Website Development Cost in 2021: A Definitive Guide

laptop showing programming languages and flowcharts

Whether you are planning to develop a website from scratch or want to upgrade an existing site, you will ponder on the question, ‘how much does website development costs?’ at some point in time. Sadly, guessing the exact cost to develop a website in 2021 is almost impossible for an industry outsider. Why?

Just like apparel prices vary from brand to brand, a variety of factors come together to determine the final price of building a website. However, it’s still possible to get an approximate idea of website development costs. And Big Kitty Labs is here to share just that. 

Before we share web development prices, let’s learn about the biggest elements that influence the development costs.

Table of Contents

Website Development Cost: Biggest Elements

While web design and development is definitely the duo on which you will spend the most, there are other cost elements involved as well. Let’s look at them all one by one: 

Domain

Most journeys to develop a website start with a domain name. For those who have no idea what a domain is, here’s an example. When you want to visit Facebook, you type www.facebook.com or fb.com, or facebook.com into your browser’s address bar, right? Well, the web address you entered is called a domain name. 

Its role is just as important as a motherboard in a computer. While a website can be developed without a domain name, it cannot go live without one. That’s why it ought to be included in the cost of a website. The yearly price of a new domain name for a small business can vary between $5 and $20 but some domains have been sold for millions too. Don’t believe us? Read this

search engine

Hosting

It wouldn’t be wrong to call web hosting the CPU of your website since it allows you to publish your website files onto the internet. In short, it lets visitors access and interact with your website any time of the day and without hiccups. 

The hosting provider will assign space on its web server in exchange for a monthly or annual hosting fee. The overall cost of hosting will be determined by the package or service you single out from the hosting provider. 

The average cost of hosting a small business website varies between $75 and $200 yearly. However, if you require massive storage space, then, you may have to pay in thousands! 

App development process to launch high-performance applications 

bluehost

SSL Certificate

David Bernstein – the president of Bernstein – once said, “For every lock, there is someone out there trying to pick it or break-in.” Turns out, websites are no different than doors in dire need of locks. Your website will be defenseless to virtual threats like DDoS attacks, malware, and ransomware if it doesn’t wear armor. SSL certificate acts like armor for the sneaky part of the web. 

It will help keep online interactions and shared data confidential while declaring that your website is 100% secure. An SSL certificate will cost you anywhere between $10 and $300 a year. 

Website Design

Imagine you buy a brand new 8K QLED and, when booting it up, all you see is a blank white screen or potato video quality. You will feel confused and bent out of shape. Your customers would feel the same if they see a blank or a poorly designed website. 

To make your website good-looking and easy to use, you need to engage a talented team of designers. Web design requires a small expense if you are using a CMS-based solution like WordPress but, you have to build something from scratch, web design with concepts of UX/UI in mind can cost a considerable amount of money. 

To be specific, UI/UX design can cost anything between $1000 and $5,000 depending on site complexity and design goals.

Front-end development 

The visible part of a website with which users interact is the front-end or client-side. It’s built by developers who have familiarity with a vast range of tools including CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. Front-end development is also challenging because the website has to be optimized for different browsers, operating systems, and devices. 

Since development talent is costly, front-end development is one of the costliest parts of launching a website. The price of front-end website development could range between $2,000 and $15,000 depending on website complexity and pages.  

UI design tips to improve sales and engagement 

Back-end development 

Let’s say you are creating a new profile on Twitter. You filled all the fields and are ready to submit the signup form. When you click the Register button, you will notice a slow-spinning gray circle on the tab. It simply means that your inputs are traveling to the server and registering you as a new user. That’s how the back-end works. 

Without a back-end, nothing would happen on clicking a register button or any button whatsoever. In other words, a sturdy back-end is the brain of your website and a substantial part of website development. The cost of back-end development can start from $3,000 and has no upper limit.

While these were the biggest cost elements of website development, there are others as well:

  • Professional emails
  • Logo design
  • Responsive design
  • Payment gateways 
  • Additional security 
  • More 
pink rocket

Let’s build tomorrow,
together.

14 years in business and 330+ customers say we do it right

The average cost of developing a website 

As you can see, the total cost of developing a website depends on a lot of factors. Considering all the above, the average cost of creating a website in 2021 is as follows:

  • A small business website with basic capabilities usually costs between $1000 and $5000 
  • A database-driven website with decent capabilities usually costs between $5000 and $20,000 
  • A highly complex website with extraordinary capabilities usually costs between $20,000 and 1,00,000 
 

  

Benefits of website development

There are ample benefits of building a website, whether it is for small businesses, large enterprises, or startups. Sadly, many entrepreneurs aren’t familiar with the advantages of website development. 

That’s why we think it makes sense to quickly look at them: 

  • Increases sales: Having a website opens the floodgates of e-commerce and advertising. Both bring more sales.  
  • Boost brand visibility: A website will represent your business online and enhance brand recognition. 
  • Reaching new customers: Nicely designed websites rank on Google and help connect with new customers. 

 

That's it

We have told you everything about the website development cost. Remember, the exact budget can be approximated only when all your requirements are clear. Join hands with an experienced team of website designers and developers for smooth online business evolution.

Want to inquire about the cost of developing your website? Please email us at contact@kittylabs.com to start the consultation.