HOW MUCH DOES A WEBSITE COST?
TYPES AND FIXED COSTSHow much does a website cost? The answer is certainly not that simple because so many factors come into play. There is often a tendency to underestimate the building process that is carried out, forgetting that a website that is visible and accessible to all is the last step.
If you continue reading this page, you will discover how much a website cost, the variables to take into account when building the different existing types of portals, and their complexities.
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How much does a professional website cost?
To understand how much a website cost, the first step is to carry out a careful preliminary analysis. During this phase, you will need to define in detail the purpose of your website, the products or services you want to offer, identifying the goals to achieve, and your potential competitors.
Once you have studied the competition and their positioning, you will need to develop a strategy aimed at market penetration and the realization of your communication project.
Now you can use all the elements identified to create your website. You can start building your portal, put it online, and optimize it with the aim of achieving the best search engine ranking.
The construction work does not end here, as you will need to maintain and update your website to keep it well-positioned and acquire traffic.
Therefore, understanding the cost of a website becomes essential to optimize initial investments and contain update and maintenance costs.
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How much you pay for a website by type
A successful website is the inseparable whole of a number of demanding activities, but you need to know the different types of sites in order to get an idea of how much a website costs. Depending on the type, the average cost of a website can range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars.
There are essentially three types of sites and each has its own costs and complexities.
Static site or showcase site
This type of site does not have many pages, the user can view the content but cannot perform any actions within the site. Changes to the information present can only be made by the administrator or the portal owner. So, how much does a showcase website cost? Given the scarcity of interaction, the price is around an average of $ 200.
Dynamic site
As the name suggests, this type of website allows the user to interact dynamically with its contents. Taking a discussion forum as an example, users can perform different actions and interact with each other, producing conversations. The content adapts to the user, changing depending on the time of day, connection, language, or browser used. In addition, they are separated from the layout of the site, making operations such as maintenance and updating quick and easy. All these factors make a dynamic site more complex and articulated than a simple showcase site. But how much does a dynamic website cost? Usually, the implementation of a dynamic portal is around $ 1,500.
E-commerce site
An e-commerce site is made up of several pages and the customer has numerous opportunities to interact with the content. Therefore, it is very complex because the user can not only buy a product and pay for it, but also perform actions such as creating his or her own wish list, leaving reviews, and consulting previous orders. How much does it cost to set up a website to sell online? Using a free CMS (Content Management System), the cost of setting up a simple e-commerce site can reach $ 2,000-3,000 on average. Building a more structured e-commerce site can require an average investment of around $ 20,000-30,000.
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How much does it cost to create and maintain a website?
As seen above, the cost of a website is closely linked to its specificity and the market in which it is intended to operate. In addition to these factors, it is the various components, including maintenance and updating, that determine how much a website costs. Below are the essential ones.
- Hosting and domain: the price of hosting is the cost of ‘renting’ the server, the platform on which a site’s data is stored. These can be hosted on a fractional space or on a dedicated server. How much does it cost to host a website? Of course, the cost of hosting varies depending on the performance that can be achieved, e.g. the speed of the site with many pages.
- Responsive graphics: another important cost is that of building the front end, the graphic appearance of the site. Nowadays, most users navigate from mobile devices, so the site must have responsive graphics, which adapt to the device from which the user visits the site. Usually, the cost of the site is paid once, when you create your site or when you want to change its graphics. From the WordPress control panel, as well as from other CMSs, you can download free or purchase thousands of professional ready-made templates, unless the graphics are made ad hoc by professionals.
- User Experience: In addition to the visual aspect, the User Experience must also be taken into account. A good website must be organized in such a way that the user can interact with its contents in an easy and intuitive manner.
- CMS: The Content Management System is part of the internal structure of the site, collecting the development codes and functions with which all content on the site is managed, created, and ordered. CMSs may be chargeable, free, or initially offer a free service, to be renewed and upgraded for a fee.
- Texts: Another feature to be taken into account is the textual content of the site, descriptions, articles, and any other type of text. In a static site, the expense is only incurred initially. If, on the other hand, you want to keep the site up-to-date over time, with new content constantly being added, then you usually build an editorial plan with texts that are periodically produced by specially appointed people. If you want to build a multilingual site, you will also have to consider the cost of translations.
- Images and videos: the eye also wants its part and therefore a site must have attractive graphic content. The web offers the possibility of drawing on free image and video libraries, but if you want to use customized content, this expense must also be included in the site’s budget.
- E-commerce: a site dedicated to e-commerce needs a specific structure that enables online sales and payment management. Currently, there are systems such as Woocommerce (a plugin that can be installed on WordPress) that allow the creation of small and medium-sized professional e-commerce sites in a very simple way, while significantly reducing costs. How much does a Woocommerce site cost? Since it is a free CMS, the price should not exceed $3,000, but can vary according to complexity. In fact, if you have tens of thousands of products to sell online, Woocommerce will not be sufficient and you will need to develop a more complex site with higher costs.
- Maintenance: the cost of maintaining a website is a very important aspect to take into account. For a site to always perform at its best, it is good practice to carry out continuous updates and checks on the status of the site, taking action to correct any bugs. How much does it cost to maintain a website? Maintenance can be relatively inexpensive.
- Backup: backing up the data on your site is essential if you want to ensure that you do not lose all the work you have done due to possible anomalies or viruses. The backup is performed automatically by the hosting and must therefore be renewed at the same time.
Additional costs
How much does a website cost considering the factors listed? In spite of all the listed costs and activities, it is not certain that the site will be reachable by potential customers! In order not to nullify all the efforts made, it is necessary to carry out certain activities that increase the actual cost of a website.
- On-page SEO: right from the site-building phase, doing SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is crucial.
- Website promotion: promoting your portal through the use of online and offline advertising can generate more awareness than your own website and is necessary to reach the desired target group.
- Updates: to bring constant traffic to the site, remember to always carry out updates, both content-related and CMS-related.
- Specific functions and apps: if you want to offer special functions on your site that are specific and distinctive to the service you offer, you will have to rely on experienced developers.
In addition, there are certain costs of a website that expire annually and have to be renewed. Among the main ones are the renewal of hosting and domain, the CMS, and the cost of database management and backup. Depending on the choices made at the time of creation and the complexity of your site, the cost of a site per year can vary on average from $ 150 to $ 1,000.
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Better an open source or proprietary CMS?
Knowing in principle how much a website cost is certainly important for making your choices. As mentioned earlier, you must bear in mind that the cost of a website is also determined by the choice of CMS. I will now explain the different aspects of the two types of systems for managing the content of a site, i.e. Open Source or proprietary CMS.
An open-source CMS is an application with an open development code. Systems such as the aforementioned WordPress can be used freely, but the flexibility of using the code by anyone with a minimum of programming skills makes them vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Furthermore, Open Source CMSs do not have dedicated support but boast large communities of developers with whom to exchange views. How much does a WordPress website cost? The most widely used CMS in the world offers a practical and intuitive free version, although it is difficult to establish an average cost due to the variable prices of customization of elements, which are possible thanks to the wide variety of existing modules and add-ons.
In contrast, a proprietary CMS is a system with a code that is only accessible to its owner. This allows for greater security and faster and more efficient development of new functionalities. Furthermore, proprietary content management systems have the advantage of having dedicated support available for every need, although start-up and maintenance costs are rather high. In general, a proprietary CMS has fixed running costs and allows a better assessment of how much a website costs.
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Freelance Web developer vs Web agency
How do you know whether to go to a freelance web developer or a web agency to get your site set up? How much does it cost to have a website developed by professionals? Again, the answer varies based on your long-term goals, your needs, and the functionality your site offers.
A freelancer such as a freelance web developer is able to establish a direct relationship with the customer, thus guaranteeing highly customized and particularly creative work. How much does it cost to have a website set up by a web developer? On average, the cost ranges from $ 500 up to $ 3000 in the most complex cases.
A web agency, on the other hand, is a more or less structured SME with various professional figures at its core. An agency guarantees faster and more professional, but less creative work. How much does a website developed by a web agency cost? Costs are higher, starting from $1,000 up to more than $ 20,000 for more structured sites.
Conclusions
Now that you have learned in detail all the factors and components that influence how much a website costs, you can finally make a decision and take the first steps to bring your business online. By doing so, you can reach more customers and grow your business even further.
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