We all know that pretty much everything is going digital nowadays. After all, we seem to spend more and more time on the internet as of late. That’s why businesses have taken a major interest in website development. Therefore, the following question arises, how much does it cost to start a website?
In this article, we are going to take a look at where you should spend your money when it comes to developing a website.
1. Domain Name Registration
First off, you need to find a good name for your website. However, it is not as easy as you might think. You can’t just come up with a name and you’re done.
You have to buy the domain but, finding a good one for sale can get quite tricky. Firstly, it needs to be relevant to your business, try and think of something symbolic. Also, keep in mind to keep it short and simple, so it’s easy to remember. Avoid using numbers or hyphens.
Not to mention the fact that the domain extension is very important since it will influence the number of people that will enter your website. The “.com” extension is the most popular one out there and usually the most expensive.
However, if you’re having trouble with finding a good name at a reasonable price with this extension, there are plenty of useful ones such as “.net” or “.org”. Prices typically range from around 9$ all the way up to 600$ per year in some cases.
2. Hosting
Think of hosting as if you’re renting an office space on the internet. This is where your files will be stored, and where visitors will come to check out your website. Finding the right hosting service will make the difference between a great user experience and a bad one.
Search engine performance, page loading speeds, and support are things that a hosting service has to take care of. That’s why finding a good host is very important. The costs may vary based on the factors we’ve just mentioned. From just a few dollars per year all the way up to a few hundreds per month.
Keep in mind that if your business requires email accounts with your domain name, some website hosting services may not offer this.
3. Development
Now that you’ve found a good name and a good hosting service, it is time to put some proper work into actually building and designing the website. The UI design, front end, and back end development, and the admin panel are all things where you have to spend some money on.
Just as with the other two points we’ve mentioned previously, the costs may vary, mainly based on how fast you want to get your website done and it’s functionality. Of course, if you want to save some money and you think you’ve got the skills, you can build the website all by yourself.
However, in most cases, you’re better off by hiring someone to build the website since it saves you a lot of time.
The cost of development varies a lot based on the complexity of your website. It might make your wallet lighter by just a few hundred bucks. But if you want to do something more serious, you’re looking at a few thousand, or even tens of thousands of dollars.
Having a website for your business is a necessity nowadays. It might be costly to build one at first, but it’s well worth it in the long run.
