Today, making business offline is a suicide. This is obvious and non-negotiable. And website development is just a matter of time and money if you want to be on top. And that’s what we are going to talk today, the money. More specifically about how much it takes to create a website in 2017.

The task is tough because we don’t know anything about the website you are going to build and there are so many details which form the cost.

Nevertheless, we will try to walk you through the approximate cost of a site development based on its type.

Different Websites Cost

The type of a website directly affects the cost. It is connected with the functionality and technologies you have to use there. The complexity adds the time needed for its development which means that the more complex your website is the more time and money, of course, it will need to be finished.

There are so many kinds of websites that we decided to divide all of them into three main categories: 1 – sites for business, 2 – e-commerce websites and 3 – landing pages. Let us start with the first type.

1. Cost of a business websites

Such web platforms are used for brand promotion. With the help of such site, you can improve user’s awareness, broaden the target audience acquire and engage new customers.

To accomplish all those goals you can choose various sets of features and that’s where the cost question lies. Usually, websites for business have to include at least 4-6 pages. Of course, the most important blocks are the information about the company, services it provides and the ways customers can contact it. But you can also add such features as press, membership, signup for newsletters and blog. Some companies need their users to have an ability to download some content from their site.

The majority of the modern websites that fit these criteria are based on Angular 2 or Node.js. If you decide to apply these technologies, then the development stage would take from 190 hours to 260. The cost of a site would depend on the hourly rate of a company you choose.

2. Cost of the e-commerce sites

It goes without saying that you can buy anything on the Internet. And we’ve become so lazy that prefer this type of shopping to any other (especially if the delivery is free). If your business is related to sales and you still don’t have your own site, it is a high time to think about one. And not only users find it more convenient but also because you can get a long list of benefits when you launch such a site. Among the most significant we can add the expenditures reduction, sales increase, and your brand awareness improvement.

These sites have lots in common with the business sites. To be more specific, e-commerce sites include almost all features of a business site at the same time, they also have some additional. These additional elements should be well considered by marketers and designers as well. E-commerce sites cost more than business because they have more features.

The most common technological stack in this case is Angular 2, Node.js and Spotify. And the average time for the development is 350 – 750 hours. To find out the total sum you need to multiply this figure by the hourly rate of a company-vendor you have chosen for your project.

3. Cost of the Landing page

Landing page is the smallest type of projects among the three. It consists only of one page. The traditional landing page shouldn’t include too many details and elements because it will all distract a user from the main goal – motivate a user to perform a specific action. However, you shouldn’t think that this site is easy to build. In some cases, it can be really long. Nevertheless, it will cost you less than the previous types of a site.

Lots of technologies could be taken as a basis. But, I believe that Bootstrap and HTML can handle the task easy and fast. And if you like this stack just like I do, then the development of a landing page with them would take about 20 – 40 hours. The figure is approximate. If you follow the latest UI trends and want to create a super cool design for your landing page with gradients and animation, then add some extra hours to it.

Cost of Each Stage

Now, it is time to estimate each stage of a project. This analyses will give you a better understanding of how the final cost is formed.

• The design cost: It doesn’t matter what site you need to build. What really matters is how it will look. The design is a face of your business, it’s the first thing which a user sees. And you have only one chance to impress your customers. All that I’m saying should persuade you not to neglect the importance of design. And it comes not only to the aesthetic side of your website but to the fact that you can literally manipulate users with the help of a well-considered UI. If you think this part through, your design will be able to perform lots of marketing goals.

  In average it takes from 20 to 80 hours to create a design for a website. But, as I already told you, don’t skimp on it.

• Front-end development: This is the part which a user sees and interacts with. To calculate the cost of this part you have to decide if your site is going to have a responsive or adaptive design. The complexity of animation influences the cost as well. Use already familiar Angular 2 technology for this stage and the average development of this part will take from 50 to 250 hours to create it.

• Back-end development: It is a heart of any project. It is the engine which powers the whole site. In a case of a landing page, the back-end will take a very short time but the more features you have the more complex your back-end is going to become. And the complex needs time. In the majority of all projects, the back-end part costs the most and lasts the longest.

  For instance, you need a registration feature on your website. If everything goes ok, it is a task for front-end. But, if there’s something wrong, like a mistake in a login or something else, a back-end has to inform a user about it. All these actions are performed on a server side – the back-end.

  The hardest task here is to integrate third-party APIs, for example, if you want to add any social media, maps or payment gateway into your project. The average back-end can last for about 80 – 250 hours. But, there are some sites with no server side at all.

• The development of a content management system: The CMS is needed if you want to change the content of your site, for instance in a blog. Usually, it looks like a panel which gives you an opportunity to manage the content without any developers’ help.

  The CMS system can be created in two different ways, from scratch or using ready-made solutions from the box, like Shopify or WordPress. The ready-made solution reduces the time of your site development and saves your money as well. So, when should we forget about this fact and pay more for the system from scratch? This option is better if you have a unique site with unique functionality which isn’t offered in the ready-made CMS solutions. Otherwise, you will need to add about 60 – 80 hours to your project development duration.

So, for the final estimation take the parts you need for your website and add the time needed for their development. Then multiply it by the hourly rate of your vendor company. But be very careful choosing the development team, there are many factors which you need to take into account making the right decision. But this topic deserves a separate article.

What Else Does it Take?

After you have developed your own site, there is a range of other things you need to pay for. Some of them are obligatory and some are additional. Let’s take a look at the expenses you cannot avoid.

• Domain name: It is an address of your site which you can’t just make up. You have to buy it because it’s not free. To be more clear it’s not even a purchase it’s more like rent because you have to pay for it every year, from $5 to $15 every year.
• Hosting: Only a very few people have really powerful, reliable computer at home. For others, we use hosting services. Hosting service providers hold our websites so any person in the world could have access to it at any time. For a reliable web hosting, you will have to pay about $100 – $200 a year.
• Maintenance: Sites can break down just like anything else. And for these cases, you need the help of developers. It happens to every site and app because the team cannot predict users’ behavior. That’s why you should include this item of expenditure in your budget.

Now it is time to think about other things which are needed for our site. They are optional, which means that your site can function without them. When the development stage is finished the real job starts. You can create the best and the most beautiful website in the world but how will your customers find out about it? Promotion. Which also costs money, buy the way.

• PPC: PPC is a service by Google for targeted advertising. The tool is great if you need to find your audience. Great but not cheap. You will have to pay for each click. But, there are also lots of benefits. For example, the system is very easy to use even if you don’t have any experience.
• SEO: If you have some free time, you can learn how to optimize your site by yourself. In such a case it would cost you nothing! Or you can hire a team of professionals. If you do that you are guaranteed to get your result. There are lots of companies and their services can cost you from about $400 to $1.500 per month.
• Copywriting: You can also try to do that by yourself, but it’s not that easy. It takes lots of time, efforts and skills to write an interesting, catching, and what is the most important, unique text. However, if you want to have a Blog on your site, you will need to figure this issue out, write articles by yourself or to hire a professional. The price of one article depends on the number of characters and topic.
• SMM: Social Media Marketing can boost a business if you apply it wisely. The main goal of this campaign is to promote your brand on various social networks. And there are also some professional teams and individuals who can do the job for you.