How much does a website cost in 2020?

How much does a website cost in 2020? That’s a question most business owners want to know. In this article we’ll cover the various costs you should expect to come across when looking for quotes online as well as the following:

So what’s the typical rate for a website?

This question honestly comes down to what it is exactly you’re looking for. Is it a small hobby website that rarely needs to be updated? Or a fully immersive online shop selling various products from around the world?

The prices below aren’t purely based on what we would charge but what we’ve typically seen charged in the wild as well.

So! Without further delay let’s get into it!

A micro website can cost around £500

These sites usually hold minimal pages. Either one-page or up to 5 and are often static HTML. This sort of website usually costs up to £500 and doesn’t usually include your branding of course. Great for getting something online in a hurry.

A small website is typically around the £750 – £1,000 region

A small brochure-style website with minimal customisations required, usually under 15 pages, with no unique functionality or requirement for bespoke development. Either static HTML or built on a CMS like WordPress. Think a long the lines of a local builder’s website or hairdresser. This sort of website usually costs around £750 – £1000. Built correctly and this is the only website a small business owner should ever need.

For a medium website, expect to invest between £1,000 to £4,000

Mostly for small businesses with no more than 50 pages, often built on a CMS like WordPress and can include more custom design, imagery and unique functionality. Booking forms, more flexibility and much more control over the website compared to smaller sites. A website in this category may cost between £1,000 – £4,000. The advantage for a site like this is client-control, allowing you to edit and manipulate the website safely to really make it your own over time (eg. changing slideshow images easily).

Large website pricing varies, but expect to spend between £5,000 – £10,000

These sort of sites require a lot more thought – you’re not just talking more pages, but more planning into the overall design and usability of the site. The larger your website, the more the navigation needs to work for your visitors. These sort of websites are filled full of features and can incorporate external connections (eg. a booking form that connects into your CRM system). A website like this can cost between £5,000 – £10,000 depending on the complexity and individual requirements. Think along the lines of a large charity website that needs to raise funds, awareness and offer buckets of information and resources, online shops, events/calendars, meet the team, more forms than you could count – you get the idea.

What about the cost of an Ecommerce website?

More and more people are setting up online shops nowadays with easy-to-use platforms like Shopify and/or market places like Etsy. However if you want to fully own your online shop and have absolute full control over pretty much everything – an Ecommerce shop built on a CMS system is your best friend. We often use WooCommerce as our ‘goto’ addon for WordPress sites. BuiltWith reported that in January 2020, a total of 3,876,748 websites use WooCommerce so it’s safe to say, we’re not alone there!

The advantage with the above statistic means there’s plenty of resources available to all, plugins, templates you name it.

If you wanted to have an online shop built within WordPress, for straight forward, small shops, look to set aside around £800. For more complex shops or shops with bespoke functionality, you’d be looking more towards £1,200-£4,000. Like with a lot of websites, size and functionality plays a large role on the pricing.

How much does a domain cost?

A domain price varies but on average, expect to to pay £10-£20 per year for your domain. Suppliers like 123-Reg make registering a domain a simple process (and no, you don’t need any of the extras, just the domain).

Some agencies and web designers/developers can register a domain on your behalf (like us!), but please PLEASE make sure that whoever is responsible for registering your domain does so in your name.

How much is website hosting?

You’ve got a lot of options here but it’s vital to make the right one. We get a lot of clients purchase hosting with Wix or GoDaddy and get tied into a product they don’t actually need. To host a website, you just need “website hosting”, no page builders, no paid for SSL certificate (more on that below), just hosting.

Website hosting can cost anywhere between £15-£300 per year, depending on your requirements. For example, if you have a small website with a small number of photos, you can get hosting easily for £15 per year with an SSL certificate.

Of course if you have a larger website, or would like a little more speed/space, the price goes up. If you have a website that is expected to get a lot of traffic each month, you might be better off with a dedicated hosting solution (eg. your own server).

Did you know?

We typically charge £150.00 per year for our website hosting, based in the UK with unlimited resources (within fair-usage expectations), daily backups and an SSL certificate. Our servers also utilise LiteSpeed cache to help speed sites up nicely.

The most important thing to consider when it comes to your hosting is:

• What operating software does it use and is it compatible with your website (if you already have a website)
• Where is your hosting server based?
• How reactive and responsive is the company? Do they have Live Chat/a phone number?
• How often is your website backed up?
• What extras are there that you may need? eg. Domain aliases, databases etc.

How much is a SSL certificate?

Free. SSL certificates should be free. Unless you have a particular requirement to pay for an SSL certificate there’s absolutely no need for a standard site to have to pay extra for this.

SSL stands for “Secure Sockets Layer” and are used to authenticate a website’s identity and establish a secure, encrypted connection. Google also loves indexing sites with this extra layer of protection over non-SSL sites (to the point where Google Chrome will label your site “Non-Secure” if you don’t have one.

What about running costs? How much does it cost to keep a website running?

Other than your domain and hosting, there aren’t any other costs associated with the running of the website. Of course there are optional services you can take on to improve the running of your website.

Regular maintenance

If your website is built on a content management system it’s highly recommended that it’s kept up to date and secure. Depending on the website, you may need a hand from a developer to run vital updates and check the site over to ensure it’s still running like the day it was launched.

Some developers will be happy to do this on an hourly rate and some will offer a fixed-month retainer to cover this.

Did you know?

We offer a retainer specifically designed for site maintenance. Once set up, we'll be notified when there's security/feature updates available and we action them immediately.

Your very own web designer/developer

You may need a little more help with the running of your website – after all, you have a business to run! In which case it can prove beneficial to have a web designer/developer on-hand to assist you when you need them. For example, we offer a fixed-rate web support retainer that many of our clients use on a monthly-basis. Whether it’s creating a newsletter template or running through security updates, its hours that have been paid for and so treated as priority.

What about marketing?

Our final “running cost” and completely optional is digital marketing – it’s all great having a website but what good is it if no one can find it or your users aren’t using the website the way you intended?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a term used for a set of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of potential visitors seeing your website. This is done by obtaining a high-ranking placement on search engine result pages (SERP) such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Unfortunately Search Engine Optimisation is a very difficult subject to cover in the confines of this paragraph, we’d like to point you in the direction of this article, How to Choose the Right SEO Agency which covers some of the basics. Of course if we can help in anyway, please do get in touch!

To name a few handy marketing methods/services:

• Keyword optimisation
• Keyword/backlink tracking
• Content management
• Local SEO
• …The list goes on!

Is there anything else?

We plan on building on this article over time should the need arise. If there’s anything related to this article that you’d like us to cover, please do feel free to get in touch and we’d be more than happy to cover it!