Web Design Pricing – How Much Does a Website Cost in 2023?

Your business website is your primary digital asset, functioning as a central hub for all your online marketing and sales.

A well-designed, smooth-running website is the perfect place to educate prospects about your company, demonstrate your brand’s commitment to quality, and sell your products and services to customers.

On the other hand, a slow, cumbersome, and poorly-designed website spoils the user experience and can seriously harm your brand’s reputation, organic search visibility, and sales.

For this reason, it’s a no-brainer to put some effort into creating a site that presents your business in the best light possible. But whether you’re looking to revamp your existing site or build a new one from scratch, you first need to understand what your options are and how much they’re likely to cost.

That’s exactly why we’ve created this post. Our goal is to give you a solid understanding of what you can expect to pay for a website in 2023, explain the various factors that can influence the cost of a website, and discuss the pros and cons of different web design strategies.

So let’s dive in.

How Much Does A Website Cost in 2023?

Building a business website can cost anywhere from $500 to more than $300,000. Similarly, the cost of maintaining a website can range from $400 to $80,000 per year.

Just like cars, houses, or clothing, the price you pay all depends on what you’re looking for. Suppose you’re bootstrapping a startup and just need a simple, attractive site to promote your products. In that case, you’d need to shell out much less for a website than an enterprise business with massive security or data management requirements.

Moreover, the cost of a website largely depends on whether you build it yourself or hire someone else to do it. Later in the post, we’ll examine the relative benefits of the do-it-yourself approach versus outsourcing the work to professional web designers.

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What Factors Impact the Cost of a Website?

Before we look at different web-build options, it’s important to understand what other variables can influence how much you pay for a website.

Here are some of the main cost factors to keep in mind.

Domain

You can think of your domain name as your website’s unique virtual address, appearing within your site’s URL.

A domain name that closely resembles your business name makes it easier for web users to find your site and establishes a certain degree of trust and credibility around your brand.

A brand-new domain usually costs between $10 and $20 per year, but prices can vary a little depending on the domain registrar you use.

The cost of buying a domain name that someone already owns can often be much higher. You’ll need to contact the owner to negotiate a price, but be prepared to spend hundreds, if not thousands, to secure the domain name.

Hosting

A web hosting provider lets you store your website on its servers so internet users can access it. A good hosting plan offers benefits like regular site backups, quick load speeds, and minimal website downtime.

Although it’s possible to find free hosting plans, businesses are better served by opting for a paid plan that provides tech support.

An annual web hosting bill can range from $25 to $10,000, depending on your chosen plan. Your primary hosting options are:

• Shared hosting: Your website will share server resources with several other websites, so performance may diminish when the server is busy. This is the cheapest hosting option, costing between $25 and $120 per year.
• VPS (Virtual private server): Although you will still technically share server space with other sites, the system uses virtualization technology to allocate dedicated resources to your site. This option costs between $240 and $1,200 per year.
• Dedicated server: This option is best suited for complex websites with multiple functions and higher traffic levels. A dedicated server can cost anywhere from $1,200 to $24,000 per year.

Security

Robust website security features make it easier to protect your users’ information and safeguard your IT systems against harmful viruses. Failure to take appropriate security measures can cost your business dearly in terms of lost revenue and customer confidence.

One of the most important website security features is a Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate, which protects the transfer of sensitive data to and from your site. Users can tell whether a site is TLS-secured by checking to see if there’s an ‘HTTPS’ prefix on the site address and a padlock icon in the web browser.

This certificate usually costs around $60 per year but can reach as high as $1,500 for sites with heavy–duty security needs.

Ecommerce Capabilities

If you run an ecommerce business, your site will need features like a payment gateway, shopping carts, and a shipping system.

The cost of implementing ecommerce functionality will depend on factors such as the size of your inventory and how many orders you typically receive within a given period. The upfront cost of integrating ecommerce features is around $500 for DIY builds but can reach as high as $30,000 for professional builds.

Design

The visual appeal and layout of your website significantly impact its user experience. A site with high-quality visuals and a seamless, intuitive user interface can improve your ability to convert visitors and uphold your brand’s reputation.

Web builders come with a range of free, in-built design templates for you to use. You can also buy premium themes for extra quality and customization, which usually cost around $50 per year. With a web design agency, the design cost will be factored into your quote.

Database Integration

Many businesses need to incorporate information from existing databases into their websites. For example, you might need to provide real-time updates to users around delivery statuses, account balances, or loyalty points.

As you’d expect, the more complex your database integration requirements, the higher the cost is likely to be. This is especially true if you’re using custom databases. Depending on your specific needs, you can expect to pay anywhere from $1,000 to $25,000 for this type of work.

What’s the Best Way to Build Your Website?

Given everything you have to account for when building a website that suits your business needs, what approach should you use to build one? And how much do different approaches cost?

Here are the three main options for building a website.

1. Use a Website Builder

Website builders are online subscription services that let you create websites without the need for any hands-on coding. You simply select a template and customize it to your needs using a drag-and-drop editor.

Some of the most popular website builders include:

• Wix
• Squarespace
• Zyro
• GoDaddy
• Duda
• Shopify
• Weebly
• Jimdo

What’s the Cost of Using a Website Builder?

You can create and maintain a website using a website builder for $7 to $500 per month. This is by far the cheapest way to get a new website up and running.

When you subscribe to a website-building tool, you also get hosting, security features, and in-built themes as part of the package. In most cases, the only additional costs to consider are for any paid plugins you might need to enhance your site’s functionalities.

You may have noticed that some web builders let you create websites for free (such as Weebly and Jimdo). The trouble with using free plans is that your website will contain ads, you won’t get a custom domain, and you won’t receive any ecommerce capabilities. In other words, it’s far better to opt for a paid plan.

Who Is a Website Builder Best For?

Web builders are a popular choice for freelancers, solopreneurs, and startups.

A web builder may suit you if:

• You’re on a tight budget
• You need a website quickly
• You have little to no technical experience

2. Use WordPress

WordPress is an open-source content management system.

Like a web builder, the main attraction of WordPress is that it makes it easy to build and modify websites without the need for any coding. However, WordPress and website builders differ in that the former offers far more flexibility than the latter (but also involves a steeper learning curve).

Initially building its reputation as the go-to platform for bloggers, WordPress is now used for all types of websites, including business sites, freelance portfolios, and ecommerce stores.

What’s the Cost of Using WordPress?

The upfront cost for creating a WordPress site is $40 to $800. The additional monthly maintenance costs range from $10 to $50.

WordPress is technically a free-to-use platform, but you need to pay for things like your domain name, security features, premium themes and plugins, and hosting. For more technical WordPress builds, you may want to hire a freelance developer (which can cost up to $100 an hour).

Who Is WordPress Best For?

WordPress is very popular and used by businesses of all sizes. In fact, 43% of all sites on the internet use WordPress.

A WordPress site may suit you if:

• Your budget isn’t too restricted
• You want fine control over your website design
• You’re willing to put the hours into designing your site

3. Hire a Web Design Agency

A web design agency specializes in building easy-to-navigate, high-converting sites that leave a lasting impression on visitors.

Web designers are responsible for designing a website’s visual experience and user journey. They pay particularly close attention to elements like site layout, graphic design, logos, color palettes, and typography.

Before a web design agency starts work on your site, they’ll need to know your website goals, your target audience, and any specific features you want your site to have. They will then create a wireframe of your site for you to approve before development begins.

What’s the Cost of Hiring a Web Design Agency?

The upfront cost of hiring a web design agency to build a new site is usually between $5,000 and $70,000.

Naturally, the price you pay will depend on the size and complexity of the build, as well as the experience and prestige of the agency in question. Costs will also increase if you want your agency to manage matters like hosting, domains, security, and so on.

One way to reduce the cost of hiring a design agency is to ask them to customize a premium WordPress theme to your specifications. This can be much less expensive than getting your agency to build you a custom site from scratch.

Who Is a Web Design Agency Best For?

Web design agencies are the most common choice for SMBs and big businesses.

Hiring a web design agency may suit you if:

• You have a bigger budget
• You need to custom-build a complex site
• You have no time to work on building and maintaining a site yourself

Get a Free Website Design Estimate

We’ll lay out a step-by-step blueprint that includes the investment required, and demonstrate how we’ll leave your competitors in the dust.

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Final Thoughts

Your website lies at the heart of all your brand’s online activities, so it’s essential to do what you can to make it functional, secure, and easy to use.

We’ve seen that the cost of building a website depends entirely on your specific goals and requirements.

Solopreneurs, freelancers, and startups can create perfectly functional, good-looking sites at a low cost using a web builder or WordPress. On the other hand, businesses with more complex requirements are generally better served by hiring the support of a specialist web design agency.

So how much does a website cost in 2023?

Well, if you use a web builder, the cost lies somewhere between $7 and $500 per month. If you build your own WordPress site, the upfront cost lies between $40 and $800. And if you hire a web design agency, the cost can range from $5,000 to $70,000.

Remember, your website is your most important online asset, so don’t rush into a decision. Take the time to figure out what your business needs from a website, work out a budget, and then pick a solution that best works for you.