How much does it cost to build a website?

So, how much does it cost to build a website these days? The short and somewhat unsatisfying answer is: it depends.  

The slightly longer answer is that it depends on what kind of website you’re trying to build and what kind of functionality or features you need.  

For instance, a simple portfolio-style website for a freelance photographer will be orders of magnitude simpler and cheaper to create than a full-blown e-commerce site with dozens of pages and hundreds of products to showcase.  

Still, creating a professional-looking website doesn’t have to be a bank account-draining endeavour. In fact, it’s quite possible to stay within a very reasonable budget.  

So now, let’s sit down and go through your main website costs. 

What exactly are you paying for?  

No matter what you’re trying to build, every website has five core components:  

• A .CA domain name  
• Web hosting services  
• Design and development 
• Web security   
• Other add-ons like e-commerce functionality, SEO optimization, etc.  

Let’s break out pricing for each of these website components:  

.CA domains

Cost: on average $10 – $20/year  

Registering your domain name—ideally a .CA—should be the first step you take in any website project.  This protects your name from the possibility of someone else registering it while you spend the time launching your website. 

When you go ahead and register your .CA, you can expect to pay, on average, between $10 – $20 CAD per year for a new domain. Not too shabby pricewise, eh? And if you don’t mind shopping around a little, there’s a very good chance you’ll find domain registrars offering different promos and discounts.   

Of course, you could possibly end up paying more if you’re trying to buy a .CA domain name that’s already been taken by contacting the owner, or working with a third-party domain broker.  

Web hosting services:

Cost: ranges from free to $300+/month  

Web hosting is where all your website’s files—think photos, code, text or videos videos—live on giant, internet connected servers. This is what ensures your site is actually viewable online!  

Here’s where we start to see a wider price range. Yes, you can totally get free web hosting. But as the old adage goes, “You get what you pay for.”  

If your goal is to create a well-functioning website, free web hosting is not going to cut it. You can expect to encounter slow page loading speeds, annoying ads, poor privacy and almost non-existent customer support.  

Now, let’s look at paid hosting plans. The lower budget choice would be shared hosting, where, as the name implies, you “share” a server with hundreds (or thousands) of other websites. For small-scale, entrepreneurial sites, shared hosting can hit that sweet spot between low costs ($2 – $6 per month) and achieving decent performance.  

The mid-tier option is known as virtual private server (VPS) hosting, which bumps up the performance significantly and has you sharing server space with fewer websites. If you’re seeing higher traffic to your site, then a VPS plan could be a great option, and you’ll pay anywhere from $20 – $100 per month.  

Now, if you’re running an enterprise-level website, you’ll need to upgrade your hosting accordingly to faster, fully dedicated servers. This is where you start getting into the $100 – $300 per month range. 

Keep in mind: depending on where you purchase your .CA domain, they might also throw in web hosting or offer it for a heavily discounted rate. So, keep your eyes peeled for deals!  

Web design and development 

Cost: Ranges from free – $200+/per hour  

When it comes to building your website, there are two avenues you can take.  

The first? Do it all yourself. Here, your “development” costs are pretty much zero, especially if you’re a web design savant who is a whiz with an open-source platform like WordPress.  

And if you’re not? That’s not a huge deal either. You could choose to pay a monthly fee and build your site with any of the robust and user-friendly building platforms, like Squarespace, GoDaddy and Wix.  

Three big things to consider, should you decide to DIY, are:  

1. How much is your time worth?  
2. Do you actually have time? No, seriously. It’s okay if you don’t.  
3. Is building a website yourself going to get you the desired final product?  

What if you want to hire someone to do your website?  

It’s not a bad move at all—especially if you’re time-crunched and don’t mind spending a little bit of money for a slick, professional result.  

Web development costs depend on a few factors, namely your developer’s level of experience, the complexity of the site you want to build, the number of pages and any additional features you may want to include.  

Generally, a freelance web developer will charge between $40 – $100 per hour, while a development agency will charge you upwards of $75 – $200 per hour, or a set fee per project.

Website security 

Cost: $10 – $40/month  

It’s a no-brainer to have at least some layer of web security in place, but the cost can vary depending on the number of features you want.  

Here’s a quick example: a basic security package from a provider like GoDaddy gives you all the essentials for about $9 a month. That includes daily threat scanning, a firewall, site monitoring and an SSL Certificate.  

Now, for many people, that’s plenty. But if you need to crank things up a notch, and get, say, faster threat scans, daily site backups and advanced DDoS protection, you might end up paying around $20 – $40 per month.  

Add-ons and other features  

Cost: Free – several hundred dollars per month  

One final and important factor influencing the cost to build a website will be how much you want to spend on any extras like payment processing, live chat and other e-commerce capabilities. SEO optimization and web analytics tools are other examples of add-ons you may want to include.  

Some of these add-ons can be free, while others may be either a rolling monthly subscription or one-time cost.  

Like we said off the hop, the add-ons and extra features you choose will all depend on what you want or need your website to do—or what you envision it being able to do in the future. 

Summing up your website costs:  

While costs for building a website can vary, there are tons of options for whatever budget you’re working with. And the best part? You can launch an attractive, professional site even with a modest spend.  

Need help getting started? Check out our guide to building a website from scratch!