What does it cost to have your own website?

Cost check 2020: your own website
What budget do I need to plan for my own website? What price is justified? A topic that is probably more complex than ever in times of modular systems and cheap freelancers from abroad.
As is so often the case, the answer is: it depends. We will provide some clarity in this article. So that you don’t lose the overview, here is a navigation with which you can jump directly to the sub-items.
Navigation
- Your own website: Basics
- Example: Costs for a simple homepage/blog
- Example: Costs for a company website
- Example: Costs for an online store
- Alternative: Inexpensive freelancers from abroad
- Alternative: Create a website yourself? Hints & Tips
- Costs for hosting & administration
- Costs for content and SEO
- Why it’s worth spending a little more money
1. costs for your own website: Basics
Before you dive into the world of networking, you should first realize what purpose you are actually pursuing with your website. Ultimately, the costs for the project also depend on this.
Do you just want to run a small (or large) blog to share your experiences online? Should the website represent your company? Or are you planning to sell your products via an online store?
Should the website generate customers? achieve sales? Generate leads (for example for your newsletter) ? Or just present your company? Which functions are necessary?
All of these objectives require their own unique approach with different focuses.
You should therefore know in advance exactly what you need your own website for. And never lose sight of this goal, regardless of whether you have the page created or put it together yourself!
Website creation: The workflow
Once your concept is ready and a clear goal has been defined, implementation can begin. The more thoroughly you think about it in advance, the easier (and usually cheaper) it will be afterwards.
To give you a rough idea of how the website creation process works, take a look at the following infographic. The processes are, of course, greatly simplified.
On the subject of design: opinions are often divided here. Customers often want to realize their own personal design wishes. In principle, this is not wrong. Individuality is always welcome. However, the clarity and usability can quickly suffer.
We therefore recommend that you always work out the design concept together with an expert. It should also be noted that the implementation of a completely personalized design is more expensive than using existing templates.
Incidentally, individuality does not have to be lost with a finished template. With a few minor adjustments, a very attractive solution can often be found. We generally recommend a template solution for start-ups and smaller companies.
By the way: Our website is also based on a mix of different templates. And we think it’s quite impressive.
For larger companies, it is worth opting for a customized solution. This means: The site is created from scratch using HTML/CSS, Javascript and PHP. Although the time required here is considerably higher, all individual requirements can be met in this way.
Do you have any questions about your design ideas or don’t have any ideas in mind yet? Contact us for a free initial consultation.
2nd example: Costs for a simple homepage/blog
Enough with the preamble, let’s take a look at a concrete example. Hobby artist Max Mustermann wants to share his latest paintings online. He may also want to create a small blog in which he records his ideas and his day-to-day work.
What costs will he then incur?

The costs for a simple homepage/blog at an hourly rate of 70€ are therefore 10×70€ = 700€. In addition, there are monthly administration costs of €30 to €50.
This value is only a rough guide and may differ from the actual price depending on the requirements and hourly rate. I am using our prices from tryseo as an example here.
Especially when it comes to content creation, a lot can be saved by doing it yourself, but this is not always advantageous in terms of SEO. More on this under 8. costs for content and SEO
3. example: costs for a company website
Let us now assume that Max Mustermann has become self-employed as an artist and opened his own studio. He now wants to present his company on the Internet, as well as his latest paintings.
The website is now becoming a little more complex. Let’s calculate with 6 subpages (a homepage, landing page, about us page, services page, product page and a contact page)

At an hourly rate of 70€, the costs for a company website are therefore 22×70€ = 1540€. In addition, there are monthly administration costs of €30 to €50.
Depending on the project, the actual workload may vary upwards or downwards. In this specific example, the decisive factor would be how many products are to be presented on the page and how this is implemented.
4. example: costs for an online store
It gets difficult when it comes to online stores. This is probably where the price deviations are greatest. There is a simple reason for this. There are ready-made, free store solutions such as WooCommerce for WordPress, and there are individual solutions. The latter can quickly generate costs in the five- or six-figure range. The programming effort is simply enormous.
Which variant makes more sense simply depends on the requirements. Smaller retailers & companies can certainly get by with WooCommerce. However, larger projects often require a customized solution.
It is therefore extremely difficult to estimate the costs of an online store. There are simply too many factors involved.
To set up a simple WooCommerce store with 10 different products, you can plan around 15 hours of work. At an hourly rate of €70, this equates to €950.
In addition, there would be costs for the terms and conditions, data protection guidelines and hosting. SEO plays a particularly important role for online stores. We therefore recommend planning a budget for this as well.
With an individual solution that is programmed from scratch, it is not possible to make a general statement. As already mentioned, many factors play a role here. However, the costs will almost always end up in the five-figure range.
5th alternative: Inexpensive freelancers from abroad
Platforms such as Fiverr have recently made it relatively easy to get in touch with affordable IT service providers from abroad. India in particular is home to many skilled programmers who are many times cheaper than service providers in this country.
Should you therefore switch to this alternative? Yes and no. In our experience, communication is often more difficult than expected. Partly because of the time difference. There is often an endless back and forth, which delays the whole process.
We advise against this, especially for larger projects such as an individualized online store. The savings potential is greatest here, but so is the potential for conflict. If another programmer then has to work on the existing code later, this is very laborious and time-consuming. This is why you should rely on a long-term partner right from the start.
If it’s just a small snippet or a small graphic design job, you can definitely try your luck there. In terms of costs, you can definitely save a lot this way.
You should also make sure that “unlimited revisions” is set in your order. This means that an infinite number of revisions are included in the service. The programmer will therefore continue to make improvements until the project meets your expectations.
6. alternative: create your own website
The cheapest alternative to professional web design is of course to create the website yourself. There are many ways to do this. Various modular systems promise your own website in just a few minutes.
But you should ask yourself: How can that be? Quite simply, the range of functions and customization options are very limited. If you only want a simple homepage, this can be a solution as an “off-the-shelf product”.
If you are technically adept and willing to invest enough time, we can recommend the combination of WordPress & Divi. Building on this, almost anything can be accomplished. Plugins (i.e. extensions) are available for almost every conceivable application. We also work on the basis of WordPress.
You can get a decent host for a WordPress site for around €10 per month. If you then get a page builder to help you(our recommendation: Divi, approx. 90€ per year), you can create a beautiful homepage after some training time without understanding anything about HTML, CSS and co.
However, the cost/benefit ratio should be weighed up here. It will take a lot of time to familiarize yourself with the whole subject and then finally set up your own site. And the first attempt is usually not exactly a brilliant achievement.
In principle, however, this combination would allow you to create and manage your own website for around €200 a year. All on our own initiative, of course.
7. costs for hosting & administration
If you have your website created, you need to budget for hosting and administration costs in addition to the one-off set-up price. The prices for this vary from agency to agency. I can only reproduce our conditions from tryseo here.
Hosting and administration of the website costs €30 per month. This includes security updates and regular backups.
For all those who want to create their own website:
8. costs for content & SEO
Now it’s getting very individual again. Search engine optimization can be infinitely expensive. The emphasis is on can. How much effort it makes sense to put into SEO again depends on your own project.
6 SEO tips that you can implement yourself
The costs and benefits of SEO also depend on the market in which you operate. Are the relevant keywords highly competitive? Then it can be very difficult (and expensive) to achieve a place in the top 3. The budget may then be better spent on other acquisition channels.
What you should also consider: Search engine optimization is a long-term process. You’re not “finished” just like that. Constant adjustments need to be made to provide the best user experience. And ultimately to be rated better by Google. A few placements of important keywords on the website is not enough.
Link building (i.e. building backlinks to your website) also plays a major role here, which should not be underestimated in terms of cost. Building a link profile that is as natural as possible is a long-term project.
In addition, SEO looks different for every “type” of website. For a blog, for example, where the focus is clearly on your own content, other key figures are important than for an online mail order company. This is what makes it so difficult to make a general statement about the costs.
However, you can plan a budget of at least a few hundred euros per month for SEO. If someone promises you less, you should be careful. Especially in the SEO industry, the quality of work varies greatly. Many still do SEO as if we were in 2010.
9 Why it’s worth spending more money
Quality has its price. This doesn’t always have to be the case, but it is the case with this topic. If you set up your website yourself or hire unprofessional agencies, you will most likely be annoyed later on.
Professional design
Professional web designers simply have an eye for it. If you want your website to be convincing, you also need a modern, appealing design. This also includes animations and interactive elements.


User friendliness
Especially with “self-made” homepages, it often happens that the overview is lost due to all the design and gimmicks. This affects user-friendliness and therefore your conversion rate, your Google ranking and ultimately your goal achievement.
Functionality
In the worst case, even the functionality of the website is restricted. Incorrect links or faulty contact forms can cause a lot of trouble.
Target achievement
The most important thing about your website is that it fulfills its purpose, whatever that may be. Sounds logical? Unfortunately, this goal is all too often missed in reality. The right strategy and a clean concept are crucial for success on the web.


SEO
Search engine optimization is no longer a secret. The times when you could achieve great success with a few basics are over. If you want to achieve really strong rankings, you either need to be very fit in the subject yourself, or you need a competent partner.
How will you decide? Do you hire an agency, do you use inexpensive freelancers, or do you take the project into your own hands?

Hannes Kaltofen
Gründer & Geschäftsführer
Seit über 7 Jahren in den SERPs unterwegs. Bereits während meindes BWL Studiums habe Ich mich in das Affiliate Marketing, Blogging und Agenturgeschäft gestürzt und helfe Unternehmen seitdem bei ihrer Sichtbarkeit.