How Much Does It Cost to Set Up a Website for a Small Business?

How Much Does It Cost to Hire Someone to Build a Website?

If you own a small business and are thinking about taking it online and having a new website designed, it can be daunting with so much information to digest and things to consider. If you are looking to hire someone to create a website for you, most peoples first question is how much it costs to hire someone to build a website? This blog will give you an idea of the costs involved and the questions you need to ask your chosen website designer to gauge if you are getting value for money.  

Should I Hire Someone to Make My Website?

You can take the DIY route to have a website. You could create a website using DIY website builders such as Squarespace and Wix with enough time and dedication. You need to ask yourself if you have enough time and money to invest in a DIY project, or would the same budget and effort be better spent hiring a professional website designer? 

Building an SEO optimised website that helps convert visitors into customers involves a laborious process. Nothing good comes easy, so hiring an expert in this field is the best option if you want to get any return on your investment. 

How To Choose Your Website Designer

As with any industry, there is a varying level of pricing and skills. So to avoid overpaying for your website and ensuring that you have the right design company for the job, we have come up with a few things you need to consider when hiring a website designer and what questions to ask.

Things to check:

• Do they have a portfolio of work you can view?
• Do they have good reviews from previous customers?
• Do they have their own in house team, or is it outsourced?

Things to ask:

• Ask about their site build process
• Ask about the maintenance after the design is complete
• Ask how many revisions are included.
• Ask if you will receive the original files
• What assets do we need to supply?
• How much time will the project take?
• Do you optimise websites for mobile and SEO?

How Much Does a Professional Website Cost?

The upfront cost of a brand new website or website redesign can depend entirely on what is needed and which route you decide to build it. There are two primary choices when it comes to having a website built:

• Hand-coded HTML websites (React, HTML, Gatsby)
• Content Management System websites (WordPress, Shopify, Wix)

Depending on which route you take will be the primary factor in any costs. Content management system websites are, as a rule, considerably cheaper than hand-coded ones, as the back end is already pre-built and requires little input from the designer.  

Hand-coded websites usually start around £2,000, and the sky is the limit on the upper price, all depending on what you need and the functions being created, but an average cost can be between £2,000 and £15,000. 

Content management system websites such as WordPress and Shopify can be purchased from a few hundred pounds, and again the sky is the limit when it comes to costs, but an average price is between £800 and £3,000. 

As the old saying goes, no matter which route you take, you get what you pay for, and anything less than £600 on either system is unlikely to offer the functions you need or provide any return on your investment. 

Other Costs You Need To Consider 

Website costs do not end with just the website design; there are also ongoing costs that you need to consider. 

• Domain £10 – £100 per year, depending on which type you use.  
• Hosting £5 – £1000 per month (dependant on the type of server you need)
• Security £0 – £200 per year
• Maintenance and support £0 – £1,000 per month. 

At the bare minimum, you are going to need domain and hosting. Again cheaper isn’t always better when it comes to this, and you need to ensure that the services being provided are adequate to your websites needs, or you are just wasting your budget.  

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