How Much Does It Take To Build A Website In 2021?

How Much Does It Take To Build A Website In 2021?

RedAlkemi
July 19, 2021

Before building a website, you should estimate your approximate expenses. This article will help you to understand what exactly you'll need to pay for and how much.

The cost of building a website might vary from $1,000 to over $100,000, depending on which type of site you want and which functionality it needs. The maintenance might cost you from $400 to $60,000 per year. In this article, we'll try to analyze the factors that influence the price of website development. You'll understand what approximate expenses you should be prepared for and how to optimize them.

Types of Websites

These are the eight most popular types of websites.

  1. Personal website and blog. Here, you can share your thoughts, advice and news with your potential customers.
  2. Landing page. This type of site is ideal for small businesses. Also, you can use it to promote one particular product. A landing page contains the basic information about the company and/or product and some call to action.
  3. Corporate. Such a site allows people to get exhaustive information about a certain company and transmit the business's values to clients online.
  4. eCommerce. On this type of site, you can sell your products or services and receive your customers' payments.
  5. Educative. Here, visitors will be able to complete educational online courses.
  6. Web portal. Portals have wide and versatile functionality that includes emails, forums, search engines and so on.
  7. Catalog. The visitors of such sites use them to search for a particular type of service or product. The site should feature a directory with multiple filters as well as search, feedback and rating systems.
  8. Community building sites. It can be a forum, a sharing website or a social network.

The more complex your website and the wider its functionality, the more it will cost you to build it.

Four Phases of Building a Website

User Interface and User Experience Design (UI/UX)

This phase consists of three stages:

  • Researching
  • Wireframing
  • UI/UX designing

On average, this phase takes 7-14 days and costs approximately from $750 to $4,000. Every cent that you invest in the UI/UX will pay off because this factor determines how much time visitors will spend on your site.

Front-End Development

The front-end is the interface and first visual touch-point of your site. This phase begins with building the design and transcends to QA (quality assurance) testing. The more complex animations and the more advanced responsiveness you need, the higher the costs.

This phase normally takes 2-6 weeks and costs from $1,000 to $12,500.

Back-End Development

The back-end side of the site is also known as its server-side. It is where the clients' queries are processed. The primary factors that influence the price of this phase are the number of data processing tasks, the complexity of queries and integrations with third-party services.

Back-end development might take from 3 to 8 weeks and you should be ready to pay from $4,000 to $12,500 for it.

Content Management Systems (CMS) Development

To cut down expenses, you might consider using CMS engines like WordPress, Drupal or Shopify. Unfortunately, their functionality is too limited and in a few months, you might realize that it's not enough for you. It would be more reasonable to pay for a more powerful content management system that would enable you to easily add new content to the site and edit its already existing contents.

This phase costs approximately $3,000 to $9,000 and lasts from 3 to 8 weeks.

Additional Expenses

The more pages your site has, the more it will cost. Besides, you should keep in mind the following expenses.

  • Domain name. This is the unique address that you see in the address bar of your browser. It might cost from $5 to $15 yearly. If you opt for a customized domain extension, such as .online or .restaurant, its price might reach $300 per year.
  • Website hosting. It will keep your website accessible on the Internet. It costs from $75 to $200 yearly.
  • Style and theme. This includes the visuals and the usability of your site. The price might vary from $2,000 to $15,000.
  • Responsive design. It adapts your website to a user's device to different devices, such as computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. For this, you'll need to pay from $3,000 to $25,000.
  • Interactive multimedia. If your site features them, it might cost from $250 to $10,000.
  • SSL certificate. It makes your site safe for users and Internet browsers. SSL certificates are supposed to be renewed every year. They cost from $10 to $1000 monthly.

Plus, as it was said in the introduction, your site will need maintenance. It might cost from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars per year.

Marketing Expenses

Once your website is ready, you should attract visitors to it. This will involve the following expenses.

  • Content marketing. Its costs might vary from $3,000 to $5,000, depending on which content type you need and how frequently you publish it. Your site might feature infographics, white pages, podcasts, blogs and so on.
  • Conversion rate optimization. By using landing pages, buttons, sign-up sheets and other tools, CRO will increase your website conversions. It might cost from $300 to $600.
  • Copywriting. It encourages client engagement and involves removing duplicate content from the site. Its costs might vary from $50 to $500 per article.
  • Social media marketing. This might cost from $400 to $20,000.
  • Pay-per-click advertising. It will help you to convert visitors into buyers. The exact price depends on how competitive the keywords are — but on average, be ready for something like $50 per click.
  • Search engine optimization. It improves the ranking of your site in search engines and costs from $300 to $1,500 per month.
  • Email marketing. You might need to pay up to $1,000 per month for it.

In total, your marketing expenses might reach $25,000 per month.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this information came in handy and now you know how much website development costs on average. If you want to create something more complicated than a personal blog, you should avoid building it yourself and rely on professional web development services instead. Every cent that you spend on your modern, beautiful and functional site will pay off.

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RedAlkemi publishes a collection of blogs submitted by guest bloggers in the space of digital marketing, graphic design and web development. If you think you can add value to our blog with your content, we'd love to have you on board! Email us at

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