Every business needs a website today, including new business owners who have ventured into the digital business world or established enterprise-level companies who want to strengthen their business’s online presence further.
But why do businesses need a website in the first place? They require a website because it is one of the latest, most advanced and powerful marketing channels which they can use for promoting their brand and products or services online. As a digital tool, a website can help businesses attract, engage and convert prospective customers, drive higher sales, elevate customer retention, earn a good ROI and grow their business more.
Given the above-stated gains provided by websites, website building is extremely important, crucial and indispensable for businesses. Website development provides a strong foundation to businesses for building a compelling online presence. By leveraging their website’s tailored design and functionality, companies can captivate and convert customers, fuel robust business growth and achieve dominance in the digital arena.
These statistics will give you an idea of how widespread is the use of websites among businesses worldwide. In 2023, around
71% of global businesses had a website of their own. Over 28% of companies performed online activities and about 43% of small businesses were planning to invest in enhancing their website performance.
By now, no doubt remains about the usefulness and indispensability of websites for businesses. So, you may no longer be thinking about the question “Does my business need a website?” But the question that may instead arise in your mind is “How much is the website development cost for my business?”
Well, determining your exact website development cost can be difficult due to the final website development price depending on several factors. We will further discuss these factors in this blog. However, the website design and development-related cost for businesses on an average can vary between $12,000 to $150,000 or it can be even higher.
Whatever your budget is and from whichever point you are starting, this blog should give you a general idea of what to expect about website development costs.
Key Factors that Impact the Cost of Website Development
To calculate the website development cost, you need to ponder several factors surrounding the development process. Let’s know more about them.
UI/UX Design:-
The UI/UX design is one of the significant aspects of website development that determines your website’s success. A good design captures users’ attention and persuades them to take action. However, a poor design frustrates them, making them leave the website and forcing them to never return to it in the future.
The UI/UX design services can be divided into 3 main stages on the basis of which the website design and development cost can be analyzed.
Research: The research part of the website design includes analyzing the competition and defining the target audience and their preferences.
Wireframe: Wireframe helps you understand how your website’s pages will look like, the kind of navigation required and the amount of space elements will occupy. Actually, it is a kind of layout that gives you an idea of how your final website version will look like.
Prototype: The website prototype is a website’s interactive demo with minimal features. They are used for gathering feedback from the stakeholders in the early stages of the project lifecycle.
On the basis of this breakdown, you can discuss and decide every relevant project detail with your development team. The cost of working on a website design can range between $750 to $4,000. The price will depend on the amount of time spent and your specific project requirements. Some commonly used UI/UX tools include Zeplin, InVision, Sketch and Adobe Creative Cloud.
Front-end Development:-
Front-end is that part that visitors get to view and interact with on your website. The front-end development mainly commences after the UI/UX designing process is complete and the cost for the front-end-related development varies greatly as per the development team’s skill and size.
A senior front-end development specialist has ample experience and knowledge in developing complex products. He is also well proficient in various front-end programming languages like HTML, CSS, Javascript, React, Vue, Swift, JQuery, Angular, TypeScript, etc. The main factors that influence the front-end development cost of a website are website responsiveness and the complexity of animations. The cost of front-end development can vary between $1,000 and $12,500.
Backend Development:-
Backend is one of the most important parts of the cost associated with website development and maintenance. Center of every website, the backend powers all the features. It is the server side of a website that analyzes and stores data and ensures its smooth functioning. Backend development is a process that deals with sending and receiving information and communicating with the front-end, but it remains invisible to the users.
The factors that influence the backend development of a website include non-standard data processing, complex queries and integration with third-party services besides others. The backend development-related cost can lie in the range of $4000 and $12500. Node.js, Django, Ruby on Rails and Laravel are some of the leading backend technologies.
Additional Factors that Enhance the Website Development Cost
You also need to take into account a few additional factors that will impact the website development cost. Some of them are mentioned below.
Domain Purchase:-
Securing the right domain name for your website is crucial, especially when seeking a pricey top-level domain (TLD) or .com URL. For purchasing a domain for your website, you need to subscribe annually to a domain registrar. The subscription cost can vary between $12 to $60 per year. The leading time-tested domain registrar companies that have remained extremely popular among businesses are Hostinger, GoDaddy, Bluehost, InterServer, etc.
SSL Certification:-
Several small businesses are not aware how important it is to secure their website from undesired attacks. You may have come across a few websites exhibiting the message “this site might not be secure.” This message on a website will not deter a few visitors from clicking through it, but a majority of visitors will stop themselves from exploring the website.
A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certification prevents undesired threats and attacks on your website. A website having the SSL certification has the letter “S” put up after HTTP for ensuring the website’s authenticity. All basic to advanced websites require top-level security to secure their visitor-related details. The average cost of purchasing an SSL certification varies between $10 and $300.
Website Hosting:-
Website hosting makes sure that your website functions smoothly on a 24/7 basis. Moreover, the hosting protects the website from crashing down or experiencing downtime. Such issues can tremendously affect customer experience. To ensure your website’s smoother performance, consider choosing a powerful hosting service provider. The hosting cost depends on the type of plan you select from your hosting provider.
If you have a high amount of traffic coming to your website, then it is always better to invest in a dedicated server hosting plan. This ensures that your website does not crash at any time. Your website hosting expense can range between $100 to $500 annually.
Website Maintenance:-
The cost of resources required to ensure the website’s speed, uptime and protection incurs continuing maintenance costs. The level of complexity of a website can also impact this maintenance cost.
Website maintenance is all about making sure that the website is working okay and users can flawlessly browse it without encountering any bugs and glitches. The average cost to maintain a specific website annually can vary between $500 and $12,000.
Cost Comparison According to the Complexity Level of the Website
The cost of professional website development is also calculated by considering the website’s complexity level. It can either be a basic website containing minimal functionalities or an advanced one containing complex and multi-integrational features. Let’s gain a better understanding of this website development cost-related aspect.
Basic:-
A website is usually built with 15 pages and incorporates features like custom UI/UX design, CMS integration and a simple backend database. To create a basic website, the development team should consist of a UX/UI designer, full stack developer(s), a project manager and a QA engineer. The development time required for building a basic website is about 2 months. A basic website with simple functionalities will cost between $15,000 to $25,000.
Medium:-
A website with medium complexity has up to 50 or more pages and engages up to 1.5 million visitors on a per month basis. These websites are of a complex nature and their content needs to be optimized regularly. A website with medium complexity contains features like custom UI/UX design, a database and third-party integrations.
A website of this type requires a team of a project manager, business analysts, a marketing team, UI/UX designers, front-end and backend developers and QA testers. The development time spent on building an average website is between 4 to 6 months and the cost varies between $40,000 to $100,000.
Complex:-
For difficult or complex websites, a robust design, multifunctional integrations and a cloud system are needed. A complex website contains a top-level UI/UX design, complex front-end interaction and multiple databases and requires a large maintenance team.
To ensure a complex website delivers value, the best and extremely skilled professionals are required to develop and maintain it. Some good examples of complex websites are the websites of Canva and LinkedIn. The average cost of creating a complex website can range between $80,000 and $200,000 and it can take around 9-12 months for completion.
Average Website Development According to Website Types
To estimate the cost of developing a website, the kind of website plays a key role. You must define your business website type to get a comprehensive answer on how much will be the cost of building your website.
E-commerce Website:-
E-commerce is a huge industry and it can be quite hard to estimate the cost of custom website development because of several e-commerce verticals. These include beauty and personal care products, fashion and apparel, food and beverages, household goods, clothing, electronics, etc. Presently, all these industries either operate through their individual e-commerce website or they operate as all-in-one e-commerce websites containing thousands of pages and complicated functionalities.
The key components of any e-commerce website are payment system integration, security certificates, product lists, template creation and specific ad campaigns based on the target audience besides others.
Experts of an e-commerce development agency help various e-commerce brands boost their user engagement rates through smoother navigational features and by letting them provide personalized recommendations to users.
Larger e-commerce websites have a great architecture that enables them to get ranked well on search engines and sustain higher loads. These are a few peculiarities that render e-commerce one of the most demanding industries for making investments.
SaaS Website:-
A SaaS website’s main components include a subscription-based model and a multi-tenancy model. They also include one-step sign-in, elastic infrastructure and application security. Such websites require a powerful design and cloud system due to which SaaS website development costs are higher in comparison to the cost of developing other types of websites. The cost of building a SaaS-based website ranges from $40,000 to $100,000.
Marketplace Website:-
An online marketplace is a type of platform which allows all third-party product sellers to offer different kinds of products to end customers. Amazon, Walmart and eBay are a few popular examples of marketplace websites.
A marketplace website contains components like efficient product management, powerful product search, fast seller onboarding, quicker order processing, communication tools, hassle-free payment options and others. The cost of building a marketplace website starts from $70,000 to $200,000. As an example, the cost of developing an Amazon-like marketplace will range between $40,000 to $1,00,000.
Small Business Website:-
According to
Forbes’ findings, 43% of small-sized businesses were planning to invest in enhancing their website performance in the year 2023. This emphasizes the increasing importance of building powerful online presences across varying business scales.
Any business website normally includes pages like about the company, services, testimonials, contacts, blogs, or press pages. Every website building project is structured in a different manner and for this reason, each website development project is unique. So, the average website development cost for small businesses typically depends on the level of complexity, number of pages as well as the features you want to integrate in a website.
The features that are frequently requested for a business website include mobile-ready design, onsite search, SSL certification, contact back form, integration with live chat, admin panel and others. The prices for the development of business websites can lie between $9500 and $13000.
Corporate Website:-
A corporate-centric website has more than fifty web pages and includes many other things. The common structure of a corporate-centered website includes a set of services and products, a home page, about us, company-related blogs and contacts. Apart from this, there are an unlimited number of pages in a corporate-centered website.
The corporate websites must have even more sophisticated hosting provider, database and other support and maintenance systems. The web development price for a corporate-centered website lies in the range of $15000 and $20000.
News Websites:-
These informational websites are quite simpler in comparison to other types of websites. A news website is more or less like a blog-oriented website but is somewhat complex in terms of development. For example, a news-centered website has more integrations like CRM, email marketing and custom contact forms. The cost of developing a purely news website ranges between$10,000 to $15,000.
Mobile Website:-
Mobile-based websites are critical in today’s digital realm as they accommodate the growing number of users who access the internet through smartphones and tablets.
Mobile devices are the source of over half of the world-wide web traffic. Mobile devices were responsible for generating about
58.67 percent of worldwide website traffic in 2023’s final quarter.
Such sites are optimized for smaller screens and ensure smooth user experience and navigation on mobile-based devices. Giving priority to mobile responsiveness enables businesses to engage their target audience and effectively boost their traffic and conversions.
Mobile-centric websites significantly impact development costs because of the need for responsive design, optimization for different screen sizes and for integrating mobile-specific features like fast loading times and touch navigation. Moreover, maintaining compatibility across various mobile platforms and devices enhances the level of complexity of the development process and potentially further increases the development-related expenses.
Cost Comparison Based on the Type of Website Development Partner
To find a dependable development partner for your website, you need to know some basic principles of choosing the right web development team. Here is the cost comparison on the basis of the types of website development partners you can choose from.
Hire a Web Development Team:-
Hiring a web development team from a professional web development agency makes the process extremely easy as they are always accessible. The agency has adequate experience in dealing with complicated projects and delivers them timely. A web development agency puts forward the strategy to build an effective and robust lead-generating website for your business. The forming of strategy differentiates the development agency from freelance web designers.
Proficient Web Design and Development Services from a typical web development firm will help your business in building high-quality, scalable and secure web portal applications and solutions. Furthermore, professional web development companies will only focus on creating a robust, safe and reliable website that greatly reduces the chances of your website getting hacked.
A website created by an amateur is more likely to encounter the risk of security breaches as they lack professional experience. Whether you need to build a custom website from scratch or streamline your existing website’s front-end and backend functionality, a professional web development team can effectively accomplish it. The charges of hiring a web development company for designing and developing a website can range between $75,000 and $150,000, while the yearly website maintenance charges can go up to $60,000.
Build an In-House Team:-
You can also hire an in-house team for the development of your website. However, the cost of hiring an in-house team and onboarding them together will turn out to be an extremely pricey affair for your business. Paying the team’s salary and bearing the accounting costs, taxes and other office maintenance-related expenses every year will significantly increase your costs and cause you a lot of financial burden.
Hire a Freelancer:-
A freelance web developer is an easy hiring option for you. You can get a website created from them within the price range of $10000 and $15000. Freelance developers can be easily sourced and they have a flexible work routine. However, the most significant disadvantages of hiring freelancers are the lack of expertise, reliability issues, communication gaps and no fixed deadlines.
By now, you have known why hiring an expert web development team is an absolute necessity for ensuring the development of a robust website. So, let’s go ahead to discuss how to choose the right development team for your website building project.
How to Choose the Right Team for Your Website Development Project?
The majority of companies are now investing in website development to differentiate their brand from the brands of other companies in their industry. For this reason, hiring an excellent development team from an expert web development company is a necessity to ensure the success of your project. The team has knowledge of the latest website design and development trends, technologies, tools and platforms. Also, it has the experience of working on the most challenging and complex website development projects and guiding them to success. These projects involve businesses of different sizes and those from diverse industry verticals. The team’s proficiency and success in the website development projects lead to intended business outcomes for its clients in their respective projects.
An accomplished and dedicated team from a specialist web development company will take enough time for understanding your goals and needs and how these relate to your work process. Hiring a team from a specialist web development company is a cost-effective option compared to hiring your in-house development team. Also, the company’s dedicated team will ensure your project is delivered in a timely manner and as per the allocated budget.
Moreover, the team maintains good communication with the clients during their entire development cycle and shares with them all the important details in their ongoing project. So the team and clients remain on the same page on the project.
Vcana Global, an established website development company, has dedicated and skilled website-building experts well versed in Custom Web Design and Development Services.
They have worked on various website development projects for diverse business clients globally and delivered them successfully. Customized, high quality, smoothly functional and user-friendly websites built by them have helped its clients achieve their ambitious website and business goals, gain desired gains and phenomenally boost their business growth. Given this, they are the right team to partner in your website creation journey and lead it to success. Connect with Vcana Global experts to discuss your unique website-building needs, so they can accordingly embark on a streamlined and successful website development journey for your business.
