Have a website created costs 2023
If you are thinking about having a website created, then it is important to also deal with the costs. Depending on your requirements and wishes, prices can vary greatly. In this blog, we would like to give you an overview of the various factors that influence the cost of creating a website and give you tips on how you can save money. So, in the end, you can get a professional and engaging website without breaking your budget.
Pricing explained
Pricing for a website: What to consider
If you want to create a website, it is important to know that pricing is of great importance for development. There are a few factors that will help set the price for your website. These include the complexity of the design, the type and number of features, technologies needed, and more. Let’s look at these factors in detail.
The first factor is the complexity of the design. The more complex the design, the more expensive it will usually be. So you have to consider whether you prefer a lot of detail and animations or a simple look. Depending on this, the price can also differ greatly.
The second important factor is the number and type of features of your website. There are some basic features that every website should have (for example, contact details or social media integration). In addition, there are many other functions that may be needed depending on the project goal (for example, e-commerce functions or user registration, etc.). Of course, this also results in the final price of a website.
Thirdly, technical requirements are essential for the price of a website. It determines the type of technologies that need to be used – for example, HTML/CSS (frontend) and PHP/MySQL (backend). It also determines the scope of the project; the more technical effort is required, the more expensive the website will usually be.
Finally, your budget also plays a big role in determining the price of the website. If you’re planning to work on a budget, the first thing to consider is what’s absolutely necessary and what can be considered a bonus – this will allow you to save money and still get a good site!
So, there are several factors that you can influence when setting the price for your website – the complexity of the design, the number and type of features, as well as technical requirements and your budget are particularly relevant here. It is always important to remember: A good website takes time and money – but with a little planning you can significantly reduce the effort!
Explanation of the different types of websites
There are different variants of websites, each of which is suitable for various objectives. The nature of the website is already a meaningful indication of the amount of work and expenditure of your website – for example, an online trade with several product pages is more demanding than a single page that concisely presents the essential information about your company.
Therefore, first of all, reflect on the benefits you are aiming for with your website and what content you would like to place on the website in the medium and long term.
Below we present the most important types of websites and their respective costs.
Online shop
In online shopping platforms, companies offer their products and services on the Internet in order to sell them to their customers. Currently, 90% of all Internet users purchase their goods digitally. In Germany, the areas of clothing (50%), electronics (20%) and entertainment (25%) are particularly popular when shopping online.
Online shopping platforms are complex structures. The automated ordering process requires both a high degree of legally compliant processing of order and customer data and simple technical handling.
Functionality, quality, technology selection and time are decisive factors in the development costs of online stores. The basic functions often include invoicing, registration function, e-mail notifications, returns, processing and, sensibly, user evaluations. Links to a merchandise management system, ERP system or customer management software (CRM) are also often required.
Professional online shops are created with the help of shop systems such as Magento, WooCommerce and other systems.
Examples of the costs of an online store in 2023:
- Compact online shops can be implemented from as little as €8,000 to €20,000. A ready-made design template is usually used here. Order processing and product maintenance are your own responsibility.
- A tailor-made online shop solution including individual design and merchandise management system can be implemented from €10,000.
- Top-class shop systems with numerous interfaces, intelligent search functions and many other extras range in price between €20,000 and €200,000.
- Multilingual e-commerce offerings from large companies that include interfaces to SAP often start at a price of €200,000.
For successful professional development, companies rely on expert e-commerce agencies.
Together with the agency, all essential requirements for the system are developed and necessary interfaces and processes along the customer journey are presented. This type of project design and implementation usually starts at €8,000 to €10,000 for a high-quality solution.
In addition to the development costs, there are expenses for product support, design, legal matters, domain & hosting, and shipping & returns. For hosting, i.e. the placement of websites on the web server of an Internet Service Provider (ISP), the monthly costs vary between ten and several thousand euros, depending on the size of the web shop. The marketing costs for an online shop must also be taken into account when planning the project. Often, a significant proportion is planned for online marketing strategies such as social media marketing and search engine marketing (SEA & SEO).
Company Website
Do you want your company to be found on the Internet and on search engines such as Google and also have a strong presence online? Do you want to convince potential customers and applicants of your values and products?
Then a company website is the solution for you.
A corporate website, also known as a corporate website, is an informative platform that is used not only by companies, but also by associations, clubs and municipalities to provide visitors with comprehensive information online. A company homepage not only offers opportunities to make contact, but also gives a deep insight into your company values and references.
According to a survey, 70% of internet users say that a customised internet presence is very important nowadays and builds trust. That’s why it’s worth investing in a professionally built website, regardless of the size of your business.
Pricing and key cost elements for corporate websites
The cost of a business website depends on various factors, such as uniqueness, design effort, security requirements, number of subpages, and required features. Web agencies often offer websites at flat rates, depending on the functions and the number of subpages, in the range of €5,000 to €30,000.
On freelancer platforms, you can find offers for static websites with up to five subpages for less than €1,000. With such favorable offers, it is advisable to carefully check the working methods and references of the service providers. If a website is to be designed in a particularly appealing way, for example with your own photos or graphics and externally created texts, you should plan for a medium-sized company website between €3,000 and €8,000. Add in additional features such as event booking options, and the cost of a comprehensive corporate website can range from €8,000 to €30,000.
In projects without a fixed-price agreement, it is also possible that the costs will vary, depending on the actual hours of work and the expertise required. Therefore, it is important to make a detailed consultation with the web designer or agency in advance to avoid unexpected costs.
When you first conceptualize your website, you need content in the form of texts, which can be created either by yourself or by professional copywriters, with a cost per page ranging from €200 to €500. You can either contribute high-quality photos yourself or have them made by experts for an amount of about €500 to €1,000. A more cost-effective option is to use rights-managed images (stock photos) from the internet.
In the case of smaller websites, imprint and data protection are often already included in the price offer of professional agencies. Personalized privacy policies are available for about 600 euros. If your company is still in its infancy, an individual corporate design can also be created as part of web development for a price of 1,500 to 5,000 euros.
In addition to the one-time costs, the running costs for hosting and domain must also be taken into account: Both are available from as little as 20 euros per year, assuming small amounts of data. In addition, there are ongoing costs for the maintenance and further development of your company website, which you should include in your budget planning. Costs for your own server or V-Server are between 80 and 200 euros (monthly), which makes sense in any case for a busy company website.
Blog website
A blog gives you the opportunity to always present your customers and interested parties with up-to-date and relevant content and to inform them with news and further information. By optimizing your blog posts for search engines like Google, you can grow your online presence and increase customer loyalty through helpful and informative articles about your products.
For blog websites, prices are highly dependent on the content to be created and the number of features needed, and this is more so than for other types of websites. At the beginning of a project, comparatively low development costs are usually incurred, as the variable costs for editorial work usually only arise over time.
The WordPress platform is often used for such websites, as numerous useful plug-ins are already available here. A premium theme for blogs is already available for a small amount of 40 to 80 euros. This can either be created with your own expertise or adapted to the individual requirements to a certain extent by the provider for an extra charge. Alternatively, a blog system can be created on your own domain or integrated into your existing website.
You should be prepared to invest at least €2,000 when you turn to professional web agencies or freelancers. It may be tempting to avoid these costs at the beginning of the project and to build up the blog on your own. However, one should not underestimate how much time and expertise is necessary to build a sustainable reach and the long-term retention of readers.
Choosing the right advertising platforms for your blog is of great importance, especially distribution via social media is advisable. As your blog becomes more successful, you’ll use analytics tools to improve the user experience based on data to meet your conversion goals.
It is advisable to consult experts for the creation or editing of the content. Web agencies that specialize in blogs take this task off your hands and take your site to the next level with customized content. For a high-quality blog post, written by a thematically savvy and experienced copywriter, you should be prepared to make appropriate investments.
Portals & Platforms
Do you want to network individuals or companies from a specific industry? In this case, a portal or platform is the appropriate name for your web project. The main goal of such a platform is to connect two players online quickly and cost-effectively, thus creating so-called network effects.
Creating portals and platforms is a complex process that is more involved than other types of websites. This is due to the requirements such as logins, different hierarchical levels, data processing and scalability. Consequently, the development costs are higher than with conventional websites. The success of these business models is reflected in the fact that 70% of the world’s most valuable companies are currently platform operators.
As a rule, web portals are not implemented by individual developers or using modular systems. Implementation requires the use of modern technologies, in-depth market knowledge and an appealing UI and UX design that appeals to the target groups.
Development costs vary depending on the type and scope of the interfaces to be integrated, user management, file upload functions, different hierarchical levels and access rights. Having your own marketplace causes additional expenses, especially in the area of payment processing and purchasing integration.
It is recommended to develop a minimum first. By validating your business model before investing all your resources in developing the final product, you can reduce potential risks.
We advise you to take an iterative approach to developing the platform and to obtain real customer feedback from the market at an early stage. The more precisely the requirements are defined and the more detailed the specifications for programming are, the more cost-effective and high-quality the portal will be developed.
It is essential that you include the expected running costs for operation in your calculation in addition to the fixed development costs and observe them over time, as these are above average for this type of website.
From the get-go, you should consider marketing costs, which are usually substantial for a platform. The operators of the largest platforms invest several million euros in SEA (search engine advertising) and other performance marketing channels. For this reason, it can be financially worthwhile in the long term to deal with possibly suitable tools for search engine optimization, such as Seobility or Sistrix, at an early stage.
Landing page
Do you want your visitors to find concise and meaningful websites for individual products and thus increase the importance of your site? This can be achieved excellently with a so-called landing side. With this type of website, you pursue the goal of attracting new customers, increasing your sales or collecting contact details via a contact form. Landing pages often generate 70% to 80% of the total revenue of internet portals.
How much should I invest in a professional landing site?
Depending on the effort and complexity, you can have a professional landing page created including design coordination from €2,000 to €15,000.
For all those who want to implement it themselves, providers of landing page builder systems are a possible solution. These are available as a subscription for prices between €5 and €300 per month or as one-time templates starting at €20. However, construction kits offer limited design options and can achieve lower success rates compared to professionally created landing pages.
How can the sometimes considerable price differences be explained?
In contrast to the more cost-effective use of a template, hiring a qualified team from an advertising agency offers both cost advantages and potential benefits. This is because the agency
- examined and strategically considered
- Has expertise in optimizing conversion rates
- produces high-quality content
- developed a sophisticated UX design
- Implement SEO strategies if necessary
- Software interfaces integrated like a CRM
- Implemented customized analysis tools
- challenges that arise are expertly overcome.
Micro Website
If you need a dedicated website for a specific purpose, such as selling discounted items or targeting business customers instead of private customers, then you should consider a microsite.
Microsites are becoming increasingly popular and usually offer an excellent return on investment despite additional investment. Most microsites only have a single call-to-action, which makes it easier for visitors to find the content they want quickly and without detours. This way, they don’t have to fight their way through confusing pages.
The design and user experience of microsites may differ from the current main page. Why not just create a new section on the website? It is possible that the two offers compete with each other, so that existing customers buy discounted products, for example.
If you’re looking to implement an innovative marketing strategy, launching a new microsite can be extremely beneficial. Content-oriented websites achieve a better position in search engine rankings because they offer specialized and significant content on a keyword or search term.
How much do I have to pay for a microsite?
Prices for microsites vary between €2,000 and €30,000.
If you don’t want to create your microsite as a subdomain on your own website, you’ll need to budget for additional domain costs.
Creation of websites: in-house creation vs. external commissioning
The decision whether to have the creation of a website carried out in-house (insourcing) or by an external service provider (outsourcing) is of great importance. Both options have their pros and cons, which is why it’s important to make the best choice for your business.
If you have enough time on your hands, you could acquire the knowledge you need to design and code your own website. However, if you lack the time or know-how, financial resources can help make up for that shortage. There are professional teams of developers who can implement complex website projects in a short time with their extensive know-how.
In-house production of a website
Website builders are a simple and straightforward way to create a technically appealing website on your own. Platforms such as WordPress or Ionos are particularly suitable for projects such as reader blogs, as they offer a variety of templates and tools that allow even less technically savvy users to create a website quickly and inexpensively.
If you have limited financial resources or don’t have big ambitions, a website builder is an attractive option to build your online presence. With a basic technical understanding and a dose of creativity, you can design your website according to your ideas and thus successfully present your company or project.
External commissioning of a website
Although there are many advantages to using a web builder to create a website, there are also some drawbacks to consider. Especially if you want an individual design and fine-tuning of your web design, modular systems quickly reach their limits. They are limited to pre-made blocks and offer limited customization options. In addition, many other businesses and individuals use the same builders, which can mean that your website doesn’t stand out or stand out. The monthly costs for using website builders should also be taken into account, as it is usually not possible to switch providers.
Outsourcing for professional results
If you want to have a sophisticated website created sustainably and efficiently, we advise you to hire an experienced web design agency to develop it. They implement your wishes and, thanks to their expertise, can implement numerous individual functions and requirements on your part.
Admittedly, such a website is not as inexpensive as a self-created website from a modular system in the first step. Nevertheless, the fact that almost every successful company has its website developed by a professional agency shows that this investment pays off in the long run.
Cost of creating a website
Development
The expenses for the development of a website consist mainly of the immediate costs, which are made up of the design structure, the complexity and the time required. Factors influencing the design, which are often directly reflected in the price of a website, are, for example, the architecture of the page, the sophisticated web design, the use of digital marketing (e.g. SEO for Google), range of functions, language options (multilingualism) and translations, user-defined installations of plugins, urgency and security aspects.
Maintenance costs
A significant and calculable cost factor arises from regular updates and maintenance measures. Many of the indirect expenditures are hidden in this area. The 21st century is characterized by continuous innovations and further developments. For this reason, hardly any static websites are created nowadays in order to be able to add new functions at any time and without much effort.
In order to integrate up-to-date features, guarantee security and always ensure optimal compatibility, maintenance work and updates are therefore also part of the sensible cost estimate for the creation of a website. Some of the maintenance costs are included in the monthly expenses of a homepage.
Depending on the frequency and scope of such maintenance , the cost can vary from a few hundred to several thousand euros. Especially when using website builders, high maintenance costs are to be expected, as they have to be updated at least monthly.
Conclusion – Why there are sometimes considerable price differences when creating website projects
We’ve seen that the cost of your website can be higher or lower, depending on what you want. You may need a visual presentation, versatile features, or a personalized design to add the finishing touches to your project. Anyway, before choosing a service, do your research and familiarize yourself with the pricing policy of the respective company. It is important that you do your research and make an informed decision.
