What Does A Website Cost In 2022?

Depending on the way you choose to create a website, the price will vary. Wirefreesoft has summarized web design and web hosting costs (which these can vary month by month as companies change their pricing or other incentives for their services). There are three ways commonly used to build a website: a website builder, WordPress, or by hiring a professional designer.

Website builders are generally the cheapest way to build a website. While WordPress is technically a free, open-source platform, you have to pay for hosting, themes, and plugins, and even professional help from a developer, which can increase your total cost.

Hiring a web designer is the most expensive option, but it’s the best choice if you need absolute control over the build and customization of that site or that offers the highest levels of complex functionality.

It is fair to estimate that you can expect to pay an upfront cost of around $200 to build a website, with an ongoing charge of approximately $50 per month to maintain it. This estimate will be higher if you hire a designer or developer or if you require more work to be put into your website – so in those instances you can expect an upfront charge of somewhere around $6,000, with an ongoing charge of about $1,000 per year for maintenance.

Below is a breakdown of the parts of a Website as a Whole and their respective upfront costs.

Website Feature | Upfront Website Cost

Website Domain | $12 – $60 yearly
Website Hosting | $35 – $600/month
SSL Certificate | $50 – $200 yearly
Website Template or Theme | $0 – $200 yearly
E-commerce Functionality | $1000 – $24,000 Cost to build
Website Content | $1000 – $5,000 Cost to build
Apps and Integrations | $0 – $100
SEO and Marketing | $100/mo or more for monthly SEO. Paid Click Advertising will range 500-10k for typical monthly Ad Budget. Management fees for Ad management range from $500 for smaller budgets and/or Facebook Ads. Google Ads management will range $500-2500 depending on the client advertising needs.

Below is a breakdown of the parts of using a Website Builder and their respective costs.

Website Builder Cost Breakdown | Required To Pay? | Price | More Info

Monthly subscription | Yes | $6 – $50 per month | This covers hosting, security, free themes, and built-in features.
Apps | Yes | $0 – $20+ per month | You can install free or paid apps to expand your site’s functionality.
Themes | No | $0 | You don’t have to pay for website builder themes, they are included.
Hosting | No | $0 | You don’t have to pay for hosting – this is taken care of by your website builder.
Security | No | $0 | You don’t have to pay extra for security – you get security features built in to your website builder to protect your site from threats.
Professional help | No | $0 + | Website builders are easy to use, so you don’t usually need to hire a developer. Sometimes apps require knowledge of code so you may need to hire help depending on what you need to install. This price will vary based off who and how you go about getting help.

Let’s also address the option we have yet to bring up – the free plan. The reality is, if you’re building a website that anyone else is going to see, you need a paid plan instead of the free plan. This is because free plans come with various limitations, the most common being:

Adverts displayed on your website
A free, non-custom domain, such as www.newwebsite.wix.com
Limited features, such as low storage and bandwidth allowances
No e-commerce features, meaning you can’t sell online
Basic customer support
Non customization SEO and code options which allows for your website to be found.

The free plan is only suitable for trying out the website builder, seeing if it’s the right fit for you, and for building test sites to hone your skills and try out new ideas without any financial pressure. It’s the free plan that usually gives website builders a somewhat bad reputation for being cheap and poor quality, but that’s not the case as long as you choose a good quality builder.

Here’s a breakdown to help you decide how much you might need to pay for a Website Builder for your website:

Website Builder Price Plans | Usual Cost | Who Should Use It?

Free Plan | $0 | Hobby builders, Students building school projects, Private bloggers, Anyone trying out website builders
Basic Plan | $12 per month | Bloggers, People building portfolios, Small businesses
Ecommerce Plan | $18 – $50 per month | Online stores, Businesses selling products on the side
Enterprise Plan | $500 per month | Large businesses, Large online stores

Website Builder Cost: Summary

Average price range: $6 – $50 per month

The best Template Only Website Builders are:

Wix: Starting at $13 per month
Squarespace: Starting at $12 per month

What do you pay for?

Subscription (monthly or annually): $6 – $50 per month
Domain name: $12 per year
Optional apps: $3 – $60 per month

Total cost estimate: $10 – $111 per month

How Much Does a Website Cost Using WordPress?

The price of a WordPress website depends on multiple factors, because there are different aspects to think about when setting up a WordPress site. To set up only the basics, WordPress costs around $11/month. However, you should expect a one-time fee of around $200, with a small ongoing monthly charge ($11 – $40/month). Your WordPress costs could quickly creep into the $1000+ mark if you need to hire a web designer. So you’re looking at, approximately $35 – $780 upfront, then $11 – $50 per month.

Here’s a quick rundown of the six WordPress pricing factors you’ll need to budget for when using WordPress.org:

Domain name: $12/year.
Hosting: from $2.95/month.
Pre-made themes: $0 – $200 (one-off charge).
Plugins: $0 – $1,000 (ongoing or one-off charge).
Security: from $50 (ongoing or one-off charge).
Developer fees: $0 – $1,000 (one-off cost).

There are various costs that can affect the total price of building a WordPress website, but the main one is hosting. You can get away with using free themes and plugins, but hosting is an essential and important cost that’s vital for getting your WordPress website online.

So, how much does it cost to host a website? It depends on your provider. There are tons of hosting providers out there to choose from, and some are better than others.

Here is a list of web hosts for different website platforms like WordPress, Drupal and custom web apps:

Here is a list of Ecommerce Specific Hosting:

There are even specialized web hosts specifically for WordPress:

As you can see, there’s a lot of variation in how much it costs to host a WordPress website. Some hosts offer just shared or just managed WordPress hosting plans, which affects the price – managed hosting tends to be more expensive.

Of course, you don’t have to choose WordPress specific hosting, but you’ll save a lot of time and headaches by letting your host handle some of the techy stuff!

Which Type of Hosting Should You Pay For?

Hosting Types | Usual Cost | Who Should Use It?

Shared WordPress | $2 – $15 per month | New builders on a budget, Bloggers (small blogs), Hobby builders, People creating personal portfolios, Students building school projects
Managed WordPress | $20 – $60 per month | Bloggers (larger blogs), People building large portfolios, Businesses
E-commerce | $7 – $30 per month | Online stores, Businesses selling products on the side

How Much Does It Cost To Hire A Web Designer?

Hiring a web designer to plan and create your site puts your project firmly in the hands of the professionals. You don’t get to totally sit back and relax – you’ll need to work with your web designer to create a site you love – but it does take a lot of the heavy lifting away from you.

Hiring a web designer is best for:

Anyone needing a very complex website
Those with zero time or technical confidence
Big budgets and big, custom websites

This is possibly the hardest cost to estimate, because different web designers will charge different rates depending on the project and their own experience. You might choose an agency or a freelancer, and this will also affect the cost.

Wirefreesoft does our best to keep costs as cost effective for our clients as possible. As you have seen above there are lots of costs associated with website creation even if you go at it alone. When you choose Wirefreesoft as your website designer you are choosing to work with dedicated professionals who have experience, knowledge and skill so you can rest assure that we will take your website creation seriously.

What Affects the Cost Of Hiring a Web Designer?

Here are some things to think about when hiring a web designer, which will all factor into the final cost of building your website:

How complex is your website plan?
Do you want the designer to handle hosting, domains, and plugins for you? Or do you just want them to design and build your site?
Will you need them to carry out ongoing maintenance on your site? Or will you do this yourself?
Do you have a pre-made template you want the designer to customize? Or do you want the designer to build your site from scratch?
What sort of features do you need? For example, will you be selling online?
How many pages is your website going to be? You’ll need to know this beforehand to get an accurate quote.

Cost of Building a Website: Web Designer Breakdown

When it comes to a Web Designer, you get what you pay for; if you pay little you’ll get someone who likely knows little. Remember that you’re paying for the educated people who are creating your website for you. The list below breaks down the different factors that you pay for when Hiring a Web Designer, to give you a better idea of exactly what you’re paying for, and the average costs involved:

Factors | Approximate Price

Initial Setup | $160 – $200 (1-time fee)
Design | Basic Templates: $35 – $50 Premium Templates: $80 – $200 Template Alterations: $300 – $1,000 Custom Design: $5,000 – $10,000+
Building | Hourly Costs of a Designer: $50 – $80/hour Average Cost of Content Population: $500 – $5,000*
Content Creation | $500
Knowledge & Training | $600
Maintenance | Developer Cost: $100 – $180 per hour Estimated Annual Cost: $500 – $1,000

The average cost of hiring a web designer to build your website is $6,760. *The range is wide as it depends on how much content you have, and how many pages.

This list highlights some of the most common unseen cost factors of using a web designer. There may be more factors involved depending on all the above mentioned needs of your website. You’ll likely find there’s some overlap here with the WordPress building method, because many designers and developers use WordPress to create their sites.

You may also want to budget for ongoing maintenance costs. That’s usually about $100 – $500 per year, provided you don’t make any major alterations to your website design.

Web Designer Website Cost: Summary

Average price range: $6,000 – $10,000+

Two charges:

Upfront cost: $5,000 – $10,000+

Ongoing charge: $500 – $1,000 per year for updates

Monthly Website Management/Server Updates : $50-$500/month

What do you pay for?

Security and hosting included in some packages (always check)
Web design
Website creation
Content creation
Ongoing maintenance

Total cost estimate:

Upfront average website cost: $8000

Ongoing cost: $500 – $1,000 per year

Contact Wirefreesoft for questions

Whole Website Cost: Recap

Use a website builder: $6 – $50 per month – cheapest option
Use WordPress: $35 – $780 upfront cost, $11 – $50 per month ongoing cost – lots of control over how cheap (or expensive) your site ends up being
Hire a web designer: $500 – $10,000+ – minimal time investment, but most expensive option

We recommend using a website builder if:

You have a tight budget
You’re a first-time builder
You’re short on time
You want to have a go at creating a site yourself
You don’t want to deal with all the technical stuff

We recommend using WordPress if:

You have a little more wriggle room in your budget
You want total control over your site
You have plenty of time
You want a high level of customization
You’d enjoy handling all the technical stuff

We recommend using a web designer if:

You have a large budget
You don’t want the responsibility of creating a site yourself
You’re very short on time
You need a very complex or custom design
You’d be happy letting a professional manage your site

If you have any questions please contact Wirefreesoft today. It is our goal to make your website creation as simple for you as possible. We aim to create timely and professional sites for your custom business needs. We aim to be as transparent and cost effective as possible. As you can see there is a lot that goes into creating and designing a website. Your website is very important which means that it is important to do your research and take your time when deciding how to implement it. Wirefreesoft is here to help!

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Wirefreesoft Web Design

1717 E Vista Chino St Ste A7-580
Palm Springs, CA 92262
Phone (Palm Springs): 760-668-8893
Phone (LA/OC/SD): 310-927-9111
GMail: wirefreesoft@gmail.com