How much does a website cost is a question that may arise in the initial stage of starting a website. Many problem may arise during the initial stage of starting a brand new website or a blog  and most of us may choose a wrong platform for our website to start. In many cases some of the business organization or blogger hires a web developer to design and host the website live on internet and without having any knowledge of how much does a website cost to build, he/she pays thousands of dollars to that web developer.

Let’s take my example, few months ago I posted a gig on fiverr “I will design your complete WordPress website” and fortunately after few days an organization hired me to design their website.

They were using hostgator as their hosting provider and while designing the website in Account section I found the phone number of  website owner. Since, I have some issue with the theme they have provided therefore I text the owner saying that “I am your web developer and I have some issue with your theme”, instantly after few minutes I received a voice message from the person who hired me on fiverr and he told me that he had taken 2500$ from the owner and designing that website just for $5. I was bit surprised but finally I designed their website and submitted my work to that person. So be aware from these type of guys.

I am writing this post to the people who want the answer of How Much Does a Website Cost to Build.

So, let’s get started.

Buy Hostgator Hosting and get domain name for free  

Get 50% discount on WordPress Themes

How Much Does a Website Cost to Build

Here I will be explaining about the requirements that you will have to buy while starting a new website and the processes that you should follow to setup a new blog or a website.

1. Domain Name (Free with webhosting)

According to Wikipedia “A domain name is a unique name that identifies an internet resource such as a website. It is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control on the Internet.”

Think what will happen if you  have to type 202.166.193.180 instead of google.com, if there is no any domain name system then you have to type the ip address instead of the understandable alphabetical name.

So, inorder to start a website the very first step is to buy a domain name that exactly matches the name of your website and fortunately domain name is not so expensive you can get the domain name just at $10.

2. Web Hosting (3.96/month)

Your visitor types the domain name in the address bar, the domain name is then translated  to your server ip address, then the servers send the files to the user and finally the browser displays the file in the user’s screen.

In simple word the web hosting is a server or a web space you rent to host your website in it. Same as your computer web hosting are also the virtual space that are created to host the website online in it.

If you are really serious about starting a new website then you should learn about these two different terms in web hosting.

i. Shared Hosting

As the name suggests, in shared hosting same server is shared with multiple website hosting in it. In real case scenario it is same as using the apartment and sharing the same toilet and bathroom. Unfortunately in shared hosting there are some disadvantages that may directly hamper your site but if your site is not getting more than 5000 visits then shared hosting is the best choice.

ii. Dedicated or VPS (Virtual Private Server)

It is different from shared hosting. In dedicated hosting a single virtual private server is dedicated and therefore you will never face any issue with the website speed or sever load time. However VPS are perfect hosting server to host the website but they are very expensive and therefore if you are staring a new website it is better to buy shared hosting instead of dedicated.

3. CMS (Content Management System) Free

A Content Management System is a web software application that allows you to develop your website without any coding skill. A CMS let’s you to design a simple blog to an advance website and lot of e-commerce, magazine, blog and news website use CMS because it allows to organize the contents easily.

If you are developing a website for a e-commerce business then I prefer you to hire a web developer to design a web application according to your need but if you are interested in blogging or starting a simple website then WordPress is the best solution for you. However if you really want to develop an e-commerce site without investing on web developer then you can use open-source Magento CMS

Learn How to use wordpress

4. Hiring a Developer

The charges of web developer varies from person to person and place to place. It depends upon the company you choose or the designer you hire. However you can eliminate you developing cost just by choosing any of the CMS available in the market. Using a CMS will let you to design your website within a couple of hours and you can start your website without investing a single penny.

As I already mentioned above that price depends upon the location of the developer. Let me explain you clearly, if you hire a developer from USA then obviously you have to pay thousands of dollar to design a simple e-commerce site but if you hire from developing countries like Nepal or India then I am pretty sure you can develop your website within $100.

5. Site Maintenance

The maintenance cost depends upon the size of your organization. If you are a blogger then you don’t have to hire third person to update your blog but if you have a e-commerce business then you have to hire a technical employee who can troubleshoot and maintain your website regularly.

Estimated Cost:

How Much Does a Website Cost to build and start

Total estimated cost to start a new website:

Domain Name: $10/year

Web Hosting: $66.72/year

CMS: Free

Designer: Optional

Maintenance: Optional

Total: $66.72/year  Free domain with Hostgator hosting