Get In Touch
Home » Blog » Web development pricing

Web development pricing

Web development pricing is determined by several factors, including the type, structure, size, and design of your project. It is typically an individual project, and prices can vary from $10,000 to over $200,000. However, the price of the same product may differ among various companies.

Web development pricing falls into different levels based on the type of website design and development required. A constructor-based website typically costs up to $1000, while a basic website with limited functionalities may cost between $10,000 and $20,000. An average website demands more investments and may cost between $40,000 to $100,000. A complex website with highly advanced functionalities and cutting-edge technological elements can cost more than $150,000.

This article aims to cover the factors that affect web development pricing, the necessary team composition for developing a website, and tips for selecting a reliable web development partner. For those who prefer visual content, check out the bonus infographic titled “How much does it cost to develop a website.”

In summary, web development pricing is a complex process that requires careful consideration of various factors. Let’s dive in.

web development pricing

What Is the Price of Website Development?

Web development pricing can range from $10,000 to over $200,000. To obtain a precise cost estimate, several factors need to be considered, including the type of website, team composition, and the location of the development team.

Let’s break down each of these factors in more detail to better understand how they affect web development pricing.

Web development pricing Based on  the Types of Website

Web development pricing can vary depending on the type of website being developed. The differences in complexity, features, and required development timeframe all contribute to variations in cost.

To give a better understanding of the cost of website development based on website type, we’ve provided a table below:

Web development pricing Based on  the Types of Website

The Price of Website Development Based on  the Team Composition

The kind of team you hire for web development can also have a significant impact on the overall cost. With numerous options available for hiring developers on the internet, it’s essential to consider the pros and cons of each.

To offer a detailed comparison, let’s assume that you need 1000 hours of development time to create your website.

Price of Website Development Based on  the Team Composition

When developing an online platform, it’s essential to prioritize quality over price. A high-quality platform is scalable, resilient, and secure, making it worth the investment.

Another factor to consider is the web development fee per development region. Let’s explore this option in more detail.

Option 1: Build an In-House Team

The price of website development depends on the size of the team and the cost of hiring each new employee. Building an in-house team can be expensive because you need to employ a group of people.

On average, the cost of hiring an in-house team can be around $500,000 per year, which includes the team’s salary, taxes, accounting costs, office rent, and maintenance. You can use a calculator to get a more accurate estimate.

Pros

The team knows your business
They understand your business goals
They are available when you need them

Cons

Key-person risk
Limited area of expertise
You may face a lack of available resources
It’s an expensive option

Option 2: Hire a Local Website Development Agency

Local website development agencies typically charge on an hourly basis or through a contractual agreement.

If you decide to work with an agency, you can expect to spend:

  • $15,000 to $150,000 on design and development
  • Up to $60,000 per year on maintenance
  • Up to $15,000 on marketing

Aside from these website development costs, there are several other expenses you’ll need to consider.

Pros

Expertise
No communication gap
Performant product delivery
Easy to hire

Cons

Expertise
No communication gap
Performant product delivery
Easy to hire

Option 3: Hire a Freelancer or a Freelance Team

Hiring a freelance website developer can cost up to $10,000, while a website designer can cost between $500 to $5,000.

Additionally, a freelance website developer can charge up to $20,000 for their work. By factoring in these major costs, you can expect to spend around $30,000 to build a complex website.

Pros

Expertise and proficiency
Tech-agnostic development process
Seamless communication
One channel for all delivery
Dedicated team members for the project
Cost-effective

Cons

Reliability issues
Gaps in communication
No guarantee of project completion

Option 4: Hire an Outsourcing Agency for Website Development

Outsourcing agencies have the necessary expertise for website development and typically charge less than local agencies in the US, but more than freelancers. For example, if a US designer charges $100 per hour, an outsourced designer may charge only $35 per hour.

Assuming the website development takes around 500 hours, the cost of creating a website with an outsourcing agency would be around $17,500.

Pros

Expertise and proficiency
Tech-agnostic development process
Seamless communication
One channel for all delivery
Dedicated team members for the project
Cost-effective

Cons

Time gap
Difficult to find a reliable agency

In addition to understanding website development costs by team type, it is also important to estimate the cost based on the development region.

Web development pricing by the Team’s Region

Web development pricing can vary depending on the team’s region. The cost of web development differs from country to country due to the differences in the cost of living in various regions. For instance, the cost of living in the United States is three times more expensive than in Ukraine. Thus, developing a website in Ukraine is significantly cheaper than in the US. The table below outlines how the cost of web development varies from one country to another.

Web development pricing by the Team’s Region

As shown in the picture, creating a website in the US can be very costly. On the other hand, Ukraine offers cheaper development costs, but it’s still more expensive than in India. Websites developed by agencies in India may have quality issues. To get an idea of how much you might overpay for in-house versus outsourcing agencies, you can use a calculator. This guide provides an overview of web development pricing.

Factors Affecting Web Development Pricing

Web development pricing is influenced by various factors that contribute to the complexity of the project. One of the critical factors is the development process’s specific parts, including the frontend, backend, or full-stack development.

Let’s delve deeper into the factors that affect web development pricing:

  1. Design Complexity: The price of web development increases with the design’s complexity. The more intricate the design, the more time and resources it requires.
  2. Features and Functionality: The type and number of features and functionalities required for the website also affect its development price. The more advanced features needed, the higher the development price.
  3. Customization: Customized web development requires more time and resources, making it more expensive than standard development.
  4. E-commerce Functionality: Developing an e-commerce website involves integrating payment gateways and other related functionalities, making it more expensive.
  5. Content Management System (CMS): Using a content management system can reduce development prices. However, customizing the CMS requires more time and resources, increasing the price.

By considering these factors, you can estimate the price of web development for your specific project.

How Does the Type of Website Impact the Web Development Pricing?

When estimating the pricing of website development, the type of website being built is a crucial factor to consider. Without identifying the type of website for your business, it may be difficult to determine the total price.

Several factors affect the complexity of a website, such as the number of screens, roles, and features, as well as the complexity of the business logic and third-party integrations. In general, the more features a website has, the more complex it is, and thus the higher its development cost will be.

Because each website has unique differences, the level of complexity in the development process will also vary. These differences in complexity can result in price differences of over 300%.

The type of website can be divided into seven categories: landing page, blog, news, corporate, e-commerce, SaaS, and marketplace. The cost of developing a landing page can range from $0 to $3,000, while a blog website can cost between $5,000 and $10,000. A simple news website can cost between $10,000 and $15,000, while a corporate website can cost between $15,000 and $20,000. The development cost of an e-commerce website ranges from $30,000 to $65,000, while a SaaS website may cost from $40,000 to $100,000. Finally, a marketplace website can cost between $70,000 to $200,000. However, these costs are not representative of custom web application development costs, as the final cost will depend on the specific features required.

Comparison of Website Complexity for Your Enterprise, Small Business, or Startup

The level of website complexity has a direct impact on the price of development. A website can range from basic with simple functionality to a highly integrated website with complex features.

If you’re unsure which type of website complexity to choose, the following descriptions may help:

Basic Complexity

Basic complexity is suitable for corporate websites with simple functionality and typically costs between $5,000 to $30,000. This type of website is typically up to 15 pages in length and includes custom UX/UI design, CMS integration, a simple database on the backend, and custom animations on the frontend.

A minimum number of specialists are usually required for basic complexity websites, including a project manager, WordPress or full-stack developer(s), UX/UI designer, and QA engineer. Websites in this category include landing pages, blogs, and portfolio websites.

The estimated time for development is around 2 months.

Examples of basic complexity websites include harbottle.com.

Average complexity

Average complexity websites typically receive between 500k – 1.5m visitors per month, are quite complex, and generate frequently updated content.

The average portfolio website price of development ranges from $30,000 to $80,000.

The average complexity of a website includes up to 50 pages of custom UX/UI design, a complex database, 3rd party integrations, a custom frontend with advanced animations, and search engine optimization.

This level of complexity usually requires a project manager, business analyst, UX/UI designer, senior backend and frontend developers, 2 QA testers, DevOps, as well as support specialists and a marketing team: SEO manager, copywriters, and link builders.

Examples of average complexity websites include large corporate websites and cloud software products.

The development time for this category of the website is about 4-6 months.

Websites in this category include NEWS and Corporate websites, such as Web Help Agency.

Difficult Complexity

Websites with difficult complexity require a robust design, cloud systems, multifunctional integrations, and higher infrastructure. The average price of development is from $80,000 to $300,000.

Difficult websites have top-notch UX/UI design, work with multiple and huge databases, complex frontend interactions, and require a large maintenance team. Only the best professionals can deliver this level of complexity.

Websites like Canva, Reddit, or LinkedIn are good examples of such development complexity. The more features a website has, the more hours will be put into its development, hence the high price.

The time to develop a difficult website is about 6-12 months.

Not only do the development prices increase with complex features and roles, but maintenance and upkeep charges will also rise.

Other aspects that change due to difficult complexity include:

  • The complexity of network protocols
  • System and network management plus initiation
  • Navigation and web page layout
  • Privacy considerations

So, how much does it cost to create a business website? It mainly depends on the type of development.

How Does the Type of Development Affect Website Development Prices?

The website development process and the technology stack used also affect the price.

There are three types of platforms that you can use to create a website:

  1. Website Builders – for basic websites
  2. Template-Based CMS – for basic and average websites
  3. Custom Development – for all types of development, especially complex websites

Website Builder Development

These website builders allow you to create your own website using free tutorials.

With the use of a drag-and-drop editor, you can add, edit, remove and manage the landing elements, items, layouts, and other things.

All you have to do is pick the elements you want on your website and then add the relevant content.

Depending on the functionality and approach of the builder, the cost of building a website ranges between $1,000 to $5,000 per year.

The main cost is the subscription and accessing the premium plugins and features.

The features and other aspects associated with website builders are:

Easy of use
SEO
Customer support and friendliness
Value for money
Ability to modify the design
Customer support
Free plugins in a starter pack

Considering their low-cost operation and accessibility, website builders offer a cost-effective way to build landing pages and blogs.

These platforms require fewer functions.

Based on their functionality and approach, the cost of building a website with them ranges between $1,000 to $20,000.

Since SEO has a significant impact on the success of a website, it is essential to work with an SEO-friendly website builder, as it will help you climb up the SERP rankings.

The primary benefit of using website builders like Wix, Zyro, Squarespace, GoDaddy, Weebly, and others is the built-in SEO-friendly features.

Considering their low-cost operation and accessibility, website builders are favorable to build landing pages, portfolio websites, and blog websites.

Template-Based Website Development Template-based website development is more advanced than simple constructors and often involves the use of WordPress themes.

The following are some of the most cost-effective website builders and their cheapest subscription prices:

Site Builder Price per Month WordPress $4 per month (Best for personal use) $8 per month (Best for freelancers) $25 per month (Best for small businesses) $45 per month (Best for online stores) Joomla $99 per year (Personal) $199 per year (Business) $399 per year (Agency) Drupal Free Weebly $10 per month $12 per month $25 per month One.com $4.99 per month (Basic) $7.48 per month (Premium) $16.99 per month (Online Shop) Ucraft $10 per month $21 per month Webnode $4.90 per month $5.95 per month $11.95 per month $19.95 per month Wix Wix plans are divided for showcasing professional sites:

$4.50 per month (most basic) $8.50 per month (for personal use) $12.5 per month (for freelancers and entrepreneurs) $24.50 per month (Most premium) For business and e-commerce:

$17 per month (Business basic) $25 per month (Business Unlimited) $35 per month (Business VIP) Jimdo $9 per month (for personal use) $15 per month (for a business website) $39 per month (Premium) Templatetoaster $49 (Standard edition) $99 (Professional edition) These platforms offer pre-built elements and items to create solutions, but you can also customize the design of your website by rearranging the layout and order.

You can work with builders like Shopify, Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress themes. 59.9% of CMS websites are made with WordPress.

There are two primary reasons for this:

Cost-effective plans Ease of use They provide features such as:

Professional premium themes SSL certification Shopping cart integration Store management Customer profiling Large community with open-source projects However, it is important to note that you can either work with theme-based website builders if the theme fits your needs, or involve a team if you need to customize the theme. This can significantly impact the price, depending on your final goal, whether it is launching an online store using WooCommerce or creating a simple blog website.

If you want to learn more, check out our up-to-date guides on developing a custom WordPress website and an overview of the price of developing a custom WordPress site.

Custom Website Development

Custom website development is ideal for corporate sites, landing pages, SaaS, marketplaces, and eCommerce stores as it offers unlimited customization options.

Since every type of website requires unique features and integrations, the price of building a customized website is typically higher.

The price of custom web development can range from $30,000 to $300,000, depending on what you want to build and the team you choose to work with. We discussed this earlier.

The following image illustrates the price of creating a custom website. However, the website price is dependent on the level of the team and the development technology used.

How Can UX/UI Design Affect Web Development Pricing?

When estimating the price of website development, UX/UI design is a major factor to consider.

Simplicity and ease of use are the hallmarks of web design in 2022.

Designs can either be based on templates or customized, with custom designs costing more.

The complexity of web design has a significant impact on the final price. Here are the main aspects of design complexity and their influence on price:

UX Design Impact User Experience design defines how visitors or customers interact with the website and its elements.

Designers create wireframes to ensure better UX, develop a practical layout and structure, and identify the information hierarchy.

They also consider how the features will engage and strategies to save time in completing a task.

Creating user personas before designing the website can also be helpful. The price of implementing these design structures depends on the amount of work involved.

UI Design Impact To create a User Interface, mockups are necessary to identify how the user navigates through the website.

Customizations require specialists and can take up to 100 hours for web designers to create bespoke designs, which can enhance speed, usability, and experience.

There are two options for custom UI design:

Option 1: Use of Component Libraries

Web developers can either create their custom library or use existing libraries associated with the frameworks, such as React, Vue, and others.

Different types of websites are built using various libraries. For instance, Shopify provides access to Polaris for eCommerce sites, while GitHub’s Primer offers an excellent web design component library with multiple elements.

Option 2: Use of Ready-made Templates

To lower the price estimate for a business website, use templates provided by WordPress and many other organizations.

The price of buying a theme depends on the type of design you want to install.

However, note that you won’t have exclusivity with the design using this method, as the theme you choose is usually available on a public platform, and anyone can also download it.

In summary, the price of building a website from the design perspective depends on your choice of design and development aspects and how they affect the price.

The direct relationship between time and price will be discussed next

Are you searching for a trustworthy partner for web development?

Look no further! At Web Help Agency, we can help you create a website that effectively showcases your products or services and helps you achieve your business goals faster while improving your online visibility.

We have a proven track record of delivering high-quality websites in just a few months, and you can see our portfolio and reviews on Clutch to validate our expertise.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to us for a free estimate and to discuss any questions you may have with one of our representatives. Contact us now to get started!

Build great products with WHA’s WordPress Development Services.

Get Started
Alex Founder Web Help Agency

Alex

Founder

a moment ago

Looking for web developers?

Ready to chat? Simply click the button and select your preferred call time.

Let's discuss it chat-bubble