A website is one of your most important assets. Alone, a well designed site can bring in the boost in revenue you need to beat the competition. Today we will be looking at how much it really costs to build a website.
Website costs
A website can cost anywhere from £100 upwards depending on several factors. These include your website type, features and functionalities and, of course, who builds it for you.
Website types and costs
While there are many different types of websites, for this article, we have broken them down into 4 basic categories.
Basic website cost
A basic website typically is a 1 – 5 page website with very little responsive features. A basic site may or may not be mobile optimised, and this will factor into the cost.
A basic website can cost between £100 – £2000 depending on whether you build it yourself using a site builder, or hire a freelancer to do it for you.
Professional business website cost
Professional business websites are a step higher than basic websites. Typically 10 – 20 pages and include a range of features such as social media integration, responsive design, content management system and more. As well as being larger in size, they have on site SEO compatibility, such as sitemaps and schema and are seen as more credible and authoritative by Google.
Hiring a professional agency is advisable for professional site builds and start from £3000 upwards depending on functionality and size of the web design. It’s important to choose an agency that specialises in small business websites.
E-commerce website cost
E-commerce websites are an entire spectrum unto themselves and costs can vary quite a bit. They’re also quite expensive as they include a whole new range of features including order management systems, live chat, and SSL certificates.
Regardless of how you build them, e-commerce websites are expensive to create and maintain. A site that fulfils all your needs can cost anywhere between £5000 – £25000.
Bespoke website cost – Typically built by agencies
Lastly, bespoke websites are corporate beasts that have a lot more functionality. They cater to large numbers of visitors daily and an even larger amount of information exchange. These are normally built with several wireframes and bespoke diagrams to map out the design exactly to fit with the clients vision and ideas.
Bespoke websites include heavy features such as databases, registrations and logins, and a large amount of subpages. Because of these, bespoke sites are expensive to build and maintain. They can cost anywhere from £5000 upwards.
Additional costs
So far, we have only discussed how much it costs to build a website. However, there are many other costs associated with a website. Most of these are ongoing costs that need to paid on a regular basis. Additional website costs include:
- Domain name
- Web hosting
- Web content and updates
- SEO and marketing
How long does it take to create a website?
Usually a website can be finished in a few weeks to a couple of months. How long your website takes depends on a few factors. These include the type, size, and complexity of your site, as well as who is building it. Bigger sites take a longer time. However, DIY website builders tend to be the quickest option, while designers and agencies can take a few weeks.
