How Much Does it Cost to Build a Website?

What is the cost of building a website in 2019? It depends on a lot of factors. Just compare these two websites and try to guess how much each of them would cost.

First of all, the final website pricing can be very different from the initial estimate because it is influenced by factors such as website type, functionality, and design complexity. The development approach plays the main role here; if your website uses some ready-made solutions or is built from scratch.

If you develop a website the first question should be - what is the purpose of your website? Depending on the answer, it is possible to know the cost.

There are eight main website types.

1. Personal Website & Blog
2. Brochure Website (Landing)
3. Corporate Website
4. E-Commerce
5. Educative Website
6. Catalog Website
7. Web Portal
8. Community Building Website (Social, Forums, Sharing Website)

Website Development Approach & Technology

The price is influenced by the development approach and the chosen tech stack. To find out how much it costs to build a website, taking these factors into account, read on:

• Drag & drop web builders

It means that DIY (do it yourself) sites which are mostly used for personal web pages or individual blogs. Such tools as Wix and Weebly have web modules which can be used to build a website easily and quickly, and no web building or designing skills are needed.

Unfortunately, the website design and functionality choices are limited to what the tool has to offer.

• Website building software

This method employs preset features which are given by ready-made solutions. The most popular ones here are Wordpress (used by 25% of all websites), Joomla, Shopify, and Drupal. You will be provided with all the necessary ingredients and you only need to put all the elements in the right order.

It takes time to learn how to build this website type with the features and design you require. You can also find an experienced developer who will assemble everything for you because some minor technical and design layout knowledge is needed.

• Custom website development

They are developed from scratch and consist of the following parts:

Web frontend includes all the elements the users interact with, and also the UX/UI design.

Web backend is the server side that works with information and the place where all of the main website features operate.

API (Application Programming Interface) is a number of commands which connect the frontend and backend and integrate other necessary third-party services.

Complexity of Website Design

Design is one more important element to consider in determining how much it costs to build a website. The website design pricing depends on:

• Application of pre-made design templates

If your website budget is limited, there are a lot of design themes to apply. Any design customization is impossible, in this case, if you don't know how to change the code. If you have an experienced designer, he can optimize this ready-made design theme offered by Wordpress or another service.

• Development of a custom website design

With the help of this option, you can create a website design from scratch. This process consists of 2 sub-steps, wireframes (UX) and mockups (UI).

• Inclusion of illustrations, animations, and branding

The website design cost can be considerably influenced by dynamic objects and images. Besides, if you need a logo and branding materials, you will spend a bit extra.

It is important to know that as far as design optimization is concerned, a website could be static, fluid, or responsive. Website responsiveness is vital nowadays because it means adaptability to different device sizes thus, it makes for a completely native look on mobile phones and tablets.

Complexity of Website Functionality

The cost depends greatly on the complexity of a website’s functionality because the number of features and their complexity make up the greatest portion of the website development costs.

Here you will read more on what influences the website cost, compare different website development options, and find out an approximate website development cost range.

I am a Software Development Consultant at MLSDev, a software development company, which specializes in mobile and web app development