On average, though, it costs around $200 to build a website, with an ongoing cost of around $50 per month to maintain it. This estimate is higher if you hire a designer or developer – expect an upfront charge of around $6,000, with an ongoing cost of $1,000 per year.
| Website Feature | Upfront Website Cost |
|---|---|
| Website Domain | $12 - $60 |
| Website Hosting | $35 - $600 |
| SSL Certificate | $0 - $200 |
| Website Template or Theme | $0 - $200 |
| Ecommerce Functionality | $20 - $24,000 |
| Website Content | $0 - $5,000 |
| Apps and Integrations | $0 - $100 |
| SEO and Marketing | $0 - $90 |
Web Designer Breakdown
So, what exactly are the costs involved in hiring a web designer? The table below breaks down the different factors that you pay for, to give you a better idea of exactly what you’re paying for, and the average costs involved:
| Factors | Hiring a Web Designer |
|---|---|
| Setup | $160 |
| Design & Building | $5,000 |
| Content Creation | $500 |
| Training to Use it | $600 |
| Maintenance | $500 |
| Total | $6,760 |
This highlights some of the often unseen costs of using a web designer, such as having to train to use your own website after they’ve made it. The average cost of hiring a web designer to build your website is $6,760.
You’ll likely find there’s some overlap here with the WordPress building method, because many designers and developers use WordPress to create their sites.
In fact, one way of cutting down the cost of hiring a web designer is to buy a premium WordPress theme and then ask the designer to customize it for you, rather than getting them to build you a site from scratch.
Website Content Creation
Once the framework of your site has been designed, you need content for your website. Designers can charge for content creation by the hour, or by project:
- $50 – $80 per hour
- $250 – $500 minimum charge per project. This may include a minimum of 3 pages, and additional pages will be a slightly cheaper.
- Logo or branding design will be about $100 – $1500 depending on the extent of the branding design you need.
You may also want to budget for ongoing maintenance costs. That’s usually about $100 – $500 per year, provided you don’t make any major alterations to your website design.
Here’s a summary of the various costs involved in hiring a professional to build your site for you:
| Website Setup Costs | Hosting Cost: $5 – $250/month Hiring a Pro to Set Up: $50 – $200 (1-time fee) Time: 1 to 6 hours |
|---|---|
| Website Builder Software Learning Costs | Paid Tutorials: $50/month Time to Learn Basics: Few hours Time to Learn WordPress: Weeks |
| Website Design Costs | Basic Templates: $35 – $50 Premium Templates: $80 – $200 Template Alterations: $300 – $1,000 Custom Design: $5,000 – $10,000+ |
| Website Building Costs | Free if you do it yourself (but will cost you time) Hourly Costs of a Designer: $50 – $80/hour Average Cost of Content Population: $500 – $5,000* The range is wide as it depends on how much content you have, and how many pages. |
| Website Maintenance Costs | Developer Cost: $100 – $180 per hour Estimated Annual Cost: $500 – $1,000 |
Web Designer Website Cost: Summary
Average price range: $6,000 – $10,000+
Two charges:
Upfront cost: $5,000 – $10,000+
Ongoing charge: $500 – $1,000 per year
What do you pay for?
- Security and hosting included in some packages (always check)
- Web design
- Website creation
- Content creation
- Ongoing maintenance
Source: https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com