How much does it cost to make a website – the cost of creating a website in 2022

If you are thinking about the need to create your own website, first it is advisable to at least in general terms imagine how much it will cost. As practice shows, the cost of a simple website with basic features and functionality starts from 500 USD, while complex Internet resources can cost tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Standard business websites of large companies can cost from 5,000 to 50,000 USD, and marketplaces with the same functionality as Amazon’s can cost from 100,000 dollars and more.
Moreover, at the first glance at the site and its external design, you can hardly appreciate the full scale of the work of developers invested in it, especially when it comes to individual projects.
Below is the design of the first screens of 2 hotel websites. One site costs over $ 10,000, the other about $ 5,000. Can you tell which of these sites is more expensive and which is cheaper?

Turnkey website creation price

Consider, as an example, a certain site project with basic functionality, made using standard development technologies:

In this case, we can focus on the following order of prices:

Considering the cost of hourly pay for developers, designers, testers, today the lowest prices for website development in Ukraine. Below we will give the average hourly cost for developer services in Ukraine, USA, Europe and Russia. We do not take into account low-qualified specialists with less than 1 year of work experience.
So, the cost of the programmer’s services:

• USA from 70 USD / 1 hour,
• Europe from 50 Euros / 1 hour,
• Asia from 20 USD / 1 hour,
• Russia from 40 USD / 1 hour,
• Ukraine from 30 USD / 1 hour.

It is also very important to add that when ordering a turnkey website, the total cost of the project will be 30-40% cheaper than paying the hourly rate.

The cost of sites: factors affecting the price

The price of a website is determined by several main factors, including:

1. Site type (social network, forum with ads, landing page, online store, corporate site, blog, etc.).
2. Technologies used to develop websites (programming languages, CMS, various constructors, etc.).
3. Service provider (freelancer, staff specialist, web studio, IT company).
4. Service provider location (region, country).
5. Payment option (hourly or per project).
6. The number and complexity of the site’s functionality.
7. The complexity of the design (template, unique, using animation and 3D elements).

Each nuance in the list is important enough and has a strong impact on the formation of the final cost of creating a working and functional website.

Types and cost of sites

The first question that you should ask yourself is – for what purpose do you want to make a website? The second question is how to achieve the goal you have defined? Below we will walk you through the goals and sites that fit them.

One-page sites (landing page)

Differs in minimal functionality. Very well suited for advertising a single product or service. It can work well with advertising channels such as targeted advertising on social networks and contextual advertising in search. However, you can forget about SEO promotion.
The landing page is saturated with marketing chips and triggers as much as possible (USP, benefits for the client, customer reviews, company benefits, triggers of a limited time or/and a limited number of products, discounts, installments, etc.)
The price of a landing page from 1300 USD.

Corporate websites

According to Google research, a company that does not have a website is losing more than 40% of potential customers. Currently, the presence of a company, regardless of the type of activity, a website is not a luxury, but a necessity. The corporate website is the “face” of the company, its image and marketing component. He attracts potential customers and talks about your company’s services. And what is very important – having a website significantly increases the credibility of your company.
Corporate website price from 2500 USD

eCommerce websites

Ecommerce websites are used by the owner to sell goods or services with the option to pay directly on the site. At its core, a virtual store (eCommerce website) is the same real store. It has a signboard (Block on the Home page with a unique selling proposition) and an outdoor showcase (Blog with a shortlist of products, with the ability to go to view the entire list of products). Also on the main page of the eCommerce website information is given about the benefits that the client will receive from the purchase, reviews from customers who have bought any product, etc.
When you go inside the store you see promotional offers, products that are divided by types, brands, seasons, etc. All the same, is implemented in the eCommerce website using filtering on the product list page.
And of course the card of the product itself. There are many articles on the internet about what information should be presented on a product card. Let’s go through the most important:

1. Information about the availability of goods in the warehouse;
2. At least 5 photos of the product from different angles, it is advisable to add a photo of the product in real conditions;
3. Technical characteristics of the product, if it is a technique. If it is clothing, its characteristics (composition, size, color, etc.);
4. Product reviews;
5. If possible, video review of the product;
6. Buy and Buy buttons in one click;
7. Information about delivery, guarantees, conditions of return, and exchange.

There should be a Shopping Cart so that the customer can see what he has chosen. A page for filling in customer data and choosing the terms of delivery and payment. And of course, a payment gateway must be connected, which will allow you to pay after confirming your data.
eCommerce website price from 5000 USD

Marketplaces (trading platforms)

A marketplace is a site where ordinary users can be sellers. This is practically the same online store. But unlike an online store, sellers, without the participation of the owner of the marketplace, using their personal account, can place and sell their goods (for example, Rozetka, Avito, eBay, Amazon, Aliexpress).
Marketplace price from 15,000 USD

Sites catalogs

This is practically the same online store, but without the user’s ability to buy a product. To purchase a product or service, a site visitor must contact the site administrator through the contact form. The catalog site does not need a payment gateway and additional pages that an online store definitely needs (shopping cart, checkout, etc.). Accordingly, the cost of such a site will be cheaper.
The price of the site catalog is from 3000 USD

Educational resources

These are web portals of various educational institutions or companies offering online courses. The price of educational portals is determined by the wishes of the customer, the chosen technology, functionality and complexity of the architecture.
The price of the educational portal is from 6000 USD

Web portals

It is an informational website that unites many web resources and offers users forums, e-mail, search engines. Similar sites are also used in universities and some large companies as an internal tool that allows you to store all important information in one place.
Web portal price from 14000 USD

Social networks

Familiar to many Odnoklassniki, Vkontakte, Facebook, Instagram refers to just these kinds of sites, corresponding to communities, topics, goals.
Social network price from USD 20,000

Personal website and blog

This is your personal personalized resource where you communicate with subscribers, share interesting thoughts and news, answer questions.
This type of site will be interesting:

1. people who are engaged in highly specialized activities and are good specialists in it (manicurists, hairdressers, photographers, artists, masseurs, etc.). Purpose: to show your expertise in the profession and attract potential clients;
2. people who want to cover any topic in their blog (travel, parenting, life or study abroad, etc.). The goal is to attract readers

Price for a personal website, blog from 1500 USD
As you can see, the cost of developing a website is quite dependent on its type, features and technical characteristics.

Technologies and stages of website development

The development technology you choose determines the future performance, speed, and functionality of the resource, seriously affecting the cost of the project.
In order to figure out how much a website will cost, there are several important factors to consider.
Among the most commonly used development technologies are:

Drag and drop web designers

This is a kind of do-it-yourself option that is usually created on platforms such as Wix and Weebly. With their help, you can easily and quickly create websites yourself. Such tools are recommended for creating personal web pages or standalone blogs because their design and functionality are limited by what a website builder has to offer.

Using CMS when creating websites

This option uses pre-installed functions provided by out-of-the-box solutions. Among the best known are WordPress (used by a quarter of all existing websites), Joomla, Shopify, and Drupal. The programs provide you with the elements you need to “arrange” in the correct order. The main disadvantage of this solution is the unnecessary complexity of some applications. You will need the help of professional developers who know how to work with such software, which ultimately increases the cost of developing a website.

Development of an individual website to order

Website development with functionality that will solve all the tasks of the Customer. Before the start of the project, depending on the tasks, the programming languages are determined with which the project will be implemented. You can use markup languages (HTML5, CSS3), programming languages (JavaScript, PHP, Java, Python), JavaScript frameworks (Angular, React, Vue), PHP frameworks (Laravel, Yii, Symphony), etc.

Standard stages of website development:

1. Determination of goals and requirements with the customer;
2. Study of competitors, analogs of this project (if it is not a startup);
3. Writing the Terms of Reference for the project;
4. Website page prototyping;
5. UI / UX website design;
6. Front-end programming;
7. Backend programming;
8. Testing the project and fixing bugs and inaccuracies
9. Analytics connection

Of course, bespoke sites end up being the most expensive, but these are the most viable options on the web. They are easily customizable, have increased usability, load quickly and, if necessary, can be repurposed taking into account the specifics of the business.

Complexity of site design

The complexity of the site design is an equally important nuance that requires your attention when determining the amount of creating a future web resource. The design can be simple or complex; when creating it, both the wishes of the customer and the specifics of the site are taken into account.
The main factors affecting the final cost are:
1. Using ready-made design templates.
Ready-made themes and design templates allow users to create websites on a budget. Any design customization can be done by modifying the source code. In most cases, you will need to hire a capable designer to optimize the off-the-shelf theme offered by WordPress or another service.
2. Development of an individual website design.
This option involves creating a website design from scratch. Typically, designers create wireframes (UX) for future design and layouts (UI). These two steps can be performed one after the other or at the same time to speed up the design process. Use of images, animation and corporate branding.
The creation of dynamic objects or images can significantly affect the cost of a website design. Separately, the price will rise if you need to create a unique company logo, as well as use branding materials.
In addition, it is necessary to consider the adaptability of the website to a variety of gadgets. Development of a separate website design for computers, separately for mobile devices increases its final cost. However, in the future, such resources receive more traffic.

Complexity of the site functionality

The functionality, unique properties and capabilities of the site seriously affect its final cost. The more the number of functions, the more complex they are, the more expensive the web resource is in the end.
As an example, you can consider almost any corporate website that includes elements such as:

• Informative pages (Home, About the company, Frequently asked questions, etc.).
• Contact form with managers or administrators.
• Blog with articles.
• Pages of offered goods or services.
• Admin panel.

Such a site usually has editable content that can be managed from the admin panel. The more functionality you add to the site, the more complex the admin panel becomes.
It should be understood that most of the time-consuming and meticulous work on creating web resources is not visible to the customer. It is performed to create a complex server infrastructure for a website that improves the final functionality.
The development time for a functionally complex and original site can range from 2 months to several years: everything here is determined by the overall functionality, which ultimately affects the cost of the project.
Nevertheless, it is these sites that are able to provide the expected result for the customer, because their main advantages are:

• high scalability;
• ease of customization;
• simplified technical support and resource maintenance;
• prompt localization and elimination of errors;
• originality of design, taking into account customer requirements;
• fast loading times;
• the widest functionality;
• high-quality optimization;
• the ability to use the latest technology and quickly adapt to digital transformation (for example, a chatbot).

In addition, you can always order and configure new functions in accordance with the specifics of your business project.

Choosing a contractor for website development

The contractor’s services greatly affect the cost of an online project. The customer has several options for choosing a contractor, including:
1. Freelancer at remote work.
You can find freelancers on their respective platforms. Web design and development rates can range from $ 10 to $ 150 per hour depending on technical specialization, location (country), skills, experience and seniority level of the software developer. However, consider the risks involved in choosing this approach. A freelancer may turn out to be an insufficiently qualified specialist and will simply fail the project or make it of poor quality, with mistakes. Fixing the site code after another, unskilled developer will be more expensive and longer than making a project from scratch.
2. Web studio or company.
The costs of developing websites when contacting a web studio are higher, since the studio employs a professional team of designers, developers, testers.
The process of creating a website itself becomes more time-consuming and expensive, but the final result is of high quality.
Which option should you pay attention to? Remember that the cost of hiring a software engineer to build a website in Europe as well as the US is on average from $ 70 per hour.
There is a more attractive option from an economic point of view, which is to hire staff from a web studio to develop sites. Eastern Europe is renowned for experienced software engineers with a strong technical knowledge base and low website development costs. The hourly rate of a good specialist is from $ 30, and the quality of work will not differ from that of the USA or Europe.