Website Costs: DIY vs Pro Web Design for Small Businesses in 2023

The average cost of website design for small business depends on the approach and platform. You can outsource web design starting from $50 with freelancers or from $5,000 to over $20,000 with agencies. Or, you can keep website costs super-low forever with site builders and pay $0 for do-it-yourself design. Besides design, keep reading to learn what other website costs you need to keep in mind.

Contributing Factors to Small Business Website Costs

To understand how much it costs to build a website to grow youronline brand presence, you need to understand all that goes into making one and getting it online. For example, you’ll need web hosting, which can be accomplished through a web hosting company or obtained automatically with site builders like Wix or Squarespace. You’ll also need artwork, web copy, a logo, and so on.

Here are all of the elements that can drive up the average cost of website design for small businesses:

Web Hosting & CMS

This is where the files of your website and content management system (CMS) are stored, e.g., on a server at aweb hosting companylike Bluehost or on the servers of an all-in-one website builder like Wix.

Picking the right CMS platform for your site (e.g., WordPress, Shopify, Wix, and so on) will affect your ability to build a strong brand presence online, so it’s a pretty important decision. Read our guide onwhat a CMS isto get an idea of which would be best for your business.

Domain

Many web hosts and site builders include a free domain name in paid plans. If not, you can obtain one easily throughtop domain registrarslike IONOS or Domain.com for about $10 to $15 a year.

Functionality

Functionality refers to the capabilities you want for your site. This includes everything from webforms for leads and subscriptions to an online store, appointment booking tools, and more. With site builders, a lot of functionality is built into plans. This makes it easier to implement, though plan costs generally increase the more functionality you need.

然而,与WordPress以外的所有功能publishing pages and blog posts requires some type of plugin. If you need several plugins, this could drive up your website costs quickly.

Every WordPress site requires a security plugin, at the very least. Hosting companies have server-level security, but this doesn’t prevent attacks on your site like data breaches via hackers, malware, and DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks. Read our list ofWordPress的技巧to see what else you might need to spend to build on WordPress.

Design & Development

Before building a site (or when you start the process), you’ll be making a lot of decisions about how you want your site to look and feel. In fact, stats show that75% of brand credibilityhinges on site design. Frompicking a website color schemeto your site’s layout, the more custom your design, the more likely it will require professional expertise to build, if not code.

Design is also where costs for artwork come into play. There are many places to get freeimages for website design. But if you want custom artwork unique to your site or that you find on a premium app like Shutterstock, you can quickly spend several hundred dollars to get the images you need.

If you don’t have a logo, you may also need to hire a designer to create one. You can do this on a site like Fiverr for as little as $5 or spend a bit more and find a designer you want to work with on platforms like 99designs. Alternatively, you can DIY logo design for free on a platform like Canva or use the artificial intelligence (AI) logo maker built into the Hostinger website builder. Learn more from our list of thebest sites for logo design.

Approach

The biggest impact to the average cost of website design for small business by far is which approach you take. With a website builder, it’s possible to create a professional, custom-looking website without spending a dime (beyond your plan cost), even for a true beginner. Some site builders also offer low-cost site building services to jump-start your project.

Outsourcing to a freelancer on Fiverr or Upwork can be the most affordable way to avoid a DIY (do it yourself) website build, with a one-time cost as low as $50 to $100. Going with an agency may require one-time or ongoing fees. For example, some agencies give you a fairly low buy-in cost of around $1,000 a month, but the catch is that this is $1,000 a month for the life of the website.

Other agencies offer a one-time build cost or a one-time fee with the option to go with a monthly retainer for continued services like website maintenance and content updates. With agencies, you should expect to pay anywhere from around $5,000 and up, depending on the scope of your site, including all the factors mentioned above.

Average Website Costs With a DIY Site Builder

Website design costs hinge on whether you build it yourself or hire a professional web designer. The most affordable option is to build your website in-house, whereas the cheapest outsourcing option will be to work with a freelancer. You can also work with marketing agencies and design firms, but keep in mind that professional web development costs can easily climb into the tens of thousands.

If you build your site yourself (or in-house), a small business website cost may only include the price of hosting, domain, and CMS (e.g., Wix or WordPress). Here are some top options to consider:

*Cost per month, billed annually
**Requires an ecommerce plugin like WooCommerce, which may entail additional cost

We recommend DreamHost as the best option for WordPress because they include the BoldGridWordPress website builder免费托管计划。另外,你可以节省钱。艾尔l these providers include a free domain and SSL certificate in plans, and both DreamHost and Hostinger include free email addresses on your domain as well.

Pros & Cons

Website builders are designed for DIY site-building, and come with everything needed to build a site including hosting, domain, no-code design tools, and plugins.Drag-and-drop website buildersrequire little to no learning curve and enable anyone to build a site quickly. They even provide premade templates and website content blocks that save you time and keep you from making web design mistakes.

If you’re ready to tackle building your small business website yourself, check out our article that explains how tomake a small business websitestep-by-step.

Average Cost to Outsource Website Design to a Professional

The cost of professional web design and development runs the gamut from affordable for nearly every size budget to tens of thousands. Obviously, with such a wide range of pricing and options, the quality of the work of potential freelancers and agencies will also vary, so doing your research is key.

Here’s what to expect:

Your cost to hire a professional freelance web designer on Fiverr starts as low as $50 to $250. On the upper end of costs, you could pay anywhere from $500 to $20,000 or even more with professional web development firms. Outsourcing is best for businesses with complex site needs or those who want a custom size and have the resources to hire and work with a professional web developer.

Pros & Cons

After evaluating all of thewebsite basicsneeded for a good site, not everyone wants to build their own, and it can be worth leaving it to the experts. Depending on how you go about outsourcing website design and development, and the requirements of your site, it could cost anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands to build your small business website.

Here are three common ways to outsource small business web design and development:

• Freelance web designer:Most affordable option for outsourcing small business web design, development, and maintenance on a project basis, starting from around $50
• Marketing agency:Best option for businesses wanting an on-going solution for building and maintaining a website, starting from about a $300 monthly retainer or $1,000 one-time fee
• Web design firm:Best for building sites with unique functionalities that require complex code and the most custom site design, starting from approximately $10,000 and up

Outsourcing website design to a digital marketing agency or even a Fiverr freelancer will be more expensive. But it will give you a custom website with unique design and functionality through professionals who (presumably) understand search engine optimization (SEO) and what your site needs torank higher on Google.

Cost of Website Maintenance

An expense often overlooked for the average cost of website design for small business with either approach is maintenance. This can range from as little as $5 to $25 with a Fiverr freelancer to hundreds or thousands per month with a digital marketing agency. WordPress sites, in particular, require constant maintenance, from updating WordPress itself to maintaining your theme and plugins, so be sure to take the cost of website maintenance into consideration.

Cost of Professionally Built & Maintained Sites at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What’s the cheapest way to build a website for my small business?

---

Should I pay someone to build my website?

---

需要多长时间来设计年代吗ite?

---

Bottom Line

艾尔l-in-one site builders like Wix bring the cost of building a full-featured website with ecommerce, appointment booking, memberships, and more down to less than $30 per month. If you prefer to hire the work out, professional help is budget-friendly through the Fiverr freelance marketplace. See whether the DIY design route is right for you by testing Wix out with its free plan.

Visit Wix