Real costs of building and maintaining a website in 2020

Breakdown of Some Common Website Components and Their Costs

The cost of a website can vary dramatically based on the specific components included. As you can probably guess, a website with basic functionality is going to cost much less, both initially and over time, than a site that acts as an online store or integrates with a company database or piece of software.

This section will break down some common website components and how much you should expect to pay for them. Some of the components in this website cost breakdown have initial investments, while others are ongoing. We frequently update this page to ensure that the amounts listed below are current and fit into the average cost of website design for 2021.

Domain name

Your website’s domain name is the unique name that appears in the URL for your website. It’s kind of like your online fingerprint — it is specific to you. Although other websites may have domain names similar to it, your domain name is yours alone. However, to get the rights to your domain name, you have to register it annually, which factors into the cost of website maintenance.

Your domain name is important because it creates an online identity for your website. Having a domain name establishes credibility with site visitors and potential customers while helping you further grow your brand. It is also important because if you ever change your hosting, your domain name will go with you. Lastly, your domain name is important because it expands your opportunities for online advertising, which has become necessary for attracting traffic to today’s websites.

Cost: £5 to £15 per year

Website hosting

Hosting is simply the service that allows your website to be accessed by other Internet users. A web host will provide space on its server for your website, allowing people around the world to view it. Website hosting is also a factor in your website costs.

Hosting is important because the quality of your host can affect page loading time, the tech support you receive if your site crashes, and the ability of your website to expand in the future. To put it simply, your hosting provider has a huge impact on how your website functions. Although free hosting services exist, their tech support (if they supply any at all) will not be as good as paid hosting services.

Cost: £60 to £180 a year (depending on traffic and hosting features)

Content management system (cms)

A CMS will allow you or your employees to edit information on your website without having to edit any of the code or mess with any of the files you already have in place. A CMS makes it extremely easy for you to adjust the little things here and there just in case you need to add something later or if you want full control of what is shown on your website.

A CMS like Perch CMS has an one-off license cost, while others may have monthly or yearly licensing fees or usage charges associated with them. What you choose depends on what specific functionality you need your website to have. Choosing a free option such as Wordpress may limit you, but it’ll also help to cut down costs.

Cost: £0 to £5.000 to set up + plus any licensing costs.

Ecommerce functionality

Ecommerce is another moving part for websites that might require a major effort in overall design and development to make it functional. The addition of ecommerce functionality requires extensive testing of shopping carts, payment options, and shipping systems, as well as the time spent setting up products and ensuring their individual pages display correctly to shoppers.

Typically, there are some initial cost to add ecommerce functionality. It comes from the amount of time it takes to ensure every component is working, the acquisition of a payment gateway, and any additional effort you may require to integrate your store with shipping or tracking systems hosted elsewhere. While it may only require a single payment on your part, ecommerce inclusion can have a big effect on the cost of a web site.

Cost: from £3.000 for a typical, bespoke set up.

Copywriting

Copywriting goes back to the number of pages your website has. The more pages it will have, the more copywriting it will need, making copywriting an unexpected factor to website creation cost for many first-time webmasters.

Copywriting ties into search engine optimization (SEO): The content on your website needs to contain the keywords relevant to your products or services, because if it doesn’t, your site won’t be found in search for those terms. It takes a trained writer with knowledge of SEO to create copy that contains the right keywords and compels your visitors to take action. Some of the bigger content pieces may add more to your website creation costs than you’d like, but content is king — and it pays dividends.

Cost: £50 to £100 for 1000 words usually.

Seo

To attract the most visitors as possible, you must fully optimize your website for search engines. SEO services can range from very inexpensive to thousands of pounds per month, depending on how much work you want to put into the ranking and visibility of your new site. After it’s designed and developed, make sure you include SEO in your costs of a website to make sure your estimate is as accurate as possible.

SEO services typically include multiple ongoing methods and tactics. The money you invested in your professional web design cost won’t mean much if visitors can’t find your site, and SEO is critical to making your site visible.

Cost: from £200 – £300 to sky is the limit per month.

Multimedia design

Whether you desire to have an interactive and eye-catching demo for your website or you just want an interesting header, multimedia design is what you need. Pricing varies from firm to firm, but the investment can give your website an invaluable element that engages visitors.

Interactive website design can be very inexpensive, or it can be extremely costly, depending on the functionality of what is being developed. For example, a simple multimedia slider may only cost a few hundred dollars, if that, while the creation of an interactive on-site application or tool to visualize colors, patterns, clothing, etc. could cost tens of thousands of dollars to create from scratch. If you want to make a powerful impression on your visitors, it can become a huge part of the cost of website design and development.

Cost: £250 to £10,000 + (depending on level of interactivity required)

Database integration

Database integration can lead to some really cool additions to your website, but a portion of your cost depends on how much development is necessary and how much time it will take to fully implement and test the integration. Integration can be a valuable addition to any online presence, which also makes it an essential consideration in the cost of a new website. Websites that have database integration tend to have a lot more things that can go wrong.

Cost: from £2,000 to anywhere really depending on spec.

Ongoing website maintenance

Website maintenance is the entire process involved in updating and managing a website once it is online. This includes ensuring that your website’s hardware and software are working well and that your site is up to date with the latest products and features. In general, there are a lot of different elements that can impact how much website maintenance costs.

Site maintenance is important because it affects how interested your visitors are in your site, it allows you to maintain your search engine rankings, and it essentially keeps your website functioning. You need to be willing to spend the money to maintain your website after it launches, or else your site will likely fall into disarray and lose any chance of ranking on search engine results pages.

Cost: from £250 a month depending on number of updates required.

So How Much Should a Website Cost?

In conclusion, the cost of a web site can vary greatly depending upon the site’s features, its needed Internet marketing services, aesthetic qualities, and the company that is creating the web design. While the cost of a basic website has dropped, the need for more interactivity has helped hold steady the price of a high-end, competitive design.

As of 2021 you should expect to pay between £2,250 and £10,000 for a fully functional, tailored business website. This price may be lower if your site has very few pages and minimal functionality, or higher if you require custom development, extensive design, or interactive elements and advanced integration.

The price of a website will continue to change as time goes on and new technologies and features are developed and become popular. Because of this, it may be wise to invest in a website maintenance plan so that you do not have to pay for a new site again in a few years.

Planning for Your New Website

When determining the budget for your website design or redesign project, it is important to take the costs into consideration. However, the costs of your website project are not the only factors influencing the profit that you are able to make from your site. As mobile internet usage continues to surge, designing for mobile users is imperative. Investing money in creating a responsive Web design may allow you to make future conversions and profits that outweigh the initial cost of redesigning you site.

Planning ahead and finding the exact cost of your new web site design or redesign in 2021 will keep your project on track. Timelines, features, and custom design factors will all vary greatly based on the price your website requirements.