What are the costs associated with building and maintaining a website?

Website costs can be grouped into several main categories. When comparing proposals, it’s important to make sure you’re comparing apples to apples:

• Domain registration
  This is the annual fee to own your domain name (e.g., yourcompany.com). Most domains cost around $20–$30 per year for common extensions.
• Design and development
  Design is the process of planning how your website looks and how users move through it (often called UI/UX). Development is the technical work of building the site and its functionality.
  We typically handle these together, as most projects require both.
• Plugins and third-party subscriptions
  Many modern website features—such as advanced forms, security tools, or e-commerce features—are powered by paid plugins or third-party services. These often require ongoing subscriptions so the software remains supported, secure, and up to date. This is especially common for e-commerce sites.
• Web hosting
  Your website’s files and database live on a server. Hosting can range from low-cost shared hosting (often a few dollars per month, usually with prices increasing after the first year) to high-performance dedicated hosting that can cost hundreds of dollars per month. The right choice depends on your site’s size, complexity, and traffic.
• Maintenance and updates
  Website software (WordPress core, themes, and plugins) needs regular updates for security and performance. It’s also wise to periodically check for broken links, errors, and other issues.
  You can do this yourself or hire someone to handle it on your behalf. Maintenance packages vary depending on how hands-on you want to be and how often content is updated.

We’ll help you understand which of these costs apply to your project so there are no surprises.