The Cost of Website Design in 2022

Website designing is a necessity for all types of businesses in this modern era. The cost of website design varies on the type of platform you utilize for building your website. You can build your website mainly in three ways that are using a website builder, using WordPress, or simply hiring a professional website designer. The method you select for building your website influences the web design pricing for any small business.

The cost of building the website using the website builder is very less that is around $6 per month as per WebsiteBuilderExpert in comparison to WordPress that gets increased to a range of $11 to $50 per month. And when you choose to work with a website designer or developer, it is the most expensive way as it might cost you between $500 and $20,000 as per WebsiteBuilderExpert.

Here, we are going to go deeper into every method that will help you determine the best suited way for designing a good website within your budget.

What does Website Designing Normally Cost?

Normally web design pricing is around $200 on average to build a website from the sketch in general and $50 per month more is required for its regular maintenance as per WebsiteBuilderExpert. This is an estimated amount and it gets high when you choose to hire a website designer with a $6,000 upfront charge and $1,000 every year for maintaining it as per WebsiteBuilderExpert.

As mentioned earlier that there are three main methods for building a website viz., website builder, using WordPress, or hiring a web designer. This critical decision to choose a way for building your website gives a huge impact on the overall web design pricing.    

Usually, website builders are the cheapest way for building a professional website. Likewise strictly speaking WordPress is free too as it is an open-source platform but you will need to spend money on hosting, themes, and plugins. Plus, you will also require some professional assistance from a developer which will add to your web design pricing. 

When you choose to hire a web designer, then the web design pricing will be thrifty but this way you will be able to custom design your site. And if your website requires complex functionality that can also be established into your website through customization by the web designer.

It is pretty much obvious that you can’t expect to pay a professional web designer below $5,000. This will only give you poor results and your money will be a total waste as well. 

Cost of Website Design Using a Website Builder     

As we discussed previously that the website builder is the cheapest way for building a website. It is best suited to technical novices, people who want to have a live website in less time, and people who want to have their websites and portfolio.

According to WebsiteBuilderExpert, the newer websites have a range of $6 to $50 per month. While Tech.co says that the price of DIY website building through a website builder could be very less i.e., $60 per year.   

There are many free plans available on various website builders like Wix and GoDaddy. On the other hand, Squarespace gives 14 days free trial to all the first time users.  

There are also very cheap and cost-effective plans available on these different website builders. Wix and Squarespace provide a $16 per month plan, GoDaddy gives a $6.99 per month. Here, GoDaddy provides the lowest charges only for the first month and later it increases to $11.99 for every month.    

It’s only worth spending your money on a professional website builder that yields good results in the form of a perfectly sound website. This is very important that you choose a good quality tool for creating a website that runs successfully. 

For this, you need to look carefully at which builder is providing the best possible tools and that might take some extra money but it will be worth every penny. For instance, if you spend money on website builders like Wix or Squarespace it will be more profiting rather than spending on builders like SiteBuilder or 1&1 IONOS. 

There is no cost of website design in hiring professionals cause building a website using builders can be done on your own due to its easy navigation. You only ever need to pay for the subscription monthly or yearly. For domain names as well there are many website builders who provide free of cost custom domains for the first year and then charge per year. For instance, the commonly used domain ‘.com’ have an average cost of $12 per year according to WebsiteBuilderExpert.

Additionally, if you want to add apps to your site, it can be done completely free of cost or pay between $3 to $60 per month. You can select which apps you want to install on your website depending on the plan you joined, it is totally in your hands. Moreover, the cost of website design for features like themes, hosting, or security is already included in your website builder subscription.

Cost of Website Design Using WordPress

When you decide to create your website using WordPress it gives you more control even on a budget in comparison to using a website builder. It is best for those people who have itsy-bitsy knowledge of the technical aspects and those who want to have a custom website. It is used when you want to share blogs on your site or want to have a chunky website like a business site. 

WordPress is a completely free platform that only ever costs because of its additional features while building a website on it. These different features include themes, plugins, and hosting. Although themes and plugins can be free, hosting requires a wholesome of charges in the process of setting up a WordPress site. 

There are many hosting providers that can be used but you need to select which is the best among them. The cost of hosting providers is the main factor that decides your WordPress web design pricing. 

The officially recommended hosting provider for WordPress is Bluehost. This hosting provider is not that cheap but it is also one of the good quality hosts. Its price starts from $2.95 per month and it is not that much expensive.

The range of cost of Bluehost hosting providers falls under $2.95 and $49.95. Some of the WordPress-specific plans of Bluehost are

• Shared WordPress hosting with a $2.95 charge per month and renewal at $7.99 per month
• WooCommerce hosting with a $6.95 charge per month and renewal at $13.99 per month
• Managed WordPress hosting with a $19.95 charge per month and renewal at $29.99 per month

These plans of Bluehost consist of many features for running your WordPress site, like automatic backup and automatic WordPress installation that saves your time and struggle.

There are also many other WordPress hosting providers other than Bluehost such as A2 Hosting and HostGator. Although, Bluehost provides both shared and managed WordPress hosting. While A2 Hosting is capable of providing well-managed WordPress plans and can serve as an alternative. On the other hand, HostGator provides only shared WordPress hosting. 

Besides these hosting providers, there are also so many other hosting providers that provide varied starting rates including iPage with $1.99 per month, DreamHost with $2.59 per month, InMotion with $4.99 per month, SiteGround with $11.95 per month, and WPEngine with $25 per month. 

All of these hosting providers might provide only shared or only managed WordPress hosting. Managed hosting is usually more expensive. It’s always better to choose the recommended WordPress-specific hosting.    

Selecting which type of hosting to use can be a very confusing thing to decide. It will be a complete waste to spend your money on the wrong type of hosting plan that provides limited services. 

Shared WordPress which usually costs between $2 and $15 per month should be used by new builders with a budget, bloggers (small blogs), hobby builders, those people who are creating personal portfolios, and those students who are making school projects. 

Managed WordPress costs in a range of $20 to $60 per month and should be used by those bloggers who work on large blogs, those people who want to create large portfolios, and businesses. Similarly, E-commerce costs between $7 and $30 per month, and it should be used by online stores and those businesses that have a side business of selling products. 

There is also extra web design pricing involved in WordPress besides all of the above-discussed charges that are required for hosting. The first extra charge that you require will be for hiring a professional WordPress developer that might cost between $30 and $100+ per hour as per WebsiteBuilderExpert. This charge is completely optional and only needed when you want a custom or complex website. 

You will require to pay for your domain name on average between $12 and $60 per year. The domain’s cost depends on two factors mainly, first the hosting provider you registered for, and second, which domain you selected like .com, .rich, etc. Web hosts like Bluehost provide a free custom domain for the first year and then charge you per year.

There are also additional functions that you can add to your WordPress website called like contact forms, testimonials, newsletter subscriptions, or anything else. These features are called Plugins and they might be free or paid. The average cost of plugins is between $0 and $100+ per year as per WebsiteBuilderExpert. Similarly, you need themes for your website which can be both free and premium. According to WebsiteBuilderExpert, premium themes can cost you between $50 and $200 and you need to pay only once.

WordPress is vulnerable to online attacks, hence some of its hosts come with in-built security features. It’s still important that you invest in more security to be on the safer side. You can use free security plugins like Sucuri that can scan, block, and eliminate all of the threats from your website. Alternatively, to access all of its features, you can create a Sucuri account and join its plan with a minimum cost of $199.99 per year. 

There are also other security options besides Sucuri like Wordfence with a $0 to $99 per year prices range, JetPack with a $0 to $299 per year prices range, Cloudfare with a $0 to $2000 per month prices range, iThemes Security with an $80 to $200 per year prices range, and All in One WP Security & Firewall that doesn’t charge anything as per WebsiteBuilderExpert.

Cost of Website design Using a Web Designer

You should hire a web designer for three cases which are when you need a complex website, when you are not confident in your technical skills or don’t have enough time, and when you need a big-budget custom website. This is the most expensive way for building a website for your business.

The web design pricing is difficult to be estimated as different web designers charges differently. Their charges depend on their experience and the types of projects they have done in the past. You have two options here, whether you can hire a freelance web designer or work with a website design agency.  

The average range of upfront cost of building your website with the help of professional designers and developers is $500 to $20,000. 

The prices of designing a website are segregated on the basis of the size of the businesses. For a very small business building a very simple website professionally, that is designed in brochure-style with a few pages will cost up to $500. Small businesses fall into the range of $500 to $1,000 for building a small website with key pages in combination with some basic app integrations. 

For small to medium businesses, the range of cost is from $1,000 to $2,000 which results in designing a website with a proper content management system for continuous updates and with more advanced app integrations. The medium to large businesses that require a website with more advanced e-commerce or functions like customer order tracking with support features, cost within the range of $2,000 and $5,000. 

Lastly, large businesses need to spend more, between $10,000 and $20,000 for a large-scale website. They want their website to be based on customer data analysis for analytics, databases, and advanced tracking.

After the completion of the design of the main framework of the site, you will require the content on your website. The web designer charges by the hour or by the project for content creation. They usually charge from $50 to $80 per hour. Their minimum charge for every project falls between $250 and $500 with a minimum of 3 pages and some extra pages as well. 

Similarly, they will charge for the logo or branding design around $100 to $1500 depending on how much design you need for the branding. Additionally, you will also be charged for the maintenance of your website around $100 to $500 per year when you are not making any major changes to your website design.  

Accessibility of the Professionals

In the current times, there is noted a great lack of developers around the world and it is supposed to worsen. According to the survey as per The ETtech, around 42% of the developers think of dropping their jobs every year globally. 

This constant leaving of the developers is due to the reason that the developers are not given proper time and resources besides good pay. Another reason is that when the team members leave, other developers in the team feel it is very challenging to work on the project.

Overall, the developers gain less job satisfaction and that’s why they decide to leave their jobs. The solution to these problems is that the tech companies need to work on providing proper resources, benefits, and good pay for retaining them.   

Website Design Agencies vs Freelance Web Designers

Latest Trends Followed in Website Designing

There are many futuristic trends in 2022 that are being followed in website designing and more innovations on digital platforms. For instance, the retro design of the 80s and 90s is making its mark again, with innovative typography, and handmade graphics. We will discuss them here: 

Innovative Typography

In the graphics, images were usually emphasized more. But in recent times, innovative typography is taking the lead in place of images. They are being used as the main attraction in the design and sometimes images are eradicated completely. The typography acts as a stand-alone element in the graphic and people consider it to be the future of web design.

Retro style 

The graphics are made more attractive nowadays by including the 80s and 90s trends. The retro style is very trendy and it makes use of the 30 years old designing experiences we had during our childhood. This design is never getting old even as time goes by!

Handmade graphics 

Handmade is the new design in today’s graphic design. It can include any form of current artwork, doodles, scribbles, textures of crayon or paint, messy cutouts, and likewise. This type of design is all about giving a human touch to the graphics. They always stand out among all other designs and has a long way to go.

Different trends that designers follow are a lot more than just these three and keep on adding as the technology progresses. For this reason, it has become a necessity for designers to keep updating their work according to their surroundings. 

Conclusion

As we went through describing the cost of website design depending on various factors, it is pretty much clear that it is a lot to grasp all at once. First, you will need to identify what type of website you need for your business. Only then you can decide which platform or method to follow for building your website. 

Another important factor that comes is the budget and how much you are willing to pay for its design. You cannot limit or stretch your budget when you absolutely desire a quality website that benefits your business.

To save yourself from the trouble of wasting your time and money, it’s important that you read through everything and understand what is necessary for your business. In-depth knowledge of the average cost of website design included with extra or additional web design pricing will help you take the right way in website designing.

If you consider keeping yourself away from the trouble, what you can simply do is contact a good web design agency. They will help you understand better the process of website designing and there are many affordable agencies available as well.  Rankingeek is one of the best agencies that provide great design services and affordable web design pricing.