The question may not be how much will your website cost, the better question is what will the return on investment be for what you spend on your website?
If you’re a solo dog walker looking to pick up some extra evening and weekend cash, investing in a professionally built website may not be the most feasible route.
On the other hand, if you’re a serious business looking to attract more customers online, a professionally built website is an absolute necessity.
Having a poorly built website can do a lot more harm to your business than not having any website at all.
WHAT WILL DETERMINE HOW MUCH YOU SPEND ON WEB DESIGN?
Forbes says a small business website costs between $2,000 - $9,000 (reasonable, but projects we take on are often much closer to the lower end of that range) while others like WebFX put the range between $12,000 - $150,000 (we think that’s nuts!)
How much you’ll be asked to spend on your website depends on variables like:
WHAT YOU NEED YOUR WEBSITE TO DO
Something like a basic 5 page informational website (e.g. Home, About, Services, Testimonials, Contact) will cost less than a website that requires a number of special features like:
- Having a blog installed
- Large number of pages
- Login portals
- Backend management system
- Complex forms (e.g. registration, applications)
- Custom ordering system
Our team can handle anything you need, including everything listed above.
I’d start by recommending you request a web design quote so we can go over a short list of questions to establish what needs you may have.
HOW YOUR WEBSITE IS BUILT
Some designers choose to cut corners by using 3rd party website builders like Wix or WordPress.
Buyer beware because you get what you pay for. Websites built this way can often come with design limitations, lower Google rank, lack of function, bugs and security vulnerabilities.
Having a website built with one of these tools usually means spending less up front but costing you way more in terms of lost sales, website downtime and most likely the need for another site re-build sooner than you had expected after you quickly grow behind what these builders can do.
WHETHER OR NOT YOU’LL NEED ONGOING MARKETING SERVICES
Depending on your goals for the website (e.g. if you want to rank high on Google for keywords related to your business) and the level of competition within your industry (e.g. how many businesses are already targeting those same keywords), you may benefit from a digital marketing campaign to help drive more of the right kind of people to your website.
Digital marketing is not necessary for every business, especially if you’re not looking to grow or have other offline marketing plans to drive traffic to your website, but it’s something many should think about including into their overall web design costs from the start.
WHAT OTHER COSTS COME WITH BUILDING A WEBSITE?
Other than the costs associated with actually having the website built, there may be other fees to be aware of.
NOTE: Some web designers, like us here at Tenpine, can offer an all-inclusive service that covers these items which can be bundled together to save you money.
DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION
No matter who you hire to design your website, you’re going to need a domain name for it.
Purchasing this yourself is certainly an option (it’s far from rocket science) but you can decide to do what the majority of our clients do and have us handle that on your behalf.
NOTE: Even though we may register and manage your domain name, it remains your legal property.
As of 2024, we charge $25 per year for domain name registration with includes privacy settings and all technical management. We only want to cover our own costs associated with registering domains and not make a profit on this.
WEBSITE HOSTING
Another unavoidable cost associated with having a website is getting it hosted.
As of 2024, we charge $156 per year for website hosting which includes 24/7 security monitoring, weekly backups, a 99.9% uptime guarantee and optional email hosting (although we usually recommend having your business email run through a service like Google Workspace or Office 365).
WEBSITE MAINTENANCE
This is not something every website needs, but since a website is rarely set in stone when it’s finished and launched,
a little money spent on keeping it up to date is usually a wise choice.
We offer website maintenance at varying rates between $50 - $60 per hour depending on how many hours you purchase. Maintenance time never expires and how long the time you’ve purchased lasts will depend on the type and frequency of update requests.
We’ve seen maintenance hours stay in the log for years so you can purchase a few hours and use the time whenever you need it. In the meantime they’ll be banked and waiting for you.
So, how much does web design cost in Niagara?
The short answer is if you are willing to invest around $3,000 into your businesses website the chances are we will be able to build you an excellent website that will be worth every penny since it will likely pay for itself quickly.
NOTE: many projects can be less or more than this amount depending on all that’s needed, but this is meant to give you a general idea.
Start by getting a quote here and we’ll be happy to provide a detailed proposal and cost breakdown.
Tenpine has been offering Niagara web design and digital marketing services to businesses of all shapes and sizes since 2010. Please reach out anytime if you have any questions about this or any other topic.