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How Much Does A Website Cost?

There are thousands of ways to build a website, which makes getting a rough idea of costs a bit difficult. Fortunately, all of the thousands of website options out there today fall into one of the three ‘ballpark cost buckets’ summarized below–figure out which is the best for you and you’ll have a good enough idea of cost to at least start making some plans.

All of the ways to build a website fall into one of three ‘ballpark cost buckets’.

The DIY (around $0 to a few hundred per month)

You wouldn’t believe how far DIY website options have come in the last few years – there are million-dollar businesses that use Squarespace for their websites.

These sites can establish a web presence for about $30/month (up to a few hundred a month), and are great for experimenting when you’re starting out.

This is some great advice if there’s even a tiny chance DIY may work for you: take an hour and sketch out what you want for your site, and get some images and copy together, then spend a few hours with a free trial of a DIY option (like Wix or Squarespace) and see how far you can get making your own website. (What do you have to lose?)

One thing to look out for is that while you start out with a reasonable monthly cost, you can end up needing a $12/month widget here and a $35/month e-commerce plugin there, and these costs can add up!

WordPress ($800-1500/m)

This is THE major platform used by a huge number of organizations, including some pretty big names.

WordPress can be an affordable way to build a site, and their platform has a lot of flexibility. It’s like the duct tape of websites: it lets you stick something up on the web quickly and cheaply but then also rip it down and replace it just as easily. For many businesses, this ability to rapidly build, tear down, and re-build is not just useful, but vitally necessary.

One thing to keep in mind is that YOUR WordPress site will always be tied to THEIR platform. So, when WordPress makes changes, your site will need some kind of fix. This helps explains the ongoing monthly cost of WordPress.

Also, you (or someone on your team) will need to be available to react and respond to these changes. A WordPress site will require the attention of a decision-maker on a regular basis. (Someone at your business will become intimately acquainted with WordPress, whether they want to or not!)

This isn’t “just how it is” with websites, it’s just the nature of platforms like WordPress. You can’t trust a WordPress site to do its job without occasionally falling apart, and this can be a deal breaker for some businesses.

A WordPress site will require the attention of a decision-maker on a regular basis.

Custom ($40,000+)

A ‘custom’ site is any site where there’s no “platform” (like WordPress) acting as a middleman. You’re not ‘farming on rented land’, so to speak. Every part of the site is built to your specifications. And with today’s technology, the limits to what you can do with a custom site are determined by your imagination and budget, not a third party.

If WordPress is the duct tape of platforms, then custom is poured concrete. A custom platform is built to last, it won’t fall apart on you. Once we hand you the keys, you can drive away and never talk to us again and your custom site will likely run for many years with little to no attention or additional costs.

Building in concrete and steel means that more functionality = more time and more cost. You will need to measure twice and then cut once at every turn. If your business is stable and you’re confident about where your industry is headed in the next 3-5 years, then you might want to pour some concrete and build something that allows you to ‘set it and forget it’ so you can get back to business.

Which is Right for You?

Picking the wrong bucket is going to cost you more than any other wrong decision about a website. If you’re still not sure which “bucket” you’re in, reach out to us at (479) 202-8634 and I can walk you through ALL of the pros and cons of each option, including which options are best for security, SEO, Point of Sale integration, inventory management, etc. Happy to help you pick the right path forward, or at least avoid the wrong one!

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