Having a website is vital for any small business but how much does it cost? While you do need to outlay a bit of money, it might not cost you as much as you think to create and maintain a stylish online presence. Here’s a breakdown of the costs you can expect to encounter.
The free route
It’s entirely possible to create a website for free, but as we’ve mentioned in previous blogs, free sites come with plenty of compromises and drawbacks.
- You don’t own your site
- Customisation options are limited
- Performance is often poor
- You have to use the free host’s domain name
- If you need to add premium features later on, they can be expensive
Domain name
In order to have a custom URL for your website (e.g., yourwebsitename.co.nz), you’ll need to purchase a domain name. The type of extension you choose, like .kiwi, .co.nz, or .com, will determine how much your domain name will cost you. Most common extensions cost around $20 to $25 + GST*, but if you go for something a little different, like .market, .agency, or .realestate, you can expect to pay a little more.
Purchasing a domain name gives you the right to use it for a specified amount of time – normally a year – and as long as you pay to renew it each year, you can keep it as long as you like. When you buy your domain name through Moreweb, you’ll also get free basic email hosting.
You can read more about domain names and extensions in our beginner’s guide to setting up a website.
Website hosting cost
A web host provides server space for your website’s files and manages all of your inbound and outbound traffic. Without a host, your site can’t be online. The size of your site and how busy it’s going to be will dictate what kind of hosting you need and how much it will cost you. Generally, hosting will cost between $5 and $25 per month, and the amount of server space, web traffic, page views, and addons you can have will increase with the cost. Some web hosts will charge you annually and up-front, locking you into using their services for a year. Others will give you the flexibility of paying monthly.
Website design cost
Generally, site design is a one-off cost when you first build your website. Costs can range from nothing (if you have the equipment and skills to DIY it) to thousands of dollars, depending on who you employ to do the job.
Moreweb’s small business site design packages come with a domain name, web hosting, SSL certificates, custom email addresses, and training to self-maintain the site all built into the cost. You can find out more about them here.
WordPress is a good option if you want to build the site yourself but don’t know how to write website code. Highly customisable premium themes with drag and drop website building tools will normally cost you up to $100 US. We have affordable WordPress hosting plans available at Moreweb that come with over 100 premium themes included for free, which makes them an extremely economical option.
If you employ someone to build your site and you don’t know how to update it yourself, you may need to factor in ongoing costs for the developer to make future changes.
Get in touch with us at Moreweb if you’d like to find out how much it would cost to get your small business online!
*Prices as of November 2021
