How Much Does a Website Really Cost?

We know it can be confusing, and maybe overwhelming, with the sheer number of options out there.

Domains, hosting, storage, themes, features, customization, design, coding, it's all a lot of jargon that can be hard to understand for the less nerdy of us.

But really, what does it take? And are you getting the best bang for your buck?

The Backend for the Backend

Most likely, if you want to avoid learning a lot of coding languages, you are going to use a website platform, such as our own SimpleUpdates, Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, Wordpress, or one of a host of others. Or, hire a professional programmer or web designer.

• Programmers generally start at around $100/hr, they are usually hired by a web designer, which charge from $2000 to $10,000 per site, depending on complexity; in addition to the cost of whatever platforms they or you choose to host your site on.
• By using a prebuilt theme or website builder, you can save a lot of money. Sometimes you will pay something for a theme (usually no more than $100).
• Wordpress is by far the most popular and diverse option, but there are also niche platforms such as Shopify or Square Online, which offer a robust eCommerce platform.
• eCommerce sites generally cost more (sometimes thousands more), but with Square you can practically get started for free.

Hosting is like renting a space for your site on the internet. Rather than building your own server room.

It might appear that you could host your own site for cheaper rather than letting a platform do it for you, but then you would have to build it mostly from scratch. Most platforms combine hosting with a content management system (CMS), and often a DIY site builder. Our platform offers a Content Management System with an awesome drag and drop builder, combined with hosting and domains.

Most of these platforms start at around $20/month and go up from there to $100 or even hundreds of dollars a month.

Domains

This is your website address (e.g., www.simpleupdates.com) and they can come with lots of different extensions.

•  .com .org and .net are the classic ones, so they are generally the most cost effective (around $12/year).
• All kinds of custom extensions now exist. .farm .studio .tech etc. in the range of $20-$50/year.
• .inc and some other specialty ones can be up to a couple thousand a year!

Unless you want to buy a domain from someone else who owns it... that can get pricey. 

All for the right to a website name. It is part of the hosting cost.

SimpleUpdates has been able to package domains together with our CMS and hosting, offering you a very affordable option at $37/month (or a 10% discount if you pay yearly). As long you want the cheapest option in domains, you can have two! And our whole system, and 3 custom emails (e.g., yourname@yoursite.com)!

On top of that, we take care of connecting it to the site, keeping the records updated, and renewing it.

Here's a few other potential costs to think about:

• Plugins and Extensions: Many platforms require additional plugins for enhanced functionality, such as Wordpress, which depends on a massive plugin store. You could end up with 100 subscriptions on there.
• SSL Certificates: Essential for security, SSL certificates can range from free to several hundred dollars annually. We include this in our domain costs.
• SEO Services: If you’re looking to optimize your site for search engines, professional SEO services can start around $500 and increase significantly based on competition and market.

So how much is it really?

It depends on what you want to build.

• A blog?
• A church website?
• A store?
• And how much help do you need?

We hope that this information is helpful in your decision making process.

To build a site with us, the cost is very simple, really: You can start for FREE. Then our PRO plan, with no gated features, will cost you $37/month or $399/year. That includes up to 2 domains and 3 emails. Our builder is so awesome anyone can make a website look super good and professional with no coding experience. It does just about anything. And if you want something special done for you, or help keeping your site up to date, you can hire us to do webmaster services on your site on a weekly, monthly, or hourly basis.

If you have website questions, feel free to email or call us anytime (during regular business hours (US Central), and we'll do our best to respond.

Happy Updating... we hope it's Simple!

We've created a table that outlines some of these platforms, the features they offer, domains, and how they compare to SimpleUpdates (we will try to improve it over time):