Average Cost Savings Using a Website Builder

As recently as 5 years ago, creating a website was generally a lengthy process which often required hand-written codes, dedicated developers and webmasters, and a significant outlay of money and time. In those days, it wasn’t uncommon to need to sink thousands into the build of a website, and hundreds more each month into hosting and webmaster fees. And if you were running a small business from a website? Even more.

But the proliferation of website builders has effectively begun to cut out the middleman, allowing individuals and businesses to create their own websites without hiring a developer. Of course, there’s some risk to this approach: developers often know the tips and tricks of design which appeal to visitors for specific market segments, and can bring a lot of knowledge to the table in terms of how to convert visitors into clients or subscribers. But website builders have clued onto the value of such expertise, and have begun offering impressive how-to-guides and articles to help inform website managers who have no practical coding experience on the industry best practices.

So, using publicly available data, how much money could an individual save by using a website builder rather than a developer? Is using a website builder really the better option, cost-wise?

Hosting Costs

Hosting costs vary wildly depending upon the provider and type of hosting. For example, shared hosting costs roughly $4 a month, while VPS hosting might cost up to $30. And if you want a dedicated server? Expect to pay around $100 a month. As most individuals who would use a website builder are also likely to use shared hosting, imagine a yearly payout of $48 for hosting your own website.

Using a website builder, the builder hosts the website for you. This is usually on shared hosting to reduce their costs; but according to Best 10 Website Builders, which has a detailed comparison chart of the top website builders, most website builders have a startup fee of… nothing. But averaging the monthly cost of all top 10 builders, you could expect to pay $2.96 a month, or $35.59 a year. Right out of the gate, that’s a savings of $12.40.

Domain Costs

Depending on where you purchase a domain, and what that domain name happens to be, the cost of a domain can vary between $0.99 to over $50. Aged and premium domains can cost anywhere from thousands to millions. But on average, the cost of a domain not purchased through a website builder is between $10 and $15 annually. Of the top 10 website builders, 6 provide free domains.

Design and Development

Here’s where the savings really shows: if you want to hire a developer to build your website, expect to spend some significant cash. According to a Forbes article, you should expect to pay roughly $100 an hour in labor costs. Smaller sites with few pages, little content and no complex elements might come in under $1,000; larger sites or those with complex features can go into the territory of thousands of dollars. Things which could influence that cost include whether or not you need a secure checkout, if you display custom content to return visitors, if you need to incorporate any third-party applications, and more.

With a website builder, the designs have already been done in the form of templates. You simply select the template you want to use and import your own content. The only thing you pay for is the time it takes to plug in your own content. And website builders offer special plugins based on your needs. Want a chart or shop product interface? It’s already been pre-coded for you to plug in with a few clicks of a button!

Content

So, you’ve gotten the nuts and bolts of your website, but are in need of content. Text and images will cost you. In terms of text content, the cost will be the same either way: anywhere from $5 to $50 a page, depending on the writer that’s hired. But images?

You’ll need to source your own stock images, which can become expensive very quickly, at anywhere from $3 for small images to $12 for large, high-resolution images. But many website builders partner with stock photo outlets to offer significant savings: many images purchased in this manner can cost as low as $1.

Total Savings

According to averages obtained from over 237 companies in a recent Which Web Design Company study, a simple U.S. website of just a few pages built by a developer will cost $1190. A larger website will cost $2235, and an ecommerce website will run roughly $2640. Some of those costs will be recurring monthly or yearly, such as hosting and domains: roughly $60 annually.

With a website builder? For smaller websites, expect about $35 a year. For larger ones or those with complex features, the monthly cost could rise with the need for additional features, topping out on the premium end at roughly $240 a year. So, if you have a premium ecommerce website, you could pay a website builder for 11 years of service before reaching the cost of a custom-developed website!