If you’re looking to get a new website for your small business, you’re probably asking one key question: how much does a website cost?

And the not-so-helpful answer is: it depends. There are many different factors that go into a website’s design that are going to impact the overall cost, the biggest of which is deciding between DIYing your website design or hiring a professional designer.

Throughout this article, we’re going to cover all of the factors that can make a website’s cost fluctuate, plus the average pricing you can expect for a professional design versus a DIY build.

Factors That Go Into Website Cost

To gauge how much a website might cost you, or whether you want to go the DIY route versus hiring a professional website designer, you need to understand the choices you have to make along the way. Take a tour with us through each of the major factors that can impact your website cost.

Hosting

Website hosting is a service that makes your website available to internet users. You must choose a web hosting provider that gives you access to a server where your site can live.

Website hosting costs can vary depending on your needs, with some plans being as low as just a few dollars a month with others running you several hundred.

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Some of the additional factors you need to consider when choosing your website hosting are:

Your expected monthly traffic: The more visitors you have, the bigger hosting plan you need
How big your website will be: If you’ll be creating a lot of pages or uploading a lot of content, you’ll need more storage on your server
What type of website you’re creating: For example, ecommerce websites need a different level of hosting than a basic informational website will
The level of privacy your customers need: If your customers will be creating accounts and uploading personal information, you’ll probably want a dedicated server over a shared one to ensure privacy and security

If we look at the pricing of just one website host platform, Bluehost, we can already see a huge range in costs. The lowest tier of hosting, for a shared server with the least amount of traffic and storage needed, starts at just $2.95/month. And the highest plan, for a premium dedicated hosting server, goes up to $312.19+/month.

Estimated cost: $3-300/month

Domain name

Next, you’ll need to register your domain name. This typically comes with a small annual cost to keep your domain registered year after year, but the upfront cost depends on how popular your desired domain name is.

Using Bluehost again as our basis for cost (other domain registrars will be very similar if not exactly the same), we can see that cost not only differs depending on the top level domain you want (i.e., .com versus .co), but premium domains are also going to be much more expensive than regular ones.

If we wanted to buy the domain name for registeradomain.com, Bluehost tells us that’s a premium domain and it’s going to cost a pretty penny. $5,900, to be exact. However, you could always start with a different top level domain than .com and get your domain name for much cheaper, then buy the .com version after you’ve built up your business and generated some revenue.

Estimated cost: $12-15/year

Website builder

Next, let’s talk about who or what is going to build your website. You can choose to hire a professional, or use a DIY drag-and-drop website builder.

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We’ll walk through hiring a designer and what that could cost you later on. First, let’s introduce you to some top tier website builders and what those costs might look like.

Your website builder is going to depend on the type of website you need. For example, a basic informational website could be easily built on a platform like Wix or Durable. But an ecommerce website will probably turn to a builder like Shopify or BigCommerce.

Some website builders also offer domain registration and website hosting as a part of their plan, meaning you can bundle the first two factors in with your builder and save a good bit of money.

Let’s start by looking at Wix’s pricing. All of Wix’s available plans come with a free domain for the first year (you just pay recurring registration fees) and website hosting. Smaller websites that don’t need as much storage can get away with the light $17/month plan, while larger business websites might go up to Wix’s top plan for $159/month.

But what if you’re building an ecommerce website? You can look at Shopify’s pricing to see what that might run you. Similar to Wix, Shopify plans come with website hosting. But you do have to purchase your domain.

Plans start at just $39/month, but can scale with your business, with large, multichannel ecommerce or retail companies still being able to support their business website with plans from $2,300/month+.

Estimated cost: $20-200+/month

Design assets

If you’re just starting out with your business, you need the right design assets to ensure your website matches your branding. That will include things like:

A logo
Color scheme
Font choices
Patterns/branding elements

Some website builders (like Wix) also come with a logo maker so that you can seamlessly generate a logo and create an on-brand website all within the same suite of tools. However, you might also choose to work with a professional graphic designer instead to put together a brand style guide for your business.

Estimated cost: $0-2,000+ one-time fee

Copy

Every website needs high-quality copy across all of its webpages. And this copy comes at a cost, unless you know how to write optimized website copy yourself.

Some website builders, like the AI site builder Durable, can generate website copy for you—you just have to edit it to sound like your business voice. And Durable’s plans start as low as $12/month for an AI-generated website.

However, you might look into having a copywriter create your website verbiage for you. Quality copywriters charge upwards of $1,000 per page of copy.

Estimated cost: $12+/month or $1,000+/page

Additional factors

Now let’s talk about some other factors that you’ll want to consider, but that may not have much of an added cost.

Website security: These days, most website builders or hosting platforms come with built-in website security, like an SSL certificate that lets visitors know your website is secure. However, just in case, it’s important to choose a plan that comes with the right security features.
Marketing: Some website builders have marketing capabilities that you can add onto your plan for a few extra bucks a month. This could be anything from social media management tools to the ability to create lead capture forms on your website. Consider which marketing tools are going to be valuable to your business.
Template/theme: While many website builders come with their own templates that are free when you sign up for one of their plans, others have external templates you can purchase. And platforms like WordPress require you to purchase a design theme in order to customize your website.
Apps, integrations, and additional functionality: Some website builders let you purchase apps or plugins to connect to your website and provide even more customization or features. For example, WordPress websites must use the plugin WooCommerce (or something similar) to create an ecommerce site that sells products. And Shopify has a number of apps (some free, some paid) that provide additional features. Keep in mind that your base website builder price point might increase depending on your website’s needs.

How Much Does a Website Cost: DIY

For newer or smaller businesses looking to DIY their own website design, let’s pay attention to the factors that matter to you.

DIY website design entails:

Hosting
Domain name
Website builder
Design assets
Copy
Additional factors like theme/template or apps/integrations

However, you can find some website builders that incorporate some of those additional costs into their service. For example:

Durable is an AI-powered website generator that can not only build you a website within minutes, but can also generate your branding and write your website copy. It also includes website hosting and a custom domain, so you get the full website built in less than a day for just $15-25/month.
Wix is a drag-and-drop website builder that comes with a ton of templates, has a built-in logo maker, and comes with website hosting. Plus, the the platform covers the cost of your custom domain for the first year. All you have to do is write your own copy and complete the actual website design. And it costs anywhere from $17-159/month, depending on your needs.
Shopify is a DIY website builder for ecommerce websites that comes with hosting, a custom domain, as well as its own logo maker. Just like with Wix, you’re just responsible for writing your website copy and designing your site—or at least customizing your chosen template. And you can expect to pay $39-399/month depending on the size of your business.

For brand new websites, the do-it-yourself route can be ideal for getting a basic website up and running quickly—and on a budget.

If you’re just starting your business, you can expect to pay less than $50/month for your total website cost. If you use your website builder’s free logo maker to create your design assets and you write your own website copy.

How Much Does a Website Cost: Professional Design

There are a number of reasons you might decide to have your website professionally designed. You might have a bigger website budget, or perhaps you simply don’t have the time (or, honestly, the desire) to create your own website. Maybe the nature of your business requires a more complex website build.

Whatever the reason, you likely still need to be cost-conscious. So let’s look at what a professionally designed website might cost you.

The factors related to a professional website design include:

Hosting
Domain name
Designer
Design assets
Copy
Additional factors like marketing or security

Because you’re partnering with a custom website designer, you’ll have to own the costs for web hosting and domain registration. You’ll likely also need to professionally outsource your branding creation as well as website copy (unless you plan to write it yourself).

Plus, the cost of the designer can depend on its own set of factors, like:

Whether you hire a freelancer or professional agency
Whether you hire someone newer to the profession or a veteran with a huge portfolio
The size and type of website you need designed

On average, website designers charge around $75/hour. Newer, solo designers might charge closer to $30-50/hour, while experienced designers or larger agencies might be more like $100-200/hour.

A basic, small business website can take anywhere from 20-40 hours to create, meaning your website could range from $600-8,000. Larger, more complex websites will require even more design time, increasing the cost even further.

Plus, you have to consider the cost of your logo and branding, along with your website copy. You could find a designer for as low as $100 to as high as $5,000 for your branding. And website copy tends to cost around $1,000 per page.

And don’t forget the cost for website hosting ($3-300/month) and your domain name ($12-15/year).

So all in all, you’re probably looking at several thousand dollars for a fully bespoke professional website design.

What Website Cost Fits Your Budget?

What makes the most sense for your business? DIYing your design or hiring a professional website builder? Whatever path you choose, make sure you read through our guide to website design before you get started so you can ensure you or your designer don’t miss any key components.

Website Cost: Professional Design vs. DIY