The full cost of building a website (the breakdown nobody shows)
Sticker prices vs. lifetime cost. What you should expect to pay over five years.
Website quotes only show the build. The lifetime cost of running the site is usually 2-4x the build cost over five years. Here's the realistic breakdown.
Year 1: build + launch
Design and development. Bulk of the cost. Ranges wildly: $2K (template freelancer), $10-25K (mid-tier freelancer or small studio), $40-100K (established studio), $150K+ (full custom with a strong studio). For most small businesses, $10-40K is the realistic band.
Copywriting. Often underestimated. Good copy is $1K-5K depending on scope, more if you want a senior copywriter.
Photography or illustration. $0 (stock), $1-5K (a day of custom shoot), $10K+ (multi-day or motion).
Domain and hosting. $50-500 for the first year, depending on infrastructure choice.
Content management tooling. Often included in the platform, sometimes a separate CMS subscription.
Total year 1 for a typical small business: $15-50K all-in. More if there's no internal team to handle copy and images.
Year 2 and onward: ongoing
Hosting and platform fees. $400-3000/year. Higher for complex setups or high traffic.
Updates and content. $2-10K/year if outsourced. Less if internal.
Plugin / tool subscriptions. $500-3000/year. Email tools, analytics, scheduling, etc.
SEO and content production. $0-50K/year. The biggest variable. Most studios don't invest enough, then wonder why traffic is flat.
Security and maintenance. $500-2000/year for WordPress sites. Often included on hosted platforms.
Periodic refresh. Every 2-3 years, $3-15K to update look and content. Every 4-5 years, a meaningful redesign at 50-70% of the original build cost.
The compound effect
A site that costs $20K to build typically costs $5-15K/year to run well. Over five years: $45-95K total cost of ownership for a single site. Most clients see only the $20K number and are surprised when the bill keeps coming.
Where studios usually under-budget
Content. Brilliant design with mediocre copy converts worse than ordinary design with great copy. Most websites are underwritten.
Testing and iteration. Launch is the start, not the end. Sites that get updated and improved monthly outperform sites that get launched and forgotten.
Custom photography. Stock photos read as stock. The bar to look serious has risen.
Post-launch handover. Who edits the site? Who fixes the broken thing? If the answer is "the studio invoiced separately for every change" the relationship gets adversarial fast.
How to budget honestly
Take the build quote. Add 50% for things the studio didn't quote for (content, images, integrations, scope creep). Add 30% of the total per year for ongoing costs.
If the total is more than you can sustain, scope down before you start. A $10K site you can afford to maintain is worth more than a $40K site you neglect after year one.