How much does it cost to make a website? [Complete price guide 2023]

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    Today, it’s imperative for every business, big or small, to build and maintain a professional website. How much does it cost to make a website? Well, it all boils down to how much work is involved.
    The main factors that decide how much work is involved are the size of your website and the complexity it entails. As you can imagine, a professional 10-page business website with standard features and customization will cost you less than a more customized 25-page website with more features & functionality.
    And, if we translate that to the actual cost, the cost for building a website for small businesses could range between $1000 – $5000.

    How much does it cost to build a website with Arete Soft Labs Inc.?

    Every web design project involves a few different pieces. Let’s take a closer look.

    Custom website layout

    You need a professionally designed website for your business to be successful in the internet age. Most users are visuals. A website with good design is what will capture their attention and engages them. However, a poor design will make them leave and never return.
    There are three main stages specifying custom website design cost:
    1. Research. Analyzing competitors, defining the target audience, and their preferences.
    2. Initial design. Based on the research, creating the initial design and get client feedback.
    3. Final design. Performing revisions and including the feedback/inputs received from the client to create the final website design.

    So, what is the average cost to design a website?

    The time and cost to create a custom design depending on your requirements. They are custom graphics, animation, illustrations, and so on. The more design customization required, the greater the cost.

    Number of pages

    Typically, business websites require a website with 5-10 pages or so. However, on the other hand, some businesses may require a lot more. Maybe 20 or 30 web pages or more. Before we dive further, let us take a look at what is a web page.
    A web page is basically the typical page, such as the service page that you see on any website you visit. E.g. here is the website design web page from Arete Software’s website.
    Let’s say a website design project with 10-pages costs $1,500, but your site needs 25 pages. How much extra would that cost? A good thumb rule is to add about $80-$100/page for each page over and above the standard website package price. So, adding 15 additional pages would cost $1,200-1,500, and the overall cost of the project would become $2700- $3200.

    More interactive features

    Some businesses require more features than others. Do you need an image gallery to showcase your projects, a blog section, or a membership portal? So, if your website requires more features, there will be additional costs involved. For some features, we may find a ready WordPress plugin offering the exact functionality out of the box. While other times, we may need to customize a close match plugin or even build a custom one. So, how much the custom website design feature cost? The cost for custom features varies from $150- $1500 or more depending on the complexity, programming, and testing required to get everything working as intended.

    Website content writing

    Based on your website’s content, your website visitors will judge your brand. A successful website needs insightful, engaging, and persuasive content as its backbone. So, if you are launching a new website, you need to develop the content for it. On the other hand, if you have any existing website with weak or outdated content, it needs to be refined & enriched to make it relevant. However, I know creating content is daunting and is the # 1 challenge faced when launching a website. So, we offer professional copy writing services to our clients for website design offerings.

    How much does the content creation for the website cost?

    The cost of custom content creation varies from $30/page- $100/page (approximately 500 words). The cost of content creation is driven mainly by the amount of content (number of words) and topic (research involved).

    A few important extras to consider for website design costs.

    1. Domain name- The domain name costs $20-$50 per year (for popular domain extensions such as .com, .ca, .Net. However, some newer domain extensions may be costlier). Before choosing a domain name you can search with the IONOS domain check whether or not the domain name you want is available.
    2. Website hosting – The website hosting costs range from $120 per year for a standard shared web hosting from companies like Godaddy.ca or NameCheap.com to $300-$3000 per year for the specialized web hosting from WPEngine or Godaddy. At Arete Soft Labs, we host 100’s of client websites on our dedicated cloud servers and offers managed web hosting services with competitive prices similar to as shared above.
    3. SSL Certificates- The SSL certificate cost ranges from $85 – $249 per year depending on the type of SSL certificate you opt for. While it is not mandatory to install an SSL certificate for your website, but it is highly recommended to instill confidence among your website visitors. Moreover, it is also a ranking factor as per Google’s recent algorithm update. Arete Soft Labs offers SSL certificates in the above price range with additional discounts for multi-year sign-up & upfront payments.
    4. Professional email- Get a professional email @ your domain name to show your customers that you mean business. You can sign up for a professional email service as offered by GSuite or Office 365 which ranges from $8/user/month to $34/user/month. Arete Soft Labs offers professional email service in the above price range with discounts for multi-year sign-up & upfront payments.
    5. Stock photos- It is highly likely that you will need some stock photos for your website even if you have your custom photoshoot done. There are numerous free and paid stock websites out there.
    Some of the top websites that have lots of high-quality, royalty-free images at reasonable prices are:
    And, here are some of the free stock photo websites with a decent collection:

    Final Website design cost summary by stages

    Summing up the development time and cost of every stage described, you’ll get an approximate website design price.

    How much does it cost to build a website in Toronto, Canada?

    Website stage Price range
    Design $300 to $1000 or more
    Number of pages (10 to 25 pages) $1500- $3200 or more
    Additional features $150- $1500 (or more)
    Content $30/page- $100/page
    Domain name $20-$35/year (or more for newer domain extensions)
    Website hosting $150/year- $400/year – standard hosting
    $300-$3000/ year – specialized hosting
    SSL Certificate $85/year to $249/year
    Professional email $8/user/month to $34/user/month
    Stock photos Free to up to $200/image (or more)

    Want to know how much your website design project will cost? Request a custom quote now for your project.

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