How Much Does It Cost To Build A Website In 2024? (Cost Assessment Checklist)

You don’t just wake up one morning, decide to get a website made and get it delivered the very next day. There are a lot of variables that come into play when you’re analyzing How Much Does It Cost To Make A Website.

It is thus important to study every factor that may affect your website before jumping into the development/website redesigning phase. This will save you both time and money and as an intelligent businessman that should be your first priority.

Following is a detailed study that will help you estimate the probable costs involved in every step of creating the website of your dreams. Any Top-Level Web App Development Company can help you in this regard.

Average Cost to Build a Website: According To Design/Development

To create a website from scratch generally takes around $8,500 to $38,000 or above. The cost to build a website depends upon the design and the development procedure initiated. 

UI/UX Design

Tools Incorporated: Zeplin, Sketch, Adobe Creative Cloud and InVision

The user interface or user experience is as important as the other functional components of the website.

The site will run fine for sure with just the basic engineering part of it but will fail to cater to most visitors’ inexperience regarding complex functionalities and procedures.

Also, poor design will cost you essential audience or customers who will choose more good-looking, artistic and user-friendly alternatives over your ‘science project’.

This is why you should invest on your site’s design as well alongside the other fundamentals.

The amount depends upon the various stages of development namely:

• Research(regarding principal site visitors, rivals etc.),
• Wireframe(a skeleton or structure of the intended design) and
• Prototype(a complete, but yet to be published, working UI), usually in that very order.

The question is, How Much Does It Cost To Make A Website in terms of UI/UX?

The cost involved in this part of your entire website building process ranges between $750 and $4,000 (or more).

Front-End

Most Popular Technologies Used: React, SaaS, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc. 

Think of a website that asks you to input some sort of information, such as the names of grocery items that you want to be delivered to your location.

To serve this purpose, the website will need a form consisting of basic elements like input boxes, a submit button etc.

In short, the job of the front-end code is to create a medium of interaction between the user and the server.

The UI and UX make the site look attractive whereas the front-end adds functionality to the site.

The main factors upon which this amount depends on:

• Website responsiveness (how the site will perform on different devices) and
• Animation requirements (not necessarily but helps in enhancing the look and feel of the front-end).

The average cost to build a website front-end is around $1,000 to $12,500 (or more).

Back-End

Most Popular Technologies Used: .NET, Express.js, Node.js, etc.

The front-end and back-end of a website go hand in hand. Neither can exist without the other (as far as user-friendliness is concerned, otherwise back-ends can work solo as well).

The front-end takes input while the back-end works on that input and returns an outcome.

Once you press the submit button, all the inputs you entered such as the names of the grocery items, your location etc. are received by the back-end part of your site.

The back-end code will run pre-decided functions on the input received, like redirection to another page, storing information into the database etc.

If the code is able to detect something wrong with the format of the inputs, an error message will be displayed without advancement into further steps.

The amount depends on factors like:

• Incorporation of third-party software and services
• Query complicacy etc.

The answer to How Much Does It Cost To Make A Website in terms of back-end coding lies between $4,000 and $12,500 (or more).

Admin Panel

Most Popular Technologies Used: HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc

If the back-end is the heart of the website then the Admin Panel is its brain.

An admin panel allows you to have managerial control over your website which otherwise would have required developer assistance.

This also saves you a great deal of money which you might have had to pay a developer every time you wanted to make even the slightest changes on your website.

Let’s take one example…

Let’s say you have introduced some new features to your business and now you need to update the same in your website to inform your customers.

Here if you ask a developer to do the job for you he/she might charge you a price for the time he/she will have to invest into your small project.

This is where an admin panel comes to the rescue with its ability to format and edit existing content.

Few things you should know about Admin Panels

• There are dedicated content management systems like WordPress and Shopify that can act as pretty efficient admin panels for your website.
• However, they might fail to cater to all your requirements and hence building your custom panel can be a better idea.
• Also, popular CMS engines are more vulnerable to attacks (as their basic working is quite well known) than customized codes.

The question is, How Much Does It Cost To Make A Website – In terms of Admin Panel?

CMS development can cost between $3,000 to $9,000 (or more).

Final Development Cost (All Stages)

The overall cost of building your website can be calculated by taking into account the time required for development and expenses involved in each step.

An average of $2,500 goes behind UI/UX designing, $7,000 and $8,000 goes for front-end and back-end development respectively and $6,000 will bring you your admin panel making it a total of $23,500 for the entire website.

Cost to Make a Website: As Per Geographical Region

The cost of development varies from place to place as well. The rate in one country might not be the same in another. Following is a list of a few countries with their respective web development rates per hour:

• Canada – $90 to $250
• USA – $100 to $350
• Latin America – $30 to $50
• UK – $50 to $170
• Western Europe – $65 to $170
• Eastern Europe – $20 to $150
• Ukraine – $25 to $50
• India – $18 to $80
• Indonesia – above $25
• Australia – $80 to $150

Cost to Produce a Website: According To Types

The cost of a website depends on various factors. Whether you want a simple blogging website, or a complicated e-commerce, depending on your needs, the website development prices differ, and this is what we are going to discuss below.

Business Website

A typical business website is very much informational, and hence a lot of pages and content are required to build such websites.

Few of the crucial pages which a business website must have are-

• About Us page
• Blog Page,
• Services Page,
• Portfolio Page
• Contacts us page

Business websites also need to extra features as compared to a blogging website like:

• SSL certificate
• Mobile responsiveness
• Live chat
• Contact form
• Admin panel etc.

Keeping all these things in mind, the cost to develop such a website can range from around $9,500 to $13,000 (or more).

To know better about a business website and its pricing, we should know about the different kinds of platforms which can be used to make the website.

Using Wordpress to build a business website

For example, if you are building a business website using WordPress, then the price range can start from $100 and it can go upto $30,000. It all depends whether you want a low tech website or a high tech one.

Using Drupal to build a business website

Instead of WordPress, you can also use Drupal CMS framework to build your business website.

So, now you might be wondering which one should you go for Drupal or WordPress? Which is better?

In a nutshell, Drupal is more expensive than WordPress, but it also offers advanced plugins when compared to WordPress.

Making a website with Drupal can cost you from $30,000 to even $100,000, depending on your content and features you want to install on your website.

E-Commerce Website

E-Commerce website development is pretty vast and it may include pages ranging from ten to hundreds. Hence, quoting a price of an e-commerce website won’t do justice, as not every e-commerce website has much in common.

Normally e-Commerce websites have-

• Main page
• Products page (Varying from few to even hundreds of pages depending on your product inventory)
• Cart Page
• Favourites Page
• Checkout Pages

These e-commerce websites come with features like

• Search Bars
• Push notifications
• Product rating system
• Online payment (like PayPal)
• Admin panel

Using Magneto to build your e-commerce Website

The costing of your e-commerce website depends on many factors, and the major one is the platform which you are using to build it. A basic Magento e-commerce website will cost anything between $2000 to $40,000.

Using Shopify to build your ecommerce Website

The cost to make a website with Shopify ecommerce website will cost you $29 to even $2,000 monthly.

Using BigCommerce to build your ecommerce Website

The average cost to build a website with BigCommerce ranges from $29.95 to $299 per month.

Landing Page

Creating a landing page costs less than building an entire website. A Landing page can vary from a single-page website, additional page to an existing website

These landing pages are generally put up to promote services (usually an app). The cost of making a landing page can start at a thousand dollars and go up to $2,500.

WordPress Website

WordPress Websites are mostly used for blog websites or any news websites.

The expenses involved in building a WordPress website can be categorised under 2 heads:

• unavoidable costs
• optional costs.

The unavoidable expenditures include, buying of hosting and domain. This part demands a sum of around $50 to $60 yearly.

The optional costs go beyond buying themes (your site design) and plugins (additional features). The budget required for premium themes and plugins is around $60 and $100-$200 respectively.

The overall cost to make a website with WordPress is about $220 to $320 per year.

Basic Website

Creating a basic HTML website can cost you somewhere between $250 and $500 (without including domain expenses and other associated costs).

Small Business Website

A small business websites normally includes:

• a database
• CMS
• Almost all the features of a basic website

The question is, how much does it cost to build a website for a small business?

Now, if this type of website is developed by a well-experienced agency, then it can cost between $500 and $1500.

Custom Website

If you have requirements that cannot be fulfilled completely by the above alternatives, you should definitely opt for a custom website.

This can, however, cost between $5000 and $15000 (based on your specific needs) which is quite higher than the rate for non-custom sites.

Personal Blog

WordPress is the best option for creating a personal blog. So the price for that is the ‘unavoidable costs’ that were discussed before.

You will have to elevate your budget slightly if you wish to incorporate additional features. 

Other than that if you want to create a personal blog from scratch you will have to pay as per your specific requirements but a database and CMS is a must.

Education Website

Kind of same as a blog, but with extra requirements like:

• tutorial videos,
• images,
• infographics, etc. alongside social interaction between the teacher and students.

The additional features will cost you an amount but otherwise, the price is almost the same as (only higher) that of a personal blog.

Final Cost (All Types)

Therefore, the overall cost for building a website can be averaged out as follows – $27500 for building an e-Commerce site (taking around 350 to 750 hours), $11000 for creating a business website (taking around 190 to 260 hours) and $1800 for a landing page (taking around 20 to 50 hours).

Cost to Build a Website: According To Resources

The cost of building a website depends on many factors.

The price differs as per the type of website you want, the domain which you want to use, the features and plugins you want and most importantly who is developing the website for you.

A developer’s fee affects the pricing to a huge extent.

Freelancer

The cost of hiring a freelancer can range from $10 to $50 per hour. Hence, the price varies depending on the time it takes.

For example,

• If a freelancer takes 1 day to make a basic website, then it can cost around $600.
• If the freelancer takes 3 days to make a basic website, then it can cost around $2000.

In-House

If you do not wish to outsource your work and have trust issues, then it is better to hire your own employees who can build the website for you.

This cost may differ according to the number of employees you are hiring.

Here are few facts you should know about hiring your own developing team,

• The per hour cost for one employee or a website developer may range from $30 to $50.
• If you have a one time project, then it is not recommended to hire a full time employee, rather outsourcing it will be a better option.

The cost of hiring an in-house web development team can be around a few thousand dollars or even more (hence, not recommended for small businesses).

Agency

Getting your website built by a web design/development agency will cost you a little, but you will get the benefit of after sales service.

• The minimum cost can start from $300.
• The price can also go up to $5000, depending on your needs. (recommended for medium to big enterprises).

Do-It-Yourself (DIY)

The total expense involved in creating your website on your own (either from scratch or using templates) can fall in the range of $100 to $500.

Cost to Build a Website: As Per Website Builder

All the following builders, except for Squarespace, have provision for free domain and hosting alongside their paid plans.

WordPress

The cost involved in building a website on WordPress can be classified into four categories:

• Personal Use ($3),
• Freelancers ($5),
• Small Businesses ($11)
• E-commerce ($19)

Weebly

Weebly has pricing categories like:

• a basic website with domain for $5,
• a website with added professional features for $12,
• a basic e-Commerce site for $25
• An e-Commerce site with advanced features as well as email marketing for $38.

Wix

Wix is a reputed website builder which has taken over the market by storm in the recent time.

This platform offers three main paid plans:

• Combo ($13),
• Unlimited ($17)
• Business Basic ($23).

Squarespace

Squarespace has four paid plans namely Personal ($12), Business ($18), Basic Commerce ($26) and Advanced Commerce ($40).

All the aforementioned values are for each month and are billed annually. Also, prices may vary according to country or region.

Cost to Develop a Website: Additional Factors

Domain Name

Domain is the address of your website (for example, yourwebsitename.com).

Owning a domain can cost around $5 to $15 annually.

Hosting – Type of Hosting

Hosting is required for storing the site’s files and making them accessible on the internet.

There are two main types of hosting – Shared and Managed. Hosting can cost between $75 and $200 per year.

Maintenance

Maintenance is required to make sure that the website performs perfectly for the entirety of its existence on the World Wide Web.

Without proper maintenance, the site might start to function in an undesired manner at an uncertain point in time causing user inconvenience.

On an average, it can cost between $500 and $12,000, annually.

SSL Certificate

An SSL certificate is a must for e-commerce websites. It provides added security while making online transactions. SSL certificates cost around $50 to $75.

Almost 3/4 of website visitors will refrain from making an online payment or submitting personal details, if the site is not secure.

Content Management System

A CMS is required for adding, editing, updating and deleting content. WordPress offers free CMS services while customised systems built completely out of scratch can cost a few thousand dollars.

Style or Theme

Investing on the website’s style/theme can cost you around $2,000 to $15,000.

Interactive Media

Cost of inserting multimedia can range from $250 to $10,000.

Database Integration

This will cost somewhere between $2,000 and $25,000 (a fairly crucial component for a typical website demanding storage; hence the high price).

Security

The higher you spend on security, the safer will be your website. However, an average expenditure of $200 (yearly) is advised.

Read also: Top 12 Essential Full Stack Developer Skills To Look Into

Website Marketing Expenditures

PPC

The cost surrounding pay-per-click advertising campaigns depend upon the keywords you choose for your ad.

The more demanded or searched the keyword is, the higher is its price. Sometimes it can even go as high as $50 per click.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization can require an average expenditure of $300 to $1500 per month.

Copywriting

The average cost of an article can range from about $50 to even $500. The price varies according to the desired quality of your site’s content.

Social Media Marketing

SMM campaigns cost around $400 to $20000. The amount generally depends on the number of social media accounts you want to reach.

Content Marketing

The expense involved in content marketing varies according to the kind of content. Articles are bought on the basis of pay per word.

Video content creation can cost between $3000 and $5000. Contents consisting of visual representations like charts, diagrams etc. can cost around $500.

How Much Does It Cost To Build A Website? – Final Estimation

Right now you might be asking yourself – “So How Much Does It Cost To Build A Website?” “Is there a base range that can be applied to all types of websites?”

Well, an exact number can be decided only after bringing light upon all the details and requirements of the site.

However, a safe scale to rely on for now is $2,500 to $38,000 (or more).

Harikrishna Kundariya

CEO, eSparkBiz

Harikrishna Kundariya, a marketer, developer, IoT, chatbot and blockchain savvy, designer, co-founder, Director of eSparkBiz @Software Development Company where you can Hire Software Developers. His 14+ experience enables him to provide digital solutions to new start-ups based on Web app development.