The Cost of a Website (and how to lower it)

If you’ve started to research the cost of a new website, you’ve probably been shocked by some of the quotes that you’ve seen. If you haven’t, let me just spoiled it for you and say that a new custom website will cost you a couple of thousand dollars at least. But before you run away…


Hey there and welcome back.

So if you’re in the market for a new website this year, you’ve probably seen the price tag for a new custom website.

And you probably had a slight panic attack when you saw that number. For newbies in the website world, seeing a quote for a new custom website at around a couple thousand dollars can be quite the shock. And personally I don’t blame you for that.

It might cause you to completely rethink whether you need a new website for your business. But before you hit that exit button, let’s take a look at why websites cost that much and also let’s take a look at some of your options for how to lower that cost. Because the good news is that you can create a great new website that fits basically any budget.

Before we begin, if you want to see more videos on digital marketing, ecommerce, web design and more website-related topics, be sure to hit the subscribe button and to ring the bell for notifications.

Now let’s get started.

What I would quote you on a website

So to start out, I want to walk you through my process for a baseline quote for full disclosure and to make sure we’re all on the same page.

I usually budget out 3 hours for the discovery process, 15 hours for the design, 20 hours for the development of the website, 2 hours for adding in the content, another 2 hours for review, 1 hour for launching the new site, another hour for changes after the website it live and a final hour for training on how to use your website.

So at a rate of $65 an hour, that shakes out to be 45 total hours and $2,925. And that’s more or less on the low end of the spectrum for a custom website. And it might be more or less depending on what you want with your website.

Why website prices are what they are

There are two main reasons for why a website costs as much: time and experience.

First off, websites take a lot of time to create, especially custom ones. There’s the time it takes to figure out what you want and need and then you have to create the design for it and actually code the design. And then there are edits that will need to be made and then there’s also taking the website live.

And time is money. No one does this for free obviously. So the longer it takes to create a website because it’s more complicated, the more expensive the website is going to be.

Plus, that’s also time for you too. That’s time that you’re not spending hammering away coding the actual website and instead working on the things that will grow your business. It’s working in your physical store or talking to people or doing traditional marketing. So that’s the trade off you make.

And then the rate comes down to experience. To sort of quote the Farmers Insurance commercial, we know a thing or two because, well, we’ve seen a thing or two. We know what we are doing so that we can create the website better than you probably can and a lot quicker than you could. That means you get an actual working website much quicker than you normally would if you tried it yourself.

There are tradeoffs that happen, and paying a higher price for a great design with a quality, working website in a timely fashion might just be worth it.

How to lower the cost

There is, however, some really good news. You don’t have to pay thousands of dollars for a new website.

In today’s world there are so many tools and services that allow you to build a new website for way less than the price of a custom website. And sure, you might not get everything you want with a website like that. But they can be really good starting points that help your business grow online and hopefully eventually build that completely custom website in the future.

Wix/Squarespace

The cheapest option you have is going with Wix and Squarespace or something similar. Creating a website with them will cost you around $10 a month and you can get started in 30 minutes to an hour. There are templates for you to choose from which makes things easy. But the caveat is that you are locked in with their service and there’s not a whole lot of room to grow. It’s a really good place to get a start online, but if you want more, you should probably look elsewhere.

Shopify

Shopify is like Wix and Squarespace, but it’s more dedicated to ecommerce and helping people create online stores. It starts at $29 a month, and it’s definitely a step up from those page builders. You can start selling products from your website in just like an hour. And it takes the hassle of setting up payment processors away from you. But at the same time, you don’t have 100 percent complete control over your website, so if you’re looking for something like that, you need to keep looking.

Content Management Systems

Finally we have content management systems, like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. For these, you will need a domain and hosting, which will make the cost a little bit more expensive than the other options we talked about. But using an open source CMS basically means that you own the code and you can do basically whatever you want with your websites. Most CMSs have plugins or extensions to allow you to create an online store, a forums section, a portfolio and so much more. Plus, they have free or cheap themes you can use to make your website look amazing.

I actually showed how you can create a professional online store for under $500 last year, which I’ll link to in the description. If you want 100 percent control of your website for a cheap price, it’s the best way to go in my opinion.

Making a Decision

So now you need to make a decision about whether you’re going to create a completely custom website or go with one of the cheaper options we just discussed.

And unfortunately I can’t make that decision for you; you do.

So first hammer out your budget for a website. Figure out what is the maximum you can spend on this website without completely wrecking everything. And use that as a starting point for your decision. If you can’t afford a custom website, which is perfectly okay, then that eliminates one of the options.

Then ask friends and colleagues what they would do. If you know of anyone who has recently created a new website for their business ask them what they did, what they might do differently and see how their experience was.

Finally, research can be a big help. Look online to see what the best option is that fits your budget and what you’re trying to do.

There is no one right answer that works for every business. There is only what works best for your business. As long as you can justify it with facts, any decision is a good decision.

Outro

So what questions do you have about the cost of a website? Or how to lower the cost? Be sure to leave them down in the comments section below.

If you’re looking to create a new website that fits your budget, I would love to help you achieve that while getting a professional-looking website at the same time. You can learn more in the link in the description below.

On Wednesday we’ll be talking about WordPress page builders. And on Friday we’ll discuss the elements of a website.

To see those videos and more videos on web design, ecommerce, digital marketing and more website-related topics, be sure to hit the subscribe button and to ring the bell for notifications.

Until next time, I wish you and your business the best of luck.

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