Since all three options are open-source software, they are completely free. Unless you are coding your site from scratch, you will need to use a content management system like, Joomla, or Drupal. Once your website is hosted and set up, you need to build it. When hosting your own website you will also need to take into consideration the price of SSL certificates for security ($7-$250 per year) and the use of a content delivery network (CDN) to ensure your website is fast. Here are some of the most popular hosting options that range between $1 and $20 per month. If you have the required experience to self-host your website, it will always be the less expensive option.Īlthough hosting is fairly commoditized, with few differences between providers, there are certain features that can influence the price like access to customer support, storage capacity, performance, and guaranteed uptime. The biggest decision that you will need to make is whether to host the site yourself or use a fully managed service. To simplify the process of costing a website, we will use live website examples to help explain the key concepts you need to understand in order to come up with an accurate estimate.Īt the end of this guide, you will be able to determine how much your website should cost and the best way to build it.īefore jumping into the different website examples, let’s first touch on two important topics that we will discuss throughout the guide: recurring costs and one-time costs.įor the majority of websites, recurring costs will range from a few dollars per month up to about $50 per month. What backend functionality does the site offer?īecause of these variables (and many more), websites can cost anywhere between $0 for a personal website to $100,000+ for a custom enterprise site like.Are the images stock or taken professionally?.Was it made by the site owner or by someone else?.Did the site use a template or is it a custom design?.To make an accurate guess, you’d need to know: