How Much Does it Cost to Build a Website for a Small Business?
If you want your small business to be successful, it makes sense to create a professional website for efficient communication with clients and operating both online and offline. However, how much does it cost to build a website for a small business? The average estimate is $2,999-$20,000, but the amount may depend on many factors and the features you would like to see and enjoy on the site. The more features and unique components you need to introduce into the platform, the more money its design will cost.
This article will tell you about the factors that influence the cost, whether it is better to involve your in-house website designer or hire a reputable developing agency, and whether you will need to plan some costs in your budget for the site maintenance.
Every web design agency can offer you an online calculator to make an approximate estimate, or you can check it by calling their Custom Support service. You can also find out the prices for every element of a website and make an average cost estimate yourself by using the information from this article.
What Is the Average Cost to Create a Website for a Small Business?
Therefore, the average cost of website design for a small business varies between $2,000 and $20,000. It also involves buying a domain name and hosting plan for your site in addition to design development. All in all, the main factors that influence this cost are the site’s complexity, the number of features, and its size. Let’s look at these factors in depth.
What Factors Influence the Cost of the Website’s Design?
The most essential site elements that can affect the cost of web design are:
1. A domain name ($1-$12.5 per domain).
2. SSL certification ($0-$1,600 per year).
3. The overall design ($2,500-$10,500).
4. A website hosting ($25-$130 per year).
5. Functionality ($2,100-$26,000).
6. Pages and their number ($1,100-$5,500).
7. CMS (content management system) ($2,100-$26,000).
Now, we want to discuss each of these elements in detail.
A Domain Name
In fact, it is your site’s home address. You can purchase it in the form of your company’s name or something close to it, for example, apple.com.
There are specific companies selling domain names, such as HostGator and others. Or you can buy it directly from the domain’s owner, but in this case, it will cost more.
SSL Certification
SSL is an abbreviation from a Secure Sockets Layer. It will protect your customers’ sensitive data. You need to have this certificate to help them feel more confident and secure. If visitors see this certificate, they will trust your company more and feel safe about buying your products or filling out contact forms on the site.
With the help of SSL, your site will be protected against third parties’ intrusions and hackers. The trustworthiness of your brand will increase.
You can sometimes obtain the SSL for free when your hosting company includes it in the subscription plan. The level of security, however, is always higher when SSL is paid. The more you pay for it, the more secure you will feel.
The Overall Design
Website design cost for a small business is the highest of all other expenditures. It may depend on your preferences and priorities. Some would like to have a plain and straightforward look, while others opt for a high-end design option which takes a lot of developers’ time. Moreover, you will need unique templates for your custom home page, product / service pages, and contact page.
When you discuss the cost with a web design agency, ask them for samples of both basic and high-end design to understand what you actually need and whether you can afford it.
A Website Hosting
You are sure to need a perfect website hosting plan to develop further successful strategies and obtain desirable results. A web hosting company helps your website become available on the Net.
Of course, you will be looking for lower hosting prices. Many small businesses utilize shared hostings, too. It means that your website will share a server with several others, and it will cost less.
Shared hosting works perfectly with smaller websites without too many resources required. However, if you need more resources, it is not appropriate because your site will work too slowly. Even if you start with this shared option for the sake of saving costs, you can always upgrade your subscription plan if needed.
Functionality
Functionality involves a lot of features that can influence your site’s e-commerce potential. For instance, if you prefer to take all orders and payments online, include additional costs in your website development esteem.
You may believe that providing services (but nor selling products) does not need the online payment option. Nevertheless, customers who need plumbing or landscaping feel more comfortable with online payments nowadays. So, if there is an option of making payments online, your business may attract more customers. Remember, however, that, since you are a small business so far, your site’s functionality does not need to be high-end at first. It does not require a complex payment system, the one Amazon or other large online retailers use. You should discuss this matter and ask your questions to a professional and experienced web designer. They are sure to explain every choice to you.
Pages and Their Number
Websites can differ in size. An average e-commerce store may have up to 100 pages or even more, depending on the online company’s size. When a small business provides services, it can have up to 10 pages only because it does not need anymore.
Building enormous numbers of pages takes a lot of time and effort, so it will be costlier. You may argue that most pages can have a similar layout, so developers do not need any extra time for inventing new things. However, even if 20 or 50 product pages use the same template, the features, such as images, videos, or texts to these pages are unique, and each of them needs a separate design procedure.
Therefore, you can see a wide range of prices depending on the number of pages. If you need 1-50 pages, you will pay $1,100-5,500. Agencies can even divide this range into specific tiers, so you will pay one amount for 1-10 pages but a different amount for 10-20 pages. It is very convenient to calculate, reasonable, and pretty fair.
CMS (Content Management System)
A CMS is an invaluable piece of software that allows for managing and updating a website without specific knowledge of coding. WordPress is a great example of such software. Working with it resembles working in Microsoft Word or other word processing programs.
You and your team will be able to edit or make changes to your website easily. It is often required in e-commerce, especially when you need to change product prices or update product lines.
A CMS can have lower and higher levels of customization. The latter will cost you more. If your business needs more customization, it makes sense to get a more expensive CMS.
How Much Does DIY Web Design versus Professional Web Design Cost?
The cost of your website design depends on the choice of a designer. If it is your in-house team (so-called ‘do-it-yourself’ web design), it may cost about $100-$600. Professional web design will be much more expensive, approximately $2,500-$10,500. You can even use a website builder for the sake of saving costs and effort, though it has certain disadvantages. They involve:
━ doing all the work yourself (or with the help of your crew) that will take more time and delay the site launching process significantly;
━ having to learn a lot of information about how to troubleshoot issues and maintain the site in a good working order;
━ making a choice in favor of a cookie-cutter website.
It means that, even if you save your costs, you will have to sacrifice your time and effort. Learning development and design processes, even with a website builder, is not an easy thing because you need to know a lot of rules, exceptions, critical factors, and the best practices. Ask yourself whether you have enough time for doing all that. If the answer is negative, you’d better invest some costs in a professional web design service. An expert team will create a user-friendly, pleasant-looking, and highly functional site that will easily attract new customers and boost conversions. Such an investment, even if it seems too enormous now, will pay for itself over time.
Do not forget to consider maintenance costs while planning the cost for a small business website. Maintaining a domain, SSL certificate, hosting, functionality, and CMS subscriptions and updates will cost you some money, too. That is why it is so important to calculate all the project costs in advance.
Final Thoughts
You cannot doubt anymore that your small business needs a website to be successful. You should think about developing it right now. THerefore, you need an overall view of your site, a financial plan, and cost calculation. Include both site development and maintenance costs to decide what kind of project your budget can afford.
Do thorough research and consider all the factors that can influence the overall cost estimate, such as the need for a domain name, hosting service, SSL certification, appropriate design, functionality, the number of pages, and their layout, as well as a brand-new CMS. Use an online calculator to see the preliminary esteem and get an idea on how well you can afford it.
To save some costs, you may opt for a DIY project for creating and maintaining your website design. It may seem quite attractive for its cost-saving potential. However, it will take you a lot of time and effort to invest in all the tasks and activities. It’s up to you to decide.
On the other hand, even if you pay a lot to a professional web design studio, your project will be good value for money in the near future and make your small business successful and profitable in a while.
