There are three ways to build a website: (1) all by yourself, (2) some professional help, and (3) a full professional design. The Internet is too sophisticated to go it alone, but full custom design can be very expensive. If you insist? At least get a copy of my Pocket Webmaster.
Start with some professional help
Companies like Squarespace and Wix make every effort to create an easy user experience, but because the Internet as a whole is forever becoming more sophisticated, even the easy options can get pretty complicated. Finding help for each thing that comes up takes time and can be surprisingly challenging. Customer support can take days when you use a website builder.
Are there Wix and Squarespace designers who can help? Loads. (Including me) But website builders are not any cheaper. Research indicates a typical Squarespace or Wix business website starts at $2,500 - 3,000 and runs to $10,000 - or more.
Website builders that are all-in-one (Squarespace, Wix and Weebly) anchor you to that platform. You can't move your website later. WordPress and ProcessWire can both be moved from server to server. WordPress sites should also be hosted specifically on a secure WordPress platform – with weekly checkins to update themes, plugins, and the WordPress core. WordPress prices have the biggest swing because WordPress is the most popular platform and is used for everything. It also has the highest maintenance cost because it factors in security programs and recovering from hacking.
Website Budget Planning: What to Expect
| CMS | Cost to Build | Yearly fees | Other fees? | Pros and Cons |
| ProcessWire | $2,500 (consultant or author), $6,500 (business), or $7,500 (nonprofit) | $25/domain, $180/hosting ($15/month) cPanel | SSL (yearly $60) | Easy to use, more secure, built to grow with you, but fewer plugins. |
| Squarespace | $2,500 - $10,000 |
$25/domain, |
Easy and popular, with nice templates, but customization can be time consuming and customer support is lacking. Can't transfer website. | |
| Wix | $2,500-$6,000 or $5,000-$8,000 with commerce |
$25/domain, |
Limited to 2GB bandwidth (20-30 visits a day) or hosting fees increase. |
User-friendly, nice templates. Slow load times, basic nav, not that flexible, can't transfer website. |
| Weebly | Easy to build in, but I see few references online to professional developers working in Weebly, which doesn't fill me with confidence. | $25/domain, $120 - $144/hosting ($10-12 month) |
Website transfer fees, higher domain fees | Least expensive, but outdated with limited customization, can't transfer website. |
| WordPress | $2,500 - $35,000 + | $25/domain, $300-$540/hosting ($25-45 month) | Theme updates and plugin subscriptions | Huge community for developing a website, limitless themes and plugins - Steep learning curve, the most-hacked content tool, higher downtime from broken plugins and recovery costs from hacking. |
| ANY WEBSITE | $12,000 - $150,000 + | $25/domain, $180-$3,600/hosting ($15-300 month) | $400-$60,000 year to maintain a website | Via WebFX |
"Any Website"
Squarespace:
Wix:
WordPress:
