Writer: Laura Bernheim
Editor: Lillian Castro
Reviewer: Cristian Lopez
Early in their entrepreneurial journey, aspiring site owners may wonder: How much does it cost to build a website? Web designers and developers get paid a lot, and some agencies won’t even listen to your website ideas unless the project is worth thousands of dollars.
While it might save you a few headaches to outsource your website to someone else, don’t break your budget by hiring a designer or developer for something you can actually do on your own.
That’s right, building your own website isn’t a scary, insurmountable task. Many web hosting plans offer very intuitive programs that help you create the website you’ve always wanted. Even better, they are extremely affordable. Read on to learn how you can get a top-quality website for as little as $2 to $10 per month, as well as a list of the companies that provide the tools that will help you.
Average Cost of Building a Website
Without a trusted hosting company and site builder in your corner, the cost of making a website can soar. Freelance designers typically charge $50 to $100 an hour to make a custom website. Adding the specific features you need, such as a shopping cart or PayPal, can multiply your costs dramatically. However, we’ve found the do-it-yourself website builders many premier web hosts offer are more than up for the task of creating a stunning site for a fraction of the cost.
Low-Cost Website Builder Plans
Some of our favorite hosts created their own site builder tools to help you make exactly the site you want for between $2 and $10 per month — without any coding or programming expertise.
These three hosts offer powerful and intuitive options to help you cook up your own website from scratch. What’s more, they give you at least 30 days to try out their services and get your money back. InMotion’s BoldGrid extends that money-back guarantee to 90 days.
Wix.com
Monthly Starting Price $0.00
- No coding skills needed with drag-and-drop builder
- 100s of templates with niche-specific designs
- Add features via the App Market and Wix Events
- Easily create ecommerce functionality easily
- Great way to build small sites on a budget
- Get started on Wix now.
Website building is where Wix shines. The thousands of templates, the intuitive editor, the industry-leading designs that cater to a variety of specific fields and use cases — all these facets represent a platform that excels at facilitating easy web design for the non-tech-savvy user. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14-day FREE trial | 2 GB - Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
IONOS.com
Monthly Starting Price $1.00
- No coding skills necessary with MyWebsite Creator
- Free domain name or transfer your existing site
- FREE social media and marketing widgets
- Pro templates with pre-filled text and images
- Multilingual support and tools for SEO
- Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
If you're in need of a one-stop shop for designing and launching a website, you should be pleased to hear that 1&1 IONOS offers its own custom website building tools for both desktop and mobile devices. In addition to a free domain and email address, along with unlimited storage space, the 1&1 IONOS MyWebsite platform includes all the essentials for starting a site from scratch. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB - Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | 5 minutes |
Hostinger.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.69
- Drag-and-drop design from custom tools
- FREE access to hundreds of specialized templates
- Built-in eCommerce and payment processing
- Easily switch among widescreen, desktop, tablet, and mobile previews
- Support for 31 languages and 99.9% uptime
- Get started on Hostinger now.
Whether you're taking your first foray into website hosting or are a developer looking to save some time, a strong website builder can dramatically streamline the creation process and enable users to launch a website in five minutes or less. Fortunately for customers, Hostinger has invested heavily in crafting an impressive visual editor sure to appeal to users of all levels of experience. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 100 GB SSD - 200 GB NVMe SSD | FREE (1 year) | 3 minutes |
Cheap Hosting with Free Website Builders
If your budget is extremely tight, these cheap hosts offer great value with their free domain, advertising credits, and site builder for $2 to $3 per month.
Your design options might be a touch more limited with these builders, but most of these plans include eCommerce functionality. By spending so little on hosting, you can maximize your profits.
Hostinger.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.24
- Unlimited everything, from storage to databases
- FREE site builder & WP performance upgrades
- FREE daily or weekly backups
- Custom control panel and auto-installation scripts
- SSH access & unlimited FREE SSL certificates
- Get started on Hostinger now.
As the shared hosting market becomes increasingly saturated, unlimited storage, bandwidth, and email accounts have become surprisingly average. Hostinger, however, extends the routine, expected metrics to greater lengths — the number of websites, databases, FTP users, subdomains, and parked domains are all unrestricted for most customers. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 100 GB SSD - 200 GB NVMe | FREE (1 year) | 3 minutes |
IONOS.com
Monthly Starting Price $1.00
- $1/month for 12 months
- No hidden fees, pay just $12 at checkout
- Easy setup and 24/7 expert support
- FREE domain or transfer, plus FREE SSL certificate
- Unlimited storage and databases with most plans
- Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
If budget is the main factor on your mind when searching for your next web host, search no more. 1&1 IONOS has an impressive range of robust web hosting and website building packages for what may be the best price we've ever seen in the world of hosting. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB - Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
A2Hosting.com
Monthly Starting Price $1.75
- FREE Cloudflare CDN and SSD speed boost
- Optimized caching and 1-click installs
- Unlimited email, domains, and databases
- Advanced security and FREE HackScan
- 24/7 support via phone, chat & tickets
- Get started on A2 Hosting now.
There are plenty of excellent cPanel shared hosting providers out there, so what sets A2 Hosting apart from the rest. Not only does the company offer a ton of features, but it has custom-built its packages for enhanced performance, speed, and security — putting your priorities above pricing. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 100 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD | New or Transfer | 4 minutes |
How Much Does It Cost to Build an Ecommerce Website?
Future ecommerce site owners have specific needs. They’re looking for inventory management, 1-click Magento installs, and help with marketing their products. Our top host for ecommerce store building offers all that and more — for as little as $3 a month.
This host sometimes offers free advertising credits, which will get your brand noticed and refine the traffic to your site by sending interested customers to your online store.
IONOS.com
Monthly Starting Price $4.00
- Cloud servers optimized for Magento stores
- Build your store with help from a dedicated expert
- Global datacenters with PCI and GDPR compliance
- Transparent hourly or monthly pricing
- Secure backups and SiteLock security
- Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
Boasting three Magento configurations, 1&1 IONOS serves all types of online businesses. We found the company’s cloud servers to be the perfect mix of price and performance, blending immense scalability with the affordability and support needed when building an online store. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 30 GB SSD - 480 GB SSD | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Professional Website?
Maybe you’re worried a website that only costs you a few dollars to build and host can’t possibly have a professional look and feel to it. That’s where you’re wrong — The cost to build a sharp and powerful business website can still boil down to $5 to $10 a month.
The Bold Grid platform from InMotion is the only site builder that operates on WordPress, which is the Internet’s most-used content management system.
InMotionHosting.com
Monthly Starting Price $1.99
- Fast and secure hosting for WordPress and WooCommerce stores
- FREE domain, backups, SSDs, and SSL certificate
- Server-level caching and scalable storage
- 400+ free and paid extensions to grow your store
- SPAM Safe™ Email with IMAP support
- Get started on InMotion now.
InMotion Hosting boasts modern NVMe SSD storage, dedicated caching, and scalable resources to deliver blazing-fast page loads your customers will appreciate. We recommend taking advantage of the premium web host’s managed WooCommerce offerings, but new store owners shouldn’t hesitate to check out the cheaper shared hosting options, as well. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 days | 100 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD | FREE (1 year) | 5 minutes |
What About the Cost of Building a Website for a Small Business?
If you’re a small- to medium-sized business owner, surely you’re thinking, ‘How much would it cost to build a website for a business with both beautiful designs and a startup budget in mind?’
Fret not. The cost of building a website for a small business with goals for growth is hard to beat with a host like HostGator. The company’s plans include the developed-in-house Gator site builder, unlimited storage and bandwidth, as well as around-the-clock support.
HostGator.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.29
- Host up to unlimited websites on a single plan
- FREE SSL certificate included on all plans
- Unlimited bandwidth & email addresses
- 1-click WordPress installs & FREE blog tools
- Get 77% OFF by buying 36 months upfront
- Get started on HostGator now.
HostGator is a great compromise between performance and price. The company offers unlimited emails, MySQL databases, disk space, and bandwidth, plus one-click installs of popular open-source projects, in addition to a 99. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB SSD - 40 GB SSD | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Good Website?
As our options above show you, a good website doesn’t have to break the bank. Hosting providers and website builders, however, aren’t a one-size-fits-all decision — think about the kind of website you want and the amount of money you’re willing to spend.
You can put together a basic website for as little as $2 or $3 per month, but slightly more established ecommerce brands or small businesses might need to invest a little more to get the performance and added features. For those folks, you should expect to spend between $5 and $10 each month.
The Cost to Build and Maintain a Website is Offset By a Great Host
Don’t let the idea of building your own website scare you into hiring an expensive outside developer or designer. Take ownership of your online presence by creating something completely on your own — our favorite website builder hosts give you all the user-friendly tools that will show you the way.
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