How much does it cost to build a website?

Last updated in February 2019

Today, millions of people reсognize how important to set up an online presence for their businesses through website development. Producing income from this technological aspect is a profitable business. However, one of the first questions people ask when it comes to creating a website is: how much does it cost to build it? The truth is the website development cost depends entirely on types of websites and other influential factors.

Let’s delve into details to find out!

What websites are highly popular?

There is a vast number of websites of different types and complexity. They can accomplish any business goal: whether it is selling products or creating a corporate blog of a large enterprise. Below we have presented the most high-demand types of websites based on business purpose and complexity:

1. Types of websites based on a business purpose

• Corporate or business website
• E-commerce
• Landing page

Corporate or business website. Generally, business/corporate websites explain what the business is, what products and services it provides. The main purpose of the website is to describe and explain your organization or business. If you want to remain competitive in today’s market, having even a simple website that's well-designed can give you an edge in your field.

An approximate cost is $6 000 - $16 000.

Landing page. A standalone web page, created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign. It is designed to describe an offer—maybe a coupon or a free trial—encourage visitors to claim it. Though it’s connected to the website, it spotlights essential elements focused on conversion and doesn’t usually have navigation buttons or other links. The primary purpose of a landing page is to drive sales or capture leads.

An approximate cost is $800 - $4000.

E-commerce website. An online portal that facilitates online transactions of products and services through means of the transfer of information and funds over the Internet. E-commerce website development is a time-consuming and complicated process with a multitude of aspects to consider from user experience to its performance.

An approximate cost is $12 000 - $28 000+.

Here we have summarized the information about the website cost based on the business purpose:

*Average hourly rate $40

The types mentioned above also have different complexity. Let’s take a closer look below:

2. Types of websites based on the complexity

• Basic. It includes 5-10 pages, has standard features and functionality, all design elements are based on templates.
• Advanced. It includes 15+ pages, has unique features and advanced functionality, all design elements are sophisticated and unique, 3rd-party services integrations.
• Custom. It has an unlimited number of pages and custom functionality, complex backend architecture and database configurations, 3d-party integrations, payment system, etc.

Here we have summarized the information about the website cost based on the complexity:

Factors that influence the website development cost

A website is the most fundamental platform for an online business presence, which showcases your business effectively in different ways. The cost of website development depends on numerous factors. Let's find out them below:

1. Features and functionality

Here we have provided some basic features and functionality:

• User registration. Users can register on the website by entering an email and a password.
• Call-to-action or CTA. It helps the user to take some specified actions and provides a frictionless process when the user moves down the sales funnel. If it correctly sets up, the user definitely knows what to take next to purchase a product or sign up.
• Search&Filter. It is vital to use this functionality to find and filter the products and services users are looking for in a variety of ways, including by department, size, price range, manufacturer, etc. Providing this functionality gives users more power to find what they need, letting them filter their searches to exactly what they are looking for.
• Analytics&reporting. Every business owner should know who the website visitors are. With the analytics feature, it is relatively easy to analyze the terabytes of data that help you understand what advertising campaign is effective and make data-driven decisions concerning your overall online strategy.
• Online chat. Businesses can offer proactive service or on-demand support for their customers right on their websites. Also, they can use it to gather sales leads, analyze and track user behavior for better understanding their journey.
• Shopping cart. Enables prospects to preselect, reserve, and store items they would like to buy. The cart itself is often the leading element that inspires trust in the shopping process, and lets users know they’re dealing with a professional provider, and their information remains secure.
• Multi-language support. With that feature, you can support a global audience by translating your entire website to the language they understand.
• Payment gateway integration. Designed to enhance the experience through better integration, enhanced security, and stronger compliance measures. If you want customers to pay directly from your website, your online store should accept credit card payments from customers in a frictionless way.
• Social media integration. Keeping consumers informed about events/ promotions/news related to your business or your company can be solved with social media integration. Fully integrated social media sharing capabilities into your website can create value such as engaging with your brand via social channels, etc.

2. Design

Incorporating design from the beginning allows all components and elements of a website to work together seamlessly, providing a superior user experience. When it comes to using colors in your website design, it's essential to consider your company's niche, target audience, branding, etc. Are you trying to convey your brand's voice with a bright orange or a professional, calming blue? That’s why you should research the best color options that will give users a good impression and help them focus on the value of your brand. Design can be template and individual.

• Template: we provide a wide range of different free design templates that can be used on your website.
• Individual: includes in-depth UX development, design of unique website elements such as icons, buttons, navigation, etc.

Also, you shouldn’t forget about responsive design that is incredibly important to make sure your website is optimized for mobile, providing the best experience for users no matter what device they are using to access your website.

3. Technical issues

Here you can find out what aspects increase website cost:

• Admin dashboards. Designed to organize and visualize the enormous amounts of data and to manage the multiple website functionalities. Whether you need to check data, edit content, or update a profile, this feature is a great choice.
• Security. When dealing with a vast amount of data, you should plan how to minimize the risks and keep data secure at the very beginning of website development. Undoubtedly, upgrading security protocols and the hardware infrastructure is affordable and time-consuming though these precautions are necessary to keep their data safe.
• Network and server support. Project infrastructure   is likely to depend on networks and servers located on-premise or on the cloud. Monitoring the servers and managing the network is costly, but critical for the smooth running of your business. That’s why ensure that any network or server problems are either anticipated or speedily resolved.
• Accounting dashboards. It aggregates all your accounting and finance metrics. You can get a real-time view of invoices, cashflow, receivable/payable accounts, profit, and loss, etc.

4. Non-development expenses

Here we are going to mention how regular non-development expenses affect the website cost:

Domain&Hosting

If you are thinking about website creation, you need to choose a domain name that will tell users where to find your business in the digital environment. Domain registration is a necessary cost that varies $0.95 to $12. To publish your website you need a web hosting service that allows individuals/organizations to make their website accessible online. A web host provides space on its server for your site, allowing people around the world to view it. The hosting services cost $24 to $10 000 per year and depend on the server type (cloud hosting, virtual private server or dedicated one).

Maintenance

Keeping your website functional and usable is essential. Checking your website for issues and mistakes should be done consistently to engage and retain prospects. Whether it includes completing updates, managing customer support tickets or resolving any website-related issues, you shouldn’t forget to keep your website brand new. Average cost $200 to $1250 per year.

SSL/TLS certificate

In today’s digital environment, users share a tremendous amount of sensitive data online, such as credit card information, personal information, etc. With an SSL/TLS certificate, you can demonstrate the credibility and safety that allows you to increase revenue, build an email subscriber list, or improve lead generation efforts. Your SSL certificate can cost $0 to $1 500 per year.

5. Promotion

The cost of website promotions varies depending on many factors. Here we have presented the most popular elements you should take into account when promoting your website.

Copywriting. Fresh content can engage and attend your visitors turning them into customers. It helps to promote your business, product or service effectively, gain more potential buyers, increase brand awareness, conversion rates, and sales. The cost $50-$500.

SEO. Driving traffic to your website from natural, free, editorial, and organic search engines is crucial. Implementing strong, quality SEO on a website is always going to be beneficial to that brand and its marketing efforts. Businesses spend $350 to $2000 per month on SEO.

PPC advertising. Refers to an advertising strategy that operates on a pay-per-click pricing model. Unlike traditional ads, which see your company pay upfront, your business pays only for the clicks your ad earns. This pricing model makes PPC one of the most cost-effective ad strategies to promote your business to prospects and boost revenue. Companies spend $100 to $700 per month on PPC.

SMM. Used to syndicate content and increase your business' visibility. If successfully implemented, it provides splendid opportunities to establish your brand and increase its awareness, partner with influencers and boost sales, etc. Businesses spend $100 to $700 per month on SMM.

Email marketing. Presents more opportunities for your business and drives a better ROI, create deeper relationships with a broader audience. An email marketing strategy can help you find new customers, retain them and stay in touch with them, all while maintaining a reasonable budget the cost $100 to $200 per month.

The process of website development in our company

We, at DDI Development, offer solutions for all phases of the software development cycle aligned with your business requirements and includes the following stages:

• planning 10%
• design 20%
• development 50%
• testing 10%
• deployment 5%
• maintenance 5%

Planning stage: our team communicates with the clients to understand an idea, clarify their expectations, discuss what features and functionality they would like to be developed, determine the general spending range a client is considering, etc.

Design stage: Based on the research, our design team creates versatile and minimalistic wireframes, simple or specific visual elements, deliver prototypes to gain a deeper understanding of users flow, etc. and try to provide design concept corresponding to the client’s needs.

Development stage: our dev team develops system architecture, implements a wide range of features and functionality, integrates APIs, third-party solutions, etc.

Testing stage: our testing team explores website functionality to ensure that it operates correctly and meets the client’s requirements.

Deployment stage: our team get the website into production so that users could start to use your website and navigate through it fast and easily.

Maintenance stage: we make some changes according to the client's needs, add features/ functionality or prevent potential security issues.

How much does it cost to develop a website?

The cost of website development depends a lot on the location of the company. Here you can find out an average website development hourly rate in different parts of the world according to Accelerance report:

• North America: $100-$150
• Eastern Europe: $25-$70
• Western Europe: $50 -$120
• Latin America: $35 - $55
• Asia: $20-$45

Creating a website can be a daunting process. When our clients ask us to build a website, firstly, we recommend them to identify the needs of their business, research the websites they like and find the right features for their business. Then we provide them with the following questions before getting started:

• What type of website do they need (landing page, corporate or e-commerce)?
• How many pages do they wish?
• Will they provide designers with a logo and other images, or do they want individual design?
• What functionality do they want? (blogging, comments, gallery etc.).
• What updates are they planning in the future?

Our approach to project estimation

Project estimation is a tedious and critical process of calculating a project cost and defining the parameters of the project. Below you can discover what steps we follow to estimate project properly:

• Rough estimate
• Client’s review and approval
• Detailed estimate

Firstly, we didn't have all the details of the client’s project. We do our best to understand the client’s brief and website idea. Then, we send the rough estimate to our client via e-mail or via a private URL with some basic features and hours required to develop them. A client can accept or decline this document. Once the client approves it, we develop a document with a detailed estimate to identify and calculate features that will be built within a range of iterations with hours allocated to implement them.

Rough estimate: our example

Below you can see a rough estimation based on UI/UX elements, backend infrastructure, admin panel, third-party integrations, but this list of features does not cover everything that can be offered to serve website users.

As you see above, the prices on the website development range. That's why we have presented our estimate based on minimal and maximum prices accordingly: $20 and $150 for frontend/backend, $25-$150 for design.

• Frontend: $2 280 - $ 17 100
• Backend: $4 200 - $31 500
• Design: $2 250 - $13 500

Bottom line: Are you ready to build a solid online presence?

It's no longer feasible to run a business, even a brick-and-mortar one, without a web presence. That’s why starting a website for any type of business is a splendid opportunity to invest in, establish trust and reach a broader customer base. However, website development can be complicated and present some challenges. That’s why we, at DDI Development, always do our best to make this process easy and intuitive. Having a vast technical experience in creating a wide range of web solutions, we can turn your idea into reality.