How Much Does a Website REALLY Cost?
If you're considering building WordPress website or blog, the first question you're likely to ask yourself is "what will this all cost?" Well, the answer to your question really just depends on your goals. After all, if you're a small business, you'll have vastly different goals to that of say Facebook or Amazon.
by Ryan Sullivan
If you’re thinking about starting a WordPress website or blog, one of the first questions you’ll probably ask yourself is “How much does a website cost?” It’s an important question, and it really depends on your goals. After all, a website for a small business is going to have vastly different goals and budgetary constraints than sites like Facebook or Amazon.
Regardless of the scope and size of your site, planning out your budget and researching your product and services options early on in the process can save you a ton of money later down the road.
If you want to hire a designer, developer, or web agency, to do the work for you, the price can get pretty steep. While there’s nothing wrong with that, there are several tiers of website creation to consider. Because WordPress is free, open source software, you can build your own cost-effective website if you don’t mind a bit of work.
So, how much does creating a WordPress website cost if you’re going the DIY route? It all depends on how you go about choosing the products and services you’ll need to create an effective site. In this post, we’re going to look at what costs you can expect as a DIYer and help you make well-informed choices to get the best bang for your buck.
Table of Contents
1. How Much Does a Domain Name for a Website Cost?
The first thing you will need (if you don’t have it already) is a domain name. Your domain name is the URL (like “sitecare.com”) that people will type in to find your website.
There are two free resources you can use when choosing your domain name. KnowEm allows you to search for names to see if a matching domain and social accounts are available. For example, if you check wpsitecare, you’d see that we have the .com, Twitter, Facebook, and several other accounts for that name.
If social accounts for branding are not a concern, you can use Lean Domain Search to search only for available domain names. This service will allow you to see related domain names that are available or premium domains that are for sale through GoDaddy and Sedo.
The pricing of your domain will depend on its availability. For example, you could have the following scenarios.
.com Domains
If it is a domain that is available, you can purchase it from most domain registrars. Domain name registrars have become much more competitive with pricing their domains, starting as low as for some .com domains.
Once you choose a domain registrar, you can do a search on Google for their name + coupon code to save a little extra on the domain registration.
Other Top Level Domains
Pricing for other top level domains like the traditional .net, .org, and .info or the newer .guru, .photography, and .agency may have a higher or lower registration cost than .com domains. Most will have a similar or higher renewal cost.
For example, a .guru on GoDaddy may be on sale for registration at , but the yearly renewal cost is . A .global on GoDaddy may be on sale for registration at , but the yearly renewal cost is .
Be sure to check both the initial registration cost, as well as the yearly renewal cost, so you don’t get stuck with an expensive domain to maintain.
The other thing to look out for when buying domains is add-on purchases that you may or may not need. I typically recommend the WHOIS privacy registration to help protect your personal information. Beyond that, be careful that you’re not paying unneeded fees to make up for the domain pricing difference. No one wants to buy a domain for .
Auction Domains
Some domains may be available at auction because the owner who purchased it no longer wants it. Auction domain sales work similar to eBay – several people will make a bid during a specified period of time, and the highest bidder will win. These domains can range in price from less than to thousands, depending on the name and competition.
For Sale Domains
Some domains may be on sale because the owner who purchased it no longer wants it through services like Sedo and NameExperts. As opposed to an auction, these domains are sale for a fixed price.
It never hurts to try and contact the seller to see if you can make a deal with them. Sometimes, if the domain has been on sale for a long time, they may be willing to negotiate a lower price with you to get it off their hands. Most for sale domains will have a way for you to contact the seller for more details.
Contacting the seller can be tricky as most brokerages want to keep the sellers information private so they don’t jeopardize getting a portion of the sale.
As with auctioned domains, for sale domains can range in price from less than to thousands, depending on the name and competition.
How Do Domain Buying Services Factor Into Website Cost?
Domain registrars like GoDaddy give you the option to buy a domain from someone who may not be auctioning or selling through their buying service. Essentially, they will contact the domain owner and try to broker a deal for you.
This service is good for domains that are not being auctioned, not for sale, not in use, or haven’t been updated in years. For example, if you go to a domain, see that it’s a blog, and the blog hasn’t been updated since 2010. That might be a good time to attempt contacting the owner and making a purchase.
Before trying the buy service, you should try contacting the domain owner if possible. You can use the URL http://whois.domaintools.com/domain.com and replace the domain.com to see if there is public contact information for the domain. If you contact them, but don’t receive a response, then try the buy service.
The cost for this approach is the fee for the service () plus whatever the amount the owner wants for the domain.
Typical Domain Name Cost:
Most of the time you’ll be fine with a standard domain name from NameCheap or GoDaddy. If you don’t need to purchase a domain or use an unusual TLD, you can expect to pay -20 per year.
Potential Domain Name Cost:
Although it is somewhat unusual, you may find yourself in a situation where you need to purchase a more expensive domain. Usually this will be a one-time fee and can run anywhere from to 100,000 and up. In addition to this fee, you will also need to pay around per year for your domain once it’s been purchased.
A Note on Pre-Owned Domains
If you are looking to buy a domain that has been owned or used before, be sure to research it carefully. Free services like Archive.org will allow you to see the content previously published on the domain.
Ahrefs’ backlink explorer will show you if a domain has a link profile established. If it does, you may also want to invest in a premium backlink research tool to see what links the domain has pointed to it.
The point of this research is to make sure you are not spending money on a domain that may have had questionable content on it in the past or has a bad backlink profile. Both may harm your chance of creating a successful website.
You may look at the rest of this guide and wonder why I spent so much time on the domain name. The truth is, it’s easy enough to change your web host, design, plugins, security solution, and other areas of your website. Changing the domain name means re-branding your name, redirecting all of your content, potentially losing your social share counts, and much more. Therefore, really take the time on this portion of starting your WordPress website. You’ll be glad you did!
2. How Much Does Web Hosting Cost? What’s Realistic?
Once you have your domain, you will need web hosting. How much does web hosting for a website cost? Web hosting costs start at super inexpensive (under per month) for shared hosting, where your website will be on a server with other websites. Inexpensive shared hosting companies include GoDaddy, SiteGround, InMotion, Bluehost, and similar.
How much does managed WordPress hosting for a website cost?
Hosting costs continue to rise when you start looking for WordPress-focused hosting. They are not unreasonable, however. Nearly every web host has a flavor of managed WordPress hosting now. Some of the more popular companies that have hosting specific to WordPress include Kinsta, WP Engine, Pressable, and Pagely. Pricing with these companies starts in a range from – and goes up to + depending on your specific needs.
Some plans include additional services for backups, security, and speed enhancement. For a comprehensive solution, we recommend checking out managed web hosting with Southern Web, which goes above and beyond the typical hosting solution by offering a truly inclusive slate of services at a competitive price.
Most people starting a WordPress website will be able to utilize one of the above-mentioned options. If you know your website will be attracting Amazon-like volumes of traffic, you may need to look into dedicated servers and enterprise hosting options at a significantly higher cost.
To learn more about WordPress hosting, be sure to visit our guide comparing several popular hosting companies.
Typical Web Hosting Cost:
If you’re getting started and don’t expect a ton of traffic to your website, you should be able to get some very affordable web hosting. We recommend SiteGround, but any of the hosts mentioned above would be a great place to start your website. On a standard shared hosting plan, you can expect to pay around to per year.
Potential Web Hosting Cost:
If you expect that the site you’re building is going to be a traffic magnet, or you simply like to dream big, you can get a much higher capacity hosting plan from one of the managed WordPress hosting companies like Pagely. If you go this route, you can expect to pay anywhere from to + per year.
3. How Much Does Web Design Cost? I Want a Nice Website!
Everyone wants a beautiful website and luckily WordPress has 1000s of great-looking themes available at reasonable prices. Since you’re doing things yourself, you’ll probably want to choose a pre-made WordPress theme for your site’s design. When choosing a theme, you need to think about how you want to represent yourself or your brand online.
How much does a theme for a website cost?
In 2019 the landscape for themes looks very different than it did in 2018 with several of our favorite theme shops being purchased by hosting providers. StudioPress and Array Themes were both acquired by WP Engine, and iThemes was purchased by LiquidWeb in the same way.
As you search the web, you will find both free and premium WordPress themes. A lot will depend on the type of look you want for your WordPress site. Good themes won’t include much, if any, functionality directly within the theme, so be wary of any theme that offers huge bundles of cool-sounding features.
A theme with a ton of features might sound like a great deal, but most of the time you’ll be better served by a simple theme that works well with popular plugins. Here are some examples of where you can go to get WordPress themes and what you can expect in terms of pricing.
You can get some nicely-designed free themes through the WordPress theme directory.
Framework themes such as Hybrid Core or Genesis range from – . You will then either need to have good design / developer skills to customize the look, purchase one of their attractive child themes, or purchase a package that gets you all of the additional designs that go with the framework.
How much does a theme membership for a website cost?
For a larger variety of designs, you can choose theme memberships. DevPress offers a per year membership for access to 14 themes. Array no longer has themes available to purchase. The Theme Foundry offers a membership per year for access to around 10 themes. WooCommerce used to have a membership pricing model for themes.
New to the party in 2019 is WP Astra with a wide selection of very attractive WordPress themes, and a unique approach to building that they call “Starter Sites”. This is a great way to get up and running fast for as little as .
In recent years WooCommerce has limited their theme selection and drastically lowered the price as WooCommerce extensions makes the bulk of their revenue now. While the dollar value stands out in this group, the choice really comes down to which theme designs you like most. The reality is that you won’t be changing your theme often, if at all, so the bulk value really only delivers if you’re regularly building websites as a freelancer or similar.
You can also choose to hire a WordPress developer to customize a WordPress theme for you. One of the best ways to find a quality WordPress developer is to ask around. Most of the best developers get their business through referrals and don’t focus much on freelancer sites or organic search. If you’re not having any luck asking for preferred recommendations, Codeable is a network of WordPress freelancers that may work well for you.
Another great place to look for help with customizations is WordPress People directory on Post Status. In addition to asking around and checking the people directory, you might want to try Twitter. Lots of great WordPress developers work remotely and hang out on Twitter, so try searching there and asking for developer help using the #WordPress hashtag.
When you choose a WordPress theme, or have one created for you, be sure to go with a responsive design. This ensures that everyone who visits your website on a desktop, tablet, or mobile device will have a great experience. Google will also give you a little mobile-friendly seal of approval in search.
Be sure to visit our guide on choosing a great WordPress theme for your website for more information on this part of starting your WordPress website.
Typical WordPress Theme Cost:
Whatever theme you choose for your DIY website, you should probably expect to pay at least to for a quality theme with ongoing support. If you join a theme club, this could be a little bit higher and also be a recurring fee; however it will give you a larger selection of designs should you want to branch out and create more websites.
Potential WordPress Theme Cost:
If setting up and customizing a theme is a little beyond what you’re prepared to do, or you want something a little more custom, you can still get a reasonably priced design. If you hire a designer or developer to help customize an existing theme, you can expect to pay anywhere from to depending on the complexity of your theme changes and the expertise of the person/agency you’re working with.
4. How Much Should I Spend on WordPress Security?
One of the downsides to using WordPress is that because it is so popular, it is targeted by hackers and malicious code creators for the purposes of distributing malware and viruses. There are security solutions that can help. But how much do security solutions for a website cost?
One popular solution is Sucuri. They will help your website with malware cleanup, blacklist monitoring and removal, website firewall and protection, brute force / DDoS mitigation, and HTTP monitoring. Their service starts at per month. Although not as comprehensive, there are some free and lower-priced options to help keep your WordPress website more secure. Some of the popular WordPress security-related plugins are:
- iThemes Security – starting at per year
- BruteProtect – bundled for free with Jetpack
- Limit Login Attempts – free in the WordPress repository
- Force Strong Passwords – free in the WordPress repository
Typical WordPress Security Cost:
If you’re a brave soul, you can forgo spending any money on security, but it may wind up costing you a lot more in the end. Some web hosting companies like WP Engine have an ongoing partnership with Sucuri which can save you a bit of money. That said, we recommend playing it safe and setting aside per year for a typical DIY website for security protection.
Potential WordPress Security Cost:
Security problems can cost a ton of money. It’s difficult to gauge what the potential damages of an insecure or hacked website could be, but rest assured it’s much higher than you think. Malicious intruders can make off with your personal information, your visitors information, and turn your digital world upside down. Trust us, don’t skimp on security. You’ll regret it eventually.
5. How Much Do WordPress Plugins and Special Features Cost?
Plugins help you enhance the functionality of your WordPress site. There are many free ones that will help you immensely, such as WordPress SEO by Yoast for search optimization, Jetpack for functionality similar to WordPress.com, and Formidable Forms for form creation.
How much do plugins and other features for a website cost?
In addition to the free ones, there are also paid plugins (aka premium plugins) that you might find useful now or down the road. Here are a few you may want to consider.
- Akismet, the popular spam-fighting plugin, starts at per month for commercial sites (or free for personal sites).
- Gravity Forms is a great plugin for adding all types of forms to your website. It starts at per year and has a proven, reliable track record. If you need a free alternative form plugin, Formidable Forms, WP Forms, and Ninja Forms are some nice alternatives.
- Related Posts for WordPress starts at per month and is a really easy way to add a related posts section to all of your blog posts. We use it and love it. There’s also a free version if you don’t need the extra features or premium support.
- Business Review Bundle will run you per year and is an awesome set of plugins if you’re making a website for a local business. The plugins in the bundle can help increase your exposure on local sites like Yelp and the Yellow Pages.
- Pinterest “Pin It” Button Pro starts at and is a great way to get more visitors to your site through Pinterest. We definitely recommend this one if your website is photo-heavy.
There are many, many more plugins out there to explore. These are only a sampling, and also the reason that WordPress is so great. There is no limit to what you can do with WordPress thanks to plugins. Don’t miss our list of favorite WordPress plugins!
Typical Plugin Budget:
Lots of sites can get by using only free plugins from the WordPress.org plugin repository. If you’d like to save some money on your site, this is probably the best area to do it. There are lots of great free plugins available for WordPress, so try searching for free options before looking for a premium solution.
That said, there is a good chance you’ll have at least one or two needs that can’t be met by free plugins, or you want some paid support, so you should expect to spend around per year on premium plugins.
Potential Plugin Budget:
If your site needs to work a very specific way to accomplish your goals, or requires more advanced functionality like eCommerce or Memberships, you’ll need to have a larger plugin budget.
The two best eCommerce plugins for WordPress are free; however, they have many extensions which are not. If you need a lot of special functionality on your site, you can expect to pay anywhere from to for the premium plugins you’re going to need.
Other Special Feature Considerations
How much does ecommerce or forum functionality on a website cost?
Even though this is a pretty comprehensive article about determining website cost, I didn’t address some of the specific features that factor into the pricing of a small business website. Things like ecommerce, membership functionality, and forums can drive up the price of a website significantly.
There are also more subtle parts of your website that seem like simple additions, but they certainly take more time for a design and development team to build into your site, so will drive up the cost as well. If you’re wondering what some of those additional items might be, Savvy SME has put together an article around frequently forgotten parts of small business websites.
6. Website Maintenance Costs? Who Will Help When Things Break?
Last, but not least, it’s critical to factor in site management and WordPress support when determining total website cost. WordPress needs regular maintenance in terms of updates to the core software, updates to themes, and updates to plugins. These updates help your website perform at its best and keep it secure from the latest WordPress threats. Plus, you need backups if you want to ensure that your content will be safe in the event of a hosting disaster.
How much does ongoing maintenance for a website cost?
If you look at the totals above for website hosting plus security, you might be thinking that WordPress is a bit too pricey for your blood.
Fortunately, you can start with an inexpensive hosting solution (under per month) and get security monitoring, backups, updates, and much more through one provider starting at per month. This combination makes starting your own WordPress website affordable and much less of a hassle on your end.
Typical Ongoing Management Cost:
Ongoing site management is something you may be able to do yourself. If you don’t mind keeping up with WordPress updates, plugin updates, theme updates, and small adjustments to your theme and plugins, you can save some money in this area.
One major downside to saving money on site management is that you may wind up in a situation where you’ve crashed your site and don’t know how to restore it. We see this sort of thing all the time, so be careful if you decide to look after your site yourself. Remember to always make backups!
Potential Ongoing Site Management Cost:
If you’d prefer to have someone else take care of your site for you, the cost is relatively small. Our least expensive plan is per year and includes 24/7 security monitoring, backups, updates, interactive WordPress training, and our favorite benefit – peace of mind. 🙂
TL;DR? Here’s Our Short Answer on How Much a Website Costs
As you can see, there are quite a few things to consider when determining how much a website will cost. If you’re not so sure about rolling up your sleeves and doing things yourself, you can read about the costs of custom WordPress websites to get an idea of how much a custom site will cost.
On the other hand, if you’re still ready to start tinkering with a bit of code or figuring out how to get some plugins and a theme to work the way you need them to, you can save yourself quite a lot of money.
When you choose the right services from the start, WordPress doesn’t have to be a costly endeavor. With most things, like designs and plugins, you can start free and work your way up. If you invest in the right things like a great domain name, web hosting company, and maintenance plan, you’ll be on your way to creating a successful website without having to fuss with too much of the technical side. Now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for: How much does a website cost, really?
Typical DIY WordPress Website Cost:
Getting started doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Keep in mind that you can always improve or expand on your ideas later down the road. If you keep the scope of your site small go with some budget-conscious options, you can expect to be up and running with your own WordPress website for around to per year. That’s not bad at all.
If you really want to cut costs, you can skip all of the extras and be publishing from your very own self-hosted WordPress website for as little as per year, which is probably less than you will spend on coffee!
Potential DIY WordPress Website Cost:
If you’re really wanting to go all out and make the next big thing, you can spend quite a bit more than getting your website off the ground. If you’re interested in things like membership sites, eCommerce, and complex functionality you’ll probably wind up spending closer to to per year on your website. This is a rough estimate based on potential costs and it could be much less or much more depending on your situation and your needs.
Our advice is to be careful about overspending on an idea before you’ve validated it. Make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into before you whip out your debit card and buy 50 premium plugins. If you have an idea and you’re looking for consulting to point you in the right direction, reach out to some WordPress people on Twitter and see what they have to say. You’ll find that the community is very open and welcoming to anyone who is interested in building something.
Does this article answer the question “How much does a website cost?” Which website costs are hardest for you to bear? Is there anywhere you wish you could save money, or tips you can share with fellow readers? Let us know in the comments!
Want to chat about building a new website or taking your existing site to the next level? Contact us today!
Great article Kristi,
I would also include few more points about cost of the content for the new website or blog (photos, graphics, logo, written content). I found that this is something people don’t take into account when they start.
Thanks Ogi! I think a lot of people think they’ll do all the content on their own, and then find out how difficult that can be.
My experience is people way underestimate content. That process slows down a website build for developers more than anything else. 🙁
Definitely, content is *such* a huge piece that gets overlooked all the time. Thanks for stopping by, Todd 🙂
Kristi, A rather complex topic, but you explained it quite clearly. There are a number of factors to consider before diving into a DIY development project and you illuminate them well. Plus provide lots of good advice and tips.
An important element in the cost consideration will be what the website will be used for. Will site be a personal website or blog or will it be used for a business?
A key phrase that you note is “if you don’t mind a bit of work.” Having learned WordPress development from scratch I chuckled a bit as I read that. The definition of “a bit” can vary pretty significantly based on skills and experience of the person doing the work and their desire to learn.
Very true Mike! I’ve told some people that setting up WordPress can be tough, and they ended up thinking it was easy. Others thought it was the most difficult thing they had to learn. It all depends on the experience. 🙂
Very well explained and easy to understand. I do believe you didn’t include what a lot of people don’t think when they are trying the DIY thing. People don’t take in consideration the time they are spending on web developing instead of using their time and expertise on developing their product or service. Wasting somehow a lot of money doing something that’s not adding any balanced value to their website. For example: a jewelry designer/creator that earns around $75/hour regularly, putting 100 hours (to be conservative) into learning all this to save maybe $1,000; doesn’t make sense until you explain it to them.
Hi Kristi,
I would also recommend ghost blog writer and siteground as our respective content and hosting solutions for ease of use and customer service!
I wanted to give a shout out to theme install services, where you can build a base eCommerce or Membership site on WordPress for under $1,000. Folks like Slocum Themes offer these type of services to help build the initial site.
This seems pretty accurate, at least from my own experiences. One of the hardest parts of keeping a site on budget is just avoiding the various price gouging for very simple services, like WordPress’ kind offer to help you transfer hosts for just $150-400. And I’ve learned from cruel experience how quickly a GoDaddy representative can turn a simple domain name purchase into a few hundred in expenses if you give them direct access to an unprotected (not-so-tech-savvy) client.
I would say that the cost in time to learn all the DIY aspects, and stay current, are pretty huge. If that’s an investment in a marketable skill, great, if not, it might be better to just hire someone and keep doing what you do to make money.
Great article, I’m sure it will help blog newbies out!
Haha, definitely a great point about being wary of the upsells. That can spin out of control very quickly.
Good article Kristi,
but rather than validate fears of professional costs and blast into a how much article. Qualifying the sort of person who would build a site without any knowledge, is an important part of the advice. Ogi touched on this too, the real cost is in the content.
Anyone can put something together using WP, but it is a bit like servicing your own car. Sure you can add up the costs of oil, filters, spark plugs etc. Then you can buy a manual, watch a Youtube vid and follow the steps . . . but truth is, there are more traps and esoteric requirements than it is worth to most individuals, especially those with a business.
So, just as the smart money gets a professional to tune up the car, it makes sense to advise people to consider getting professional help to create a business site. That is probably the best piece of advice you can give a DIY site WP wannabe.
🙂
Hello!
Basic message of this comment:
Thanks for saving my butt(ocks)
Keep reading for the more entertaining and detailed version:
I’m a newbie to this Interweb Publishing/WordPress Thing. End goal: fame and fortune (not necessarily in that order) through creating several websites to get my BlahBlahBlah out into the Universe, as a writer in several niches. The world needs my Awesomesauce verbosity. (Niches? Mental illness (404BrainError), ADHD (ADHDOhLookShiny) and Bike Industry Wife-ism (BikeIndustryWife); hopefully to be up in the near future.
Like many (millions of) others, Google spat out a kaleidoscope of relevant(?) sites. 45 minutes later, here I am; some Songza… song making my head bop. It’s all good.
And I’ve received the (apparently) much needed Kick In The A$$. I didn’t realize the cost of having several websites.
A few notches lower on the motivated scale, but in reality the information in your article has helped me focus on what is the best investment for my career.
So in a roundabout way, you’ve saved me from getting caught in the Dark Hole of The Web. (Pun *sort* of intended…) I know what to consider, how to know what to expect and essentially saving me much frustration, money and cursing. (Now bopping to Ke$ha… apologies).
There are other articles that have been helpful on this site and I’ll no doubt find others.
So, I’m, like, bookmarking this.
And… yeah, thanks.
Muchly,
*now bopping to We Will Rock You*
How appropriate.
And again, like many others I did the Google search and opened a bunch of tabs that seemed relevant; as well as approved by Norton Safe web security; I’m at least *that* competent.
Loved the article. Very thorough.
However, custom WordPress websites can easily cost way over $5,000. Just add custom eCommerce and you’re likely at $10,000 minimum. Membership sites? Also in 5 figures. Any other sort of abnormal custom functionality also adds up.
Hey Brian, don’t disagree with that at all. The whole article is kind of written under the assumption that folks are going the DIY route. Your estimates are definitely spot on for anything custom though!
This is a really great, in-depth article. I’ve thought a lot about the DIY space and how people can get started on the right foot if they really just don’t have the money to invest in going totally PRO. In fact, I created a course to help the DIY crowd. I’m hoping to help people like Mrs T so that when they do go to hire a professional, they already have a solid base and don’t have to start from scratch.
+1 to Ogi’s comment about the cost of content. Most people really don’t understand the investment (time or money) in creating solid content.
I look at DIY (for business anyway) as a stepping stone that can get people to the point of paying a professional. And it can be a good lesson in everything it takes to get a site up and running so that they have a better understanding of why hiring a pro is a valuable investment.
Great post. It would be great potential clients could read this, many of them think that WP means very low budget and almost no work to do.
Definitely 🙂 We share it with our clients all the time. Feel free to share it with yours as well!
Hey! I just stumbled on this and have to say that it’s extremely helpful.
I’m a relatively new website developer that’s pretty much specialized in wordpress for a while. now.
This really helps to explain the costs of starting up a website, and I feel like I could probably send it to most of my customers to help them better understand what is involved with a website.
I do have a question for you guys though. How do you begin with quoting a price for services? What do certain types of service usually cost? I work with a lot of small business, individuals with limited budgets, etc. (As an example, a missionary that has no steady income but wants to update their website to something more professional). Over-charging is something I want to avoid, especially since I am just starting to try and get my name out there, but I think that I am almost always under-charging for the services that I offer (Mainly small maintenance jobs, or setting up premade themes)
How much would an average developer charge to, as an example: Setup wordpress on the customer’s server, install a pre-made theme that they have purchase, configure the demo content, and answer any questions they have about moving on from there? Obviously, if necessary adding additional services as required, or charging a fee for continued consultation and site management.
What about setting up woocommerce store for someone, where most of what I do would be installing the plugin, configure the options, and perhaps make some tweaks to design, but they would setup the products?
I know that’s probably a big question, but any tips would be awesome!
-Aaron
Hey Aaron, just came across this and saw your questions. Hope I’m not too late to help.
In my honest opinion, there is no market rate. You can find a lot of help to install WP and Woocommerce on Fiverr for $5 or get the same thing done by a web developer for a few hundred dollars.
It comes down to value-added services, trust and relationship you’ve built with your customers over time plus the costs incurred to work on the particular project.
One way is to go by the hour, say in a year you’d want to earn 100000, so each hour you’d want to earn say $50, also depending on the number of hours you are working each day.
Track your time. If a project takes you an hour to do, you charge $50 and so on.
The other better way is to charge based on service as a product, do some planning and projection ahead of where you are now. Say you aim to grow your business by 10% every month, and you’ve calculated all your costs (internet, hosting, software, WP theme framework, license fees, home bills, take home pay, etc).
My very rough math, in order to grow your revenue by 10% each month, you may need to double your client size each month. Which also means you need to charge them at least double your expenses.
Say if your total costs of running this business per month per client comes up to $100, it means you need to charge each client $200 per month in order to get the rate of growth you desire.
My calculations may be awry, but you get the point 😛
Hope this helps a little 🙂
Hey Ryan, nice piece. I’ve just stepped out into the entrepreneurial space, finishing up my site and came across this post doing some cursory research. I want you to know that I’ve linked linked this article for my readers to connect to as well. Any good, quality info that I find that could potentially educate my users…I like to link. Thanks guy.
With all my respect fro long detailed articles you wroth ( which becomes a habit on web lately ) .
I come here to find answer of simple question “how much do wordpress templates cost”
I was expecting to see estimated in Number how regularly web-designers sell theirs services .
Honesty I can’t get blame on your post title since it’s not even mention wordpress , but I blame new G metrics to guess best matching fro my search .
even for a newbie he will get lost on long complicated details since most of people won’t understand many of technical terms used here .
I think that if you are serious for your blog then you must surely invest in buying a domain name and web hosting and this will the best decision you will take for your blog.
Another Cost that many people don’t look at is training for yourself or whomever you’re going to have maintain the content and updates for your site. You may have to put training into your budget as well.
This article helped me immensely; answering many of the questions swirling in my head.
I absolutely love when Google searches are spot on!!
As an entrepreneur who is employing a re-launch of my business…I will do
it right this time!!! Thank You
Its very difficult to put a cost on a website considering what a simple website is to you might not be the case to me.
Investing in a domain name and hosting is a must for a website to be complete so always advice my clients to explain the goals of the website they want before I can give them a quote.
Thanks for the great tips and article. People usually builds website first and they get stuck in the middle with a simple question, what do i write now? Time is also a real investment one do in writing or wasting in not writing any content, so purpose of the blog gets lost. Most people ends up closing their blogs in first or may be in the second year of their site. It is easy to start with something but keep focusing on writing for the same niche takes serious love for the blogging. That serious investment one should also look for before starting a site. If one loves what he wanted to do, it might be little costly once you keep on getting traffic and hosting cost rises and all other stuff which you mentioned but can easily be made profitable with affiliate marketing or by ads.
I totally agree, you should begin to gather content before design and development. There are plenty of items you should take into consideration – texts, pictures, videos, pdfs, terms and conditions, information about company…
Like anything, you get what you pay for. The big problem with website development is that a majority of ‘web designers’ don’t have solid qualifications. If you were building a house or an office you wouldn’t trust some guy that is self taught, you would hire someone with real qualifications, a good reputation and long term support. A website should be no different. and there is a big difference between a web designer that knows how to structure a website for maximum results and one that knows how to simply slap together a nice looking site. Technically every web developer should be qualified in online strategies, SEO and PHP and know how to fix anything if it breaks. That is what people pay for, not just knocking up a themed site that looks nice.
Hi,
I was searching “how to make a website on wordpress for free?” I saw many suggestions to make a website on wordpress. Recently, I’ve seen your article and read it carefully. You’ve explained very good. I really liked it. So, keep up the good work.
Depend on website which types of site you want
There are many nice-looking themes, and some of them are available even for free, But, if a person intends to build a successful business, then it’s better to opt for a unique custom-made design. And, when it comes to hosting – there a many options to choose from. You just need to decide what exactly type of hosting will best suit your needs and then look for a hosting provider that will meet your requirements. Also, it’s important to choose services that are scalable enough to allow you to upgrade or downgrade them when necessary. For instance, I’ve been using a web hosting plan by BGOcloud. When my website grew bigger I moved to a higher plan, and now I’m using a VPS. In other words, the more popular your website becomes and the more resources it requires, the better hosting solution it will need. And don’t worry about the price, as there are many affordable services out there, and usually hosts make big discounts, so one can find a plan with very good characteristics for less than $10, let’s say.
I am gonna create my own website for my online business shop. This post helps me answer so many questions before I make a plan to do and how much I should pay for my shop website. Thanks.
Great post. It would be great potential clients could read this, many of them think that WP means very low budget and almost no work to do
I’ve really never got a full website done. Just recently I got a freelancer to carry my website from more of a java thing to a more static site. I think he did a good job. In fact I could have probably done that myself too, but you know, you just gotta buy “time” sometimes.
When I checked online, the prices varied so much that I didn’t know how to make the final call. Thanks a lot for preparing such a comprehensive post! It’s been a while but just came across it and still makes a lot of sense.
I’ve just started getting to know how to blog and always wonder how people can raise their income by blogging. Maybe earning money with blog is not easy for me, but it’s cool to see your article. Very informative. Thank you.
I think the real question is, is your website cost effective?
I see a lot of small business owners with websites that simply do not work. Whether it is poorly designed, converting poorly or is just a bad representation of their business, the real cost is the loss of potential customers.