When you decide to start a website one of the first questions that you will probably ask is, “Can I afford it?” The cost of having a webpage created for you can vary from a few hundred dollars to extremely expensive. There are several factors that affect the price.
Many people assume that starting a website is as simple as registering a domain name, purchasing a yearly web hosting package and then using the perfect pre-designed theme. While it is possible to start a site this way, you will quickly discover that your site is just like every other one out there and that the page isn’t doing what you wanted it to do.
This is the reason why you should choose to have the page designed for you by a professional. It will cost you more money up front, but will leave you a properly functioning, one of a kind website that is capable of competing within top search engines.
Once you have a general idea of what you want your website to look like you can start to budget the cost of designing it. Each of the following things you may consider a necessity to your site and each of their cost varies.
- Is this a brand new website or a site that you would like a redesign? Obviously the cost of a new site is significantly more. The base cost of a redesigned site on average is $200, whereas, the cost to start new averages at about $500.
- Is the site going to require management for content or a blog? If so, you can figure in another $200 into your budget. If the system for managing content and blog still needs install, that will be about another $200.
- Will you have a mobile website? That will cost another $500, plus an additional $100 for each mobile device, such as cell phones and tablets.
- How much content do you need created for your website and how much will you supply yourself? For each page of typed content that you supply, you will be charged about $150 for each page. For the pages that you need created, you be charged around $500 for each page.
- What special feature, SEO, social media, etcetera, will you need for the site?
- Newsletters- $400
- Photo Gallery- $200
- SEO- $500 to $4000
- Social Media- $500 to $2000
- Surveys/Contact Forms- $300
The figures here are just a price range and may vary according to the needs of each individual or business. There are several other special options that you may require for your website. Each of these will have prices that range from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Will the website require multimedia, such as video or flash? This will cost around $1000 total, $500 to create the multimedia and another $500 to put it on your webpage.
- What are you planning to do about graphics? Supplying them yourself will cost around $200. If you choose to use a web template, that will cost about $400. If you plan to have a design firm create your websites designs for you that will be near $1000, at the very least. Your website will probably also require buttons and icons. If so, that adds about another $300 to the budget. What it comes down to is, the more graphics for the page, and the more original the graphics are, the more money it will cost you.
- Who is going to maintain your website? The cost for maintenance of a website is going to be, at the least, $50 a month.
So when it all comes down to it you can spend anywhere from $1200 for a basic website, $1400 if you add a few extras to your site and the cost of a full website on average runs about $2800. However, these prices do not include anything special. If you add in things such as mobile access, monthly maintenance, and videos your website could end up costing you about $10,000 with monthly fees of around $500. Like many other products and services, you get what you pay for. Therefore, the more you spend, the more unique and productive of a website you will have.