hostgator.

 

Website Maintenance

Website maintenance is a very important aspect that you should keep in your mind when you are calculating the cost of the website. Although some of the maintenance costs have already been mentioned above, it generally costs $5000 – $80,000 annually in maintaining a website.

 

This expense includes all the costs such as domain name fee, design maintenance, and improvements, finding and removing bugs that affect the working of the website and also the web hosting charges.

 

Website Creation Rates by Regions

Website development cost also varies largely with the region in which it is created. Making a website in United States, Europe or Australia is much more expensive than creating it in Asia. The main reason behind it is the difference in labor costs.

 

Labor is extremely cheap in South Asian countries like India because of the low living costs and high availability of engineers. In developed countries, employment laws protect the citizens and thus employers are bound to pay more. In developing countries, things become different because of the readily available labor force, low wage rates, and to some extent, currency translations as well. The average pay of a developer in US is $70/hour but it drops to $15/hour in India.

 

India is not only the most favorable region because of the low costs but also because of the fact that it is becoming a hub of IT specialists in the region. It produces a large number of developers who then become part of large IT companies around the world.

 

So, if you are looking for a good website but the budget is limited, you should outsource it to some Indian agency. You can get a fully functional website for $500 – $50,000.

Website Marketing Expenses

Creating a website is one thing and making it popular with help of appropriate marketing is another. You can not expect people to visit your website if they don’t know about its existence in the first place. Website owners use a number of techniques to promote their websites.

 

1.) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is very common terminology when it comes to marketing. In this method, the website owners use such phrases and words in their content that enables their website to come in top search when relevant topics are searched.

 

As easy as it sounds, it is a very tricky process. You might have to hire an agency if you don’t have prior experience. It may cost you $500 – $5,000 per month.

 

2.) Social Media Marketing

Social media is used by almost everyone. A few years ago it was a pure source of entertainment but now it has become a business source. Companies post content on different social media sites. You can also do it for your website. It also matters how many social media platforms you want to consider. There are various methods to perform social media marketing by using videos, articles, infographics, polls, contests, holding challenges, trivia etc.

 

3.) Paid Advertisements

One of the most popular methods to attract instant traffic is going in for paid advertisements on search engines or popular websites. Some of the most popular platforms where people put up such ads are facebook, Instagram, twitter and Google search. Google Adwords is one of the most used paid advertisements platforms. Then there are websites like Forbes, CNN where you can display your ads by paying a suitable fee.

 

4.) Content Marketing

By some estimates, content marketing and placement offers the best return on investment. This involves generating content in text, video, audio, or visual form and distribute it via various platforms. The content will attract users who ultimately will turn your customers sooner or later. It takes more time for conversions but the results are generally good.

 

Conclusion

So it is not easy to estimate what the exact cost of creating a website will be. But if you know what type of website you want for yourself and you know the general rates of different relevant processes, you can make yourself an estimate. Generally, it costs somewhere between $5000 – $300,000 while making am awesome website. But yours can cost even more or less depending upon how you want it.