Web Design Q&A

There are 5 main components to creating a website
 
1.       Domain Name
2.       Webhosting
3.       SSL Certificate
4.       Website Creation
5.       Memberships / Plugins etc
 
1. Domain Name
 
Domain name will depend on the type of domain name – some domain names are more expensive than others, but generally speaking you are looking anywhere between $45 - $140 per year.
 
There are some premium domains, which can cost thousands of dollars, but that is generally an exception.
 
2. Webhosting
 
There are great variations on hosting prices.   Just with anything else, you get what you pay for.  If you find a company who offers webhosting for less than $150 per year, chances are your website will be on a server with thousands of other websites and will most likely be slow to load.  Also tech support is generally minimal or via email only.
 
If your website gets a lot of traffic and if you have many large files, then you may need to consider Virtual Private Server or a Dedicated Web Server and this can set you back between $100 - $2000 per month.
 
However, for the majority of small businesses, you can get decent shared hosting from $25 per month.
 
3. SSL Certificate
 
An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates the identity of a website and encrypts information sent to the server using SSL technology. Encryption is the process of scrambling data into an undecipherable format that can only be returned to a readable format with the proper decryption key.
 
Whilst in previous years you only needed SSL certificate if you were accepting payments online, these days you need to have SSL Certificate for all websites, otherwise Google marks your website as Not Secure.
 
The cost of SSL Certificates varies between $50 - $300 per year
 
4. Website Design & Development
 
This is a bit more difficult to answer as much will depend on the size and functionality of a website.  A 5-10 page informational website will generally cost between $1000 - $2500.
 
An ecommerce website (one that sells products) generally costs between $2,500 - $10,000, depending on how many products you have and the complexity of the set up.

As there is a lot of work involved in setting up a professional website, if you find someone who is charging less than $800, I would definitely check out their references and portfolio.

5. Memberships / Plugins

You may also need to pay for additional services, such as Landing Page Builder, Email Automation, Calendar Booking System etc.  Although many companies offer free versions, these are generally very limited.  So depending on the membership level and service provided – you can be paying between $10 - $300 per month.

So these are just some rough figures to give you an idea on how much getting a website created by a professional website designer will cost you.

Naturally once your website is built you will need to set a budget for promoting your website and that can run from several dollars per day to several thousand per month.

To make it easy for our clients to budget, we have put together packages, starting from $990.