Choosing a website creation strategy can be overwhelming. This guide simplifies it!

Budget-minded beginners?
Website builders offer pre-designed templates and drag-and-drop functionality for independent website creation. They're affordable but limit customization.

Seeking design flexibility?
Freelancers provide custom websites at competitive prices, especially offshore. However, communication and collaboration can be trickier.

Top-tier service?
Design agencies boast expert teams who handle the entire website creation process, building a bespoke website tailored to your needs. This premium service requires minimal involvement from you.

The right approach depends on your situation. Consider your technical expertise and project complexity. Website builders or freelancers work well for simpler websites. Design agencies excel at intricate projects. Finally, evaluate your time commitment. Building your website takes time, while freelancers offer a balance, and agencies handle the heavy lifting.

By carefully considering these factors, you can choose the path that leads to a successful online presence.

PROS:

• Cost-Effective: Website builders are the most affordable option. Besides the platform fee, the main investment is your time. This is ideal for budget-conscious businesses as it minimizes initial costs.
• Easy Updates: You have complete control and can edit content or make changes instantly without relying on designers or agencies. This agility is perfect for keeping your website fresh.
• Improved Design: Website builders offer a wider range of pre-designed templates with various design elements (fonts, colors) compared to the past.
• Simplicity and Control: Drag-and-drop functionality makes website building user-friendly. You can upload images and modify text with ease, offering a hands-on approach for those who want complete control over the website's design. The interface minimizes technical hurdles as there's no coding required.

CONS:

• Time Commitment: Building and maintaining a website takes significant time away from running your core business. Is this a wise use of your expertise?
• Limited Design Flexibility: Website builders rely on templates, which can restrict how you customize your website's look and feel. This can lead to frustration if you envision a unique design.
• Hidden Costs: While initial costs may seem low, website builders often have hidden fees. These can include charges for additional pages, monthly hosting costs, and limitations on certain functionalities. Over time, these costs can add up significantly.
• SEO Challenges: Optimizing a website builder site for search engines can be difficult. The limited control over code and functionalities can hinder your ability to implement essential SEO practices.
• Lack of Ownership: You technically don't own a website built with a builder – you're renting it. This means you don't own the code, which is a valuable asset. If you ever sell your business, this website wouldn't be considered an asset.

PROS:

• Cost-effective: Lower price tag compared to agencies.
• Quick access: Find a freelancer in hours through online platforms.
• Personal touch: Build a strong working relationship due to close collaboration.
• Responsive: Direct communication leads to faster turnaround times.

CONS:

• Limited skillsets: May require hiring separate designer and developer.
• Expensive freelancers: "Boutique" freelancers can be costly.
• Project management burden: You might need to manage the project yourself.
• Availability risks: Freelancers may be unavailable when you need them.
• Quality risks: Difficult to assess skills beforehand, leading to wasted time and money.

Consider freelancers if:

• Budget is tight.
• Project is small or well-defined.
• You value personal relationships.

PROS:

• Dream Team: Project managers, designers, developers, SEO specialists, and copywriters all under one roof, ensuring a high-quality, well-rounded website.
• Time Freedom: Focus on your business while the agency handles the heavy lifting.
• Stunning Results: Agencies boast experienced professionals and resources, leading to impressive websites – check their portfolios!
• Ongoing Support: Never be left alone – most agencies offer post-launch support to address any issues or updates.
• Peace of Mind: Reassurance comes with data security policies like ISO and GDPR compliance, crucial for e-commerce stores.

CONS:

• Cost Factor: Expertise comes at a premium. However, consider the saved time, reduced risks, and high quality.
• Project Length: Building a custom website takes time, even with a team.

In a nutshell: Agencies provide a one-stop shop for exceptional websites, freeing up your valuable time and offering ongoing support. The trade-off? A higher upfront investment compared to other options.

Your domain name is your website's digital address, the first impression visitors encounter. Choosing the right one impacts branding, memorability, and search engine ranking. Let's navigate the cost factors:

Price Range: Domain names typically range from 5€ to 100€ annually, depending on the Top-Level Domain (TLD) extension you select. Go global with the widely recognized .com (slightly pricier) or target a specific market with a specific domains.

Registration Period: While one-year registrations are available, consider registering for 2-5 years for benefits:

• Cost Savings: Many registrars offer discounts for multi-year commitments.
• SEO Advantage: Google favors longer registrations, potentially boosting your website's search ranking.

Premium Domains: Highly desirable names might already be owned and offered for a premium (often exceeding £100). However, once purchased, you'll typically pay an annual renewal fee, a fraction of the initial cost.

Avoid Upsells: Some registrars try to add unnecessary "domain protection" or "whois opt-out" services. These can inflate the price. Always review your shopping cart before finalizing the purchase.

Keep it Simple: Unless you crave a premium domain, your domain name should be a manageable annual expense. Choose a clear, memorable name that reflects your brand and target audience.

Hostin price vary depending on the choice you make.  Following are the options:

Shared Website Hosting: This is the cheapest hosting. You will share the hosting space and ressources with many other sites, which comes with limited ressources availability, meaning  that it the least powerful option.

VPS: Virtual Privat Server means that you're given your own hosting space inside a large server. A VPS gives you more stoage, ressources and power. But it may be that yo need to manage the server, task that needs specialized technical skills.

Dedicated Server: you have allocated an entire server in a data ceter. Yo can opt in for a managed or unmanaged service. Managed service means that you will have someone maintaining the server for you. This is the most powerful option, but also the pricier.

Managed Hosting: Most likely you will pay a fee for maintaining the server, its software, and ensure that the site is managed and kept secure by the third party or the agency. This is the best option if you are not technical savy. Usually the provider will offer you a SLA and the required support if you run into issues with your site

Emai Hosting: In case you wat to use the company's domain, your email accounts need to be set up on the server. Usually there is a fee to pay for setup and maintenance of your email accounts.

Content Delivery Network (CDN): helps to boost your website's loading time by delivering your sites content from multiple servers and location, reducing the latency time. Costs are very variable.

There's more to a website than meets the eye! Here are some additional expenses to consider:

Stock Images: Using photos from random websites is a copyright no-no. We offer 10 stock images tailored to your needs within our builds, but additional high-quality images can range from 1€ to 500€, depending on the source.

Video Licenses: Compelling video content can elevate your website. Expect to pay 50+€ for licenses depending on the video.

Copywriting: Strong website content is crucial for SEO and user engagement. If writing isn't your forte, consider hiring an agency or freelancer. A 5-page website typically requires around 2,500 words of well-crafted, proofread content.

Plugin Licenses: Plugins offer pre-built functionalities like image sliders, booking systems, and payment processors. While some functionalities can be custom-coded, plugins can be a quicker and more cost-effective solution. Costs vary depending on the plugin.

Payment Processing Fees: Selling online? Factor in payment processing fees. For example, PayPal charges 3% per transaction, Stripe 2.9%.  Research different payment processors to find the best fit for your business.

Domain: In order for a website to show online you will need a domain, which comes with a yearly fee. A domain can be registered for at least one year. Cost vary between 5€ and 100€. If you want to purchase a high end domain from the existing owner, the price can go up to thousands, even tens of thousands Euros.

SSL Certificate: In order for your site to look secure (as https://) and to gain customers trust you need a SSL Certificate. Https is now a equirement for Google to rank your website well. In order to have this enabled you need at least a domain validation SSL certificate that comes with a yearly fee.

Hosting: In order for your website to show online you also need to host it on a server. This comes with a monthly cost that depends on the hosting type you choose. 

SEO & Social Media Marketing: This is the cost of marketing your site online (content optimisation, technical optimisation, runnig ads on various media cannels, integrating with the website and maintaining your social media accounts, etc)

Newsletter systems usually charge a montly fee.

Plugins: Some high-end plugins charge a monthly fee

Website maintenance:  a monthly fee for technical suprt and maintaining your website up-todate.

Licenses: Some assets like special fonts and stock photo/videos require to pay a montly licese fee.