How Much Does a Custom Website Cost?

If you've ever shopped for web design and development services, you know costs can vary significantly. There are inexpensive options, but how much does it cost to build a custom website that will work for you now and scale with your business over time?

A professionally built, custom website will afford you a lot more opportunity to effectively grow and improve your web presence in the future. Every business has different goals, different needs, and different strategies. What you need in a custom-built website may be completely different than another business.

So the question remains—how much does a custom website cost? In this article, we take a look at different types of websites and what you can reasonably expect to pay for each.

Is your budget less than $5,000?

It is possible to develop an effective business website with this budget, but many custom features are not available at this price point.

If you are just starting out, instead of a one-size-fits-all solution, we recommend building a website that can grow with your business. Over time, you will learn more about what your customers want, which will help you decide how to best expand your website in the future.

If you're just looking for a way to get a website at the lowest possible cost, then a DIY, drag-and-drop website builder like Wix or Squarespace may be what you are looking for.

While this might seem like a cost-effective and viable option, you should know that utilizing template sites for your business is not the best long-term marketing solution. As your business grows, you may find that you have to completely redo your website.

Learn more about the Pros and Cons of DIY vs. Professionally Developed Websites .

Informational Websites

An informational or brochure website is the most common type of business website. A smaller business will need about 6 to 12 pages where a medium-sized business with multiple departments will need 24 or more pages.

The types of pages you will commonly see on these sites are:

Homepage
About Us
Our Team
Products and Services
Projects
Case Studies
Blog
Contact Forms

The focus of an informational website is primarily to promote your brand by creating a professional online presence and providing information about the products and services you offer.

An informational website is a great starting point for your online marketing foundation. As your needs grow, you will want to add functionality that will automate tasks and save you time.

We develop informational websites using Joomla! as the framework. The design and features are customized based on your needs. Pricing for this type of website can range from $5,000 to $15,000+ depending on the scope of your project.

Functional Websites

Similar in structure to the informational websites mentioned above, these websites include special functionality and/or additional content pages.

Examples of these additional features could include:

Resource libraries with searchable and downloadable content.
Online memberships with user account logins.
Custom store locators.
Products and services that can be searched or filtered.
Listings with location maps, driving directions, and downloadable brochures.
Event calendars with integrated payments.
Marketing automation including A/B testing, goals and events, landing pages, calls-to-action, lead generation forms, and educational content.

Depending on the scope of your project, our pricing is $7,500 to $25,000+ for functional websites.

Ecommerce Websites

We recommend using WooCommerce for your ecommerce store. WooCommerce integrates seamlessly with Wordpress and is highly customizable.

The pricing for a project that includes customizing the design and shopping experience for an ecommerce website can range from $7,500 to $25,000+ depending on the scope of your project.

Conclusion

Every website project and process is different. Hopefully this article will help you understand what investment is required to build an effective business website that fits your needs.

The marketing websites we develop use Joomla! CMS which is a flexible enterprise level framework. We have chosen this platform because it is user-friendly enough to build starter websites and powerful enough to scale with your business as it grows to any size. We use WooCommerce for ecommerce websites because it is world’s most customizable ecommerce platform.

If you are interested in learning more about our approach to the items discussed in this article, call (970) 744-3611 or send us an email so we can talk about what that would look like.